Well said, Grumpy. Let me add a few more things.
I'm quite far from being emotionally stable and I do sometimes make mistakes, even on this forum, but I also see how power corrupts people on every level of society and it makes me very sad. Thus I try to be exactly the opposite: strict but corteous. But corteous only to people who deserve it.
I'd like to ask you all to make a distinction between "newbie" and "lamer". The latter expression might have gone out of style nowadays but
that is the one describing properly those people we keep bashing. Newbie is simply a person who's not yet familiar with a particular topic. That's not a problem as none of us has ever been or will ever be omniscient.
Lamer, however, is a person who's not familiar and will never be familiar with pretty much
any topic... and why...? because he or she is not willing to learn (mostly on their own, or with a bit of help)! Such people don't deserve much of courtesy, let alone help, especially for free. Let them get back to elementary school and learn how to learn.
Also, use the search feature to see how many posts I have made on this forum. Then use the search feature again to see how many thread I
started on this forum which describe the problems
I had with my games, software, hardware etc. Now compare the two to see the ratio of A) me helping other people with their problems and B) me asking other people to help me with my problems. Also, for the first time, there's now a FAQ that is supposed to help newbies with solving general problems. May I not expect them to read it before asking, which should not only spare
us the trouble of explaining the same things again and again and again and again, but also should spare
them some time with getting the answer to (some of? most of? all of?) their questions.
This, by the way, is not a problem with FileForums or, in general, the Internet only. People today don't want to spend their time with solving their own problems; they remain dumb, uninterested and expect others to solve problems for them, as fast and as cheap as possible. (I have quite a few such people around me and it disgusts me more and more!) This is the catastrophe of education and, therefore, the future of mankind. (Damn, I'm getting anti-messianistic again...
)
[Edit] Well, recently I was told that the number of lamers doesn't increase, they just get more exposed with the introduction of the "information highway"... Dunno...