Are the posted questions getting worse?

  • Steve Jones - Editor (3/13/2009)


    So do we teach people here? Or push them to get better? Or push them away and say you're not qualified" and you need to go learn more.

    The temptation is occasionally for the latter "You were happier on the trawler deck than you are stuck behind a desk", but the attitude adopted by Jeff, Gail, Grant, Barry, Jack, Lynn and almost all of the other major contributors here is encouragement, and whatever their collective or individual reasons for choosing to do so, it's laudable, and a key feature IMHO in distinguishing SSC from other SQL Server forums.

    “Write the query the simplest way. If through testing it becomes clear that the performance is inadequate, consider alternative query forms.” - Gail Shaw

    For fast, accurate and documented assistance in answering your questions, please read this article.
    Understanding and using APPLY, (I) and (II) Paul White
    Hidden RBAR: Triangular Joins / The "Numbers" or "Tally" Table: What it is and how it replaces a loop Jeff Moden

  • So I got a question in email (it's not just posters, I get them regularly). I have a sig I paste in that replies and says "we don't answer in email, please post at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/forums"

    I get this:

    ==

    Dear Sir,

    May I know, how can we put our question into your site so that every body can see the question and if any body has answer then he could reply. Please brief me the step to put my question into your site.

    ==

    Nice and polite, but apparently I'm now coaching how to post in a forum as well as answering questions.

  • GilaMonster (3/13/2009)


    Am I being too harsh here?

    http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/FindPost675279.aspx

    Not really - he's prone to letting his enthusiasm get the better of him, but he's willing to learn and accepts corrections from others without any fuss. Right now he's probably swooning - "Blimey, I got disciplined - by Gail"

    “Write the query the simplest way. If through testing it becomes clear that the performance is inadequate, consider alternative query forms.” - Gail Shaw

    For fast, accurate and documented assistance in answering your questions, please read this article.
    Understanding and using APPLY, (I) and (II) Paul White
    Hidden RBAR: Triangular Joins / The "Numbers" or "Tally" Table: What it is and how it replaces a loop Jeff Moden

  • GilaMonster (3/13/2009)


    Am I being too harsh here?

    http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/FindPost675279.aspx

    Nope, not too harsh in my opinion.

  • GilaMonster (3/13/2009)


    Am I being too harsh here?

    http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/FindPost675279.aspx

    Nope, you can't be called when you ask if a solution has been tested.

  • Gail, I don't think you were being harsh at all, I read through all the pages just to see if I was missing something.

    Unless you deleted your posts where you called him an idiot or something. 😛

    valid questions

    ---------------------------------------------------------
    How best to post your question[/url]
    How to post performance problems[/url]
    Tally Table:What it is and how it replaces a loop[/url]

    "stewsterl 80804 (10/16/2009)I guess when you stop and try to understand the solution provided you not only learn, but save yourself some headaches when you need to make any slight changes."

  • Steve Jones - Editor (3/13/2009)


    So do we teach people here? Or push them to get better? Or push them away and say "you're not qualified" and "you need to go learn more".

    All three, pretty much in that sequence of priority. Teach most of the time, encourage to learn when they seem up to it, tell them to go away when they post interview questions and get rude about it.

    Plenty of times, I'll just help the person with the code problem at hand. Much of the time, that's all that's needed. Just helped someone yesterday who just had a typo in the proc and couldn't spot it. Happens all the time.

    Other times, I'll point out options and write samples for each. I'll also include "details in BOL" type statements. That's for people who I think both need it and who I think will benefit from it.

    Some of the questions, I'll say, "this looks like interview stuff", and if the person never comes back after that, I assume I was probably right and they ran out of time or got the answer elsewhere. That's not as frequent as the above, but it's nearly every week, and those are just the ones I notice.

    Very, very rarely, I just want someone to go away and come back when they can be civil and/or honest. Only example I can think of is Mangle (or whatever he's calling himself these days; changed his screen name three times that I noticed). It's not my call to tell them to go away, but I did kind of encourage it in that case. (If that was out of line, Steve knows he can tell me to appologize or put the weapons away or whatever and that I'll do so.)

    - Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
    Property of The Thread

    "Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon

  • GilaMonster (3/13/2009)


    Am I being too harsh here?

    http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/FindPost675279.aspx

    Nope.

    I've been caught with errors like that before, and you've called me out the same sort of way. I've never taken it personally or "harsh". Like that index one the other week, where I put the wrong column first in my suggestion. Same deal, same sort of challenge, you were right then too.

    - Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
    Property of The Thread

    "Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon

  • Hi Steve, I have a question for you. I tried to read the article " Is not encrypting personal info worth the risk?". Is it not hosted by SSC itself? I was directed to http://searchsqlserver.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid87_gci1349129,00.html where I had to register to read it.

    -Roy

  • Anyone else care to join the fray??

  • Lynn Pettis (3/13/2009)


    Anyone else care to join the fray??

    I prefer not to be the Saint of Lost Causes. I looked at his other posts and he acts like a jerk in them all and doesn't seem interested in learning.

  • Jack Corbett (3/13/2009)


    Lynn Pettis (3/13/2009)


    Anyone else care to join the fray??

    I prefer not to be the Saint of Lost Causes. I looked at his other posts and he acts like a jerk in them all and doesn't seem interested in learning.

    Yep, that's what it is starting look like. I met his challenge and he still seems to be looking for a "fight" regarding T-SQL. Of course, I didn't much appreciate is comment directed at me prior to the challenge. Sort of ticked me off actually.

  • I tried to take the high road for a change. However, I am ready to buy a round for Sergiy 🙂

    __________________________________________________

    Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain. -- Friedrich Schiller
    Stop, children, what's that sound? Everybody look what's going down. -- Stephen Stills

  • Steve Jones - Editor (3/13/2009)


    I'm torn here. I wouldn't be surprised if he got the job since most candidates can't answer those questions. At least not from the stories I hear.

    So do we teach people here? Or push them to get better? Or push them away and say you're not qualified" and you need to go learn more.

    The state of DBAs is pretty poor, and some of that is how well SQL just runs in many cases. It's also why a few of you have gainful employment because the last knucklehead set you up to be a god because he/she couldn't spell "index"

    Very well said and pretty much true. I've pretty much made a living out of fixing or rewritting other peoples resource hungry, pitifully slow, non-scalable code that the new hardware couldn't make run faster. Like a good friend of mine says...

    [font="Arial Black"]"In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is King!"[/font]

    --Jeff Moden


    RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
    First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
    ________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

    Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.


    Helpful Links:
    How to post code problems
    How to Post Performance Problems
    Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

  • Get some sleep, Jeff.

    __________________________________________________

    Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain. -- Friedrich Schiller
    Stop, children, what's that sound? Everybody look what's going down. -- Stephen Stills

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