Just A Rant

[buckonine]

does anyone read the guides? because it seems to me that a huge percentage of people simply decide they want to copy dvd's and just want someone else to hold their hand through the entire process. i'm all about helping people out, but damn, read, take some initiative. i read every guide i could find, i made at least 10 unusable/unplayable back ups before i got the hang of it. only after i did all this did i start asking questions. the guys on this site, and especially doom9.org have gone through a lot of trouble to write out guides, and with very few exceptions they are done extremely well. if you don't understand them or what something is (ie: PGC, VOB, Cell ID Etc) then read a more basic guide. it's almost all in there. i will do whatever i can to help someone out that is truly trying and have done his/her best to make it through all of the guides, but personally i'm so tired of haning out on IRC and having 20 people a day PM me with "how do i make a dvd copy?" i think i'm just going to start copying the entire guides to them. ok sorry for the rant, just hoping i'm not the only one that has noticed this

[Tommyknocker]

I really do not think it is so bad. I am somewhat of a newbie, so I am not as jaded as you can get, judging by the tone of your post, so feel free to take my opinion with the proverbial grain of salt.

That being said, I remember a few short months ago, I stumbled across this site, and felt I had "struck the mother lode". Information about anything and almost everything I wanted to about VCDs, etc. But I am somewhat of a bookworm, and I can imagine there are some people who are not used to digging for the exact answer to their question.

They would rather ask where they can find the data they need, or for that matter ask the gurus to save time. This could be laziness, or could simply be a matter of being overwhelmed by all there is here for that matter.

Either way, I like trying to give the answers for the few subjects I know the answer to, and will try not to come down on a neophyte for not reading the newbie guides first. I tell where they can find there answer if I know, or if the answer is more complex, spell it out in my answer. All because I remember what it was like to first arrive at this site and all the things I saw here.

[buckonine]

i completely respect what you are saying. i also am probably not the norm when it comes to this either. i have printed out the entire CCE and Scenarist manuals. not to mention all the guides that pertain to dvds on doom9. i guess i just feel that people should help themselves, at least a little bit. and i do hate to think that i might be jaded =) makes me feel like an old man. i love to help out because i know what it's like to have no help. i did 90% of this on my own. rarely asked questions, but instead assumed that if i figured it out on my own then it would be real kowledge and not something i would easily forget and then have to re-ask. you get the picture though. again, sorry if i do seem jaded

[bugster]

I understand what you are saying buckonine and I too often feel your frustration. I have to admit I occasionally get fed up answering the same questions over and over and my response is either ignore the post (and let someone else handle it) or provide a link to the relevant guide/thread etc sometimes with alittle extra info added just to re-assure the poster that I am not simply taking the easy way out.

I too gained most of my Video conversion knowledge by using the guides here and reading the forums, and I am still learning. Despite occasionally being a bit off with posters who obviously havn't tried to help themselves I have come to the conclusion it is better to help by pointing them to relevant info rather than just telling them to 'Read the guides'. Hopefully this way they will also spot that this site contains a wealth of useful info that should be used and hopefully understood before needing to post questions on the forum and that often it is quicker to get info from the guides than waiting for an answer.

Hope this makes sense

Bugster

[snowmoon]

I liken the phenomon to building a house. Many people see some nice build-by-owner houses and think "This is great, he can do it why can't I". Most of these people see that all the plans are availible and many builder give helpful advice. They don't realize that the best ones are those that were already carpenters and electricians, those that build houses or other structures professionally.

So there are meny people that think carpentry or electricans are easy jobs to do and try anyways..... and the end up getting very frustrated.

---

Back in the real world.

It took me 2 months ( 2 yrs ago ) to get a decent path set up for doing SVCD, and I was already a coputer person will tons of knowledge. I have gotten in more than one flame war with people becuse I didn't know the lingo, was confused by the guides, or the fact that the PC and TV lingo often overlaps with completly diffrent meaning ( riddle me "Lines of resolution?" ).

Many people just need to realize that they ( for the most part ) need to help themselves before asking others. I will only respond to people on the board who have done at least the apparence of work or are running into a brick wall that I have as well. My profile has alow post count but that's only due to the board changing before that I had more than a thousand posts.

So I understand the frustration, I understand the newbies, I for the most part agree.

[buckonine]

a little back ground on me. i came into the computer video scene about 4 years ago. for about a year i ran a 0-sec site for mp3, vcd, iso. i didn't know how to make vcd's all i did was burn what other people made. about 3 years ago i got out of the whole pirated scene and subsequently anything having to do with computer video. about march of this year i found this site and a week or so later doom9. before this i had no experience doing anything that had to do with computer video, much less the complexity that is dvd copying. so i started from scatch, i knew what i wanted to do, and i felt fairly sure that the guides i found were good enough to get me started. i just figured it all out over time, well, not all of it =) i find now that i have more questions and problems than i did my first month of doing this, but now my questions are not simple with quick answers. and most of the time i find my problems stump even the "guru's" at #doom9. this is not an easy game we're in. sometimes you luck out and find a movie that is a real no brainer, but for the most part it's a lot of work. it's fun though, and i think it would be great if everyone was doing it. and like any hobby or game those that are invovled for the most part are enthusiast, almost all of us really love movies and computers and finding this way to put them together has been a great way to spend/waste time =) i have said this before, i really do like helping people out here, and i find that more times than not the people with whom i help are trying to make their best effort. i'm rambling now, but any feedback you guys give i'll do my best to respond to it.

[Don2050]

1. I think it is ok to rant every so often....it keeps you sane

2. Reading this thread made me think this issue is more about different learning styles than people being lazy. I am sure their are lazy people out there, but for the most part I think people learn in different ways. Some are hands-on-dont-tell-me-what-to-do....others might need that explanation.....again....and again....and again Those who posted in agreeance with you buckonine seem to have similiar learning habits, the hands-on-research-abstract types. With the growing popularity of anything you must excpect that the user base will grow and atract all types.

Anyway, thanks guys for the help you do give cause it helps us non-hands-on people participate in something we may otherwise not be able to particpate in.