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Bill,
You are right in many aspects. However, I think newbies and the rest of us too would be more willing to look for answers if we had a single place to go to where we could search across the resources.
There will be a never ending source of newbies, so just saying to go to this resource and then that resource, then another resource until you discover that either the question has not been answered in the way that you can understand it, or more likely you don't know the right vocabulary and concepts to find what you are looking for. Then they come to this list and ask after wasting several frustrating hours or days, and if the answer is that you can't do such a thing anyway it really turns one away from even trying next time! When I first started, I did not know what to call things, so most of my searches failed.
I try to make sure that I have at least made some kind of effort myself before asking on this list. As I have learned more, I come to the list less often and with more difficult technical questions and only occasionally get a satisfactory answer unless Tomasz answers.
I am amazed at how helpful people are to the extent that they write out a complete solution from the first hint of a question. Unfortunately that makes others dependent on the list for free coding services instead of a resource to learn how to do it themselves. I try to give the basic idea about how to solve the problem without coding it up --as if I had time to do that for others while I am always struggling to find enough time to do my own coding anyway.
It is encouraging to me to see newbies bring a chunk of AFL that they wrote and ask why it will not do what they were trying to do. I shows initiative and that means they will learn from the answer.
Sometimes it is appropriate to code an example for something out of the ordinary --which becomes something to be referred to later.
I think it is appropriate for a newbie to ask basic questions on the list like, can X be done in AFL and what do I search for to find out how?
Then a pointer to the single search page with a nice keyword gets them started on the right path. To paraphrase:
Give a person a fish and he will eat it and come back for another. Teach a person to fish and he can feed himself.
From the developers point of view, this list is valuable in one sense in that it provides a window into what are the stumbling blocks to understanding AB/AFL. The common themes point to a need for some additional ways of explaining, organizing, or presenting those problem areas in a new way.
Best regards, Dennis On Aug 27, 2008, at 10:41 PM, wavemechanic wrote: The problem, imo, is not the format but rather that too many are willing to provide answers to elementary questions over and over again instead of simply directing the person to the Users Guide or UKB or past messages (use Yahoo search). The individual is responsible for extracting the information needed from the available documentation/messages and only resort to this forum when they hit a wall. Instead, many of the new users use this forum in lieu of doing their homework. If they were forced to find the answers, I suspect the number of messages would drop by at least 50% and more interesting discussions would take place. Bill ----- Original Message ----- Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 8:24 PM Subject: Re: [amibroker] Re: 'Rule Based' versus 'Discretionary' trading...
IMO, this is the main problem with our format. First thing I asked on this forum was about Plot Shapes. Just couldn't wait to get started or read anything. Since that time, I bet similar plot questions have come around 100 times. It is very hard and time consuming to search this list. If we had a forum/board format where all threads relating to plot were in a certain section, I think it would help people study more and get frustrated less. This has been discussed before and I know most people want emails and don't want to browse a board, but there is a lot of redundancy on this list.
Please note that this group is for discussion between users only.
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