Forum Moderators: open
Something is on my mind:
In reading through some threads I've seen a few responses along the lines of:
When I read these sorts of posts, I am very surprised, as the 'good' vs 'evil', 'grey does not exist' way of thinking is something that people usually overcome as they develop more and more expertise or education in a particular field. With more experience and education people begin to see the complexity of the situation, and how there are always arguments for and against. For example, its not really reasonable to use an external css file when sending an html email, and the argument that "Sending html emails is bad, rather send attachments, that is why MIME was invented" begs the question "so why were html enabled email clients invented?", and css is great until you have to support visitors with old browsers such as Netscape 4.
The reasons I am surprised at these sorts of posts is that (a) one of the primary things this forum does is educate us all, and (b) my guess is that a huge majority of users have very advanced levels of experience, expertise and/or education. On the other hand, a statement such as 'xxx is bad', without giving reasons or refering to a thread which discusses the pros and cons, is just dogma and doesn't teach.
OK, I'm off my soap-box now. I hope I haven't offended anyone. I just thought I'd canvas some views and see if I am the only one who is a bit concerned about this. (Not suggesting it is a trend or prevalent at all)
Shawn
> On the other hand, a statement such as 'xxx is bad', without giving reasons or refering to a thread which discusses the pros and cons, is just dogma and doesn't teach.
I agree 100%
One of the reasons I like this place is that I have found a lot more really useful tutorials/posts here than almost anywhere else I can think of.
I try not to post when I'm too busy and can't afford the time to look up references or fully explain something. But I've had "bad days", too... Sometimes, even a terse answer is better than no answer, and further questions can be asked - if the reader wants to know why something is labeled good or bad.
Anyway, good point... Let's keep the quality high!
Jim
Yep, you are right, sometimes a terse answer is better than no answer. Possibly some of what I saw was just a case of that, and calling it dogma was probably jumping to conclusions and inappropriate of me. I know I certainly have off days, be it face-to-face communication, email or my short time in this forum.
BTW, my vote would be for you not to spend too much time looking up references. I learn more from you when you point me in the right direction, and send me to look it up for myself ;-)
Shawn
All just part of any social situation I guess. Everyone's different.
Nick
