Why are some people working so hard to answer others' questions?

[www]

Hi,

I am just curious about that. I have noticed several people in Java news
group are so hard-working and extremely patient to answer others
questions anytime and any day, much, much better than university
Computer Science professors treating students' questions, even though
professors are paid with a great salary. Why are they doing so? It seems
almost like doing a full time job. Are they paid by Sun to promote
Java's usage or they are extremely unselfish people with spirit of
sacrifice?

 

[Laurent D.A.M. MENTEN]

Hi,

I am just curious about that. I have noticed several people in Java news
group are so hard-working and extremely patient to answer others
questions anytime and any day, much, much better than university
Computer Science professors treating students' questions, even though
professors are paid with a great salary. Why are they doing so? It seems
almost like doing a full time job. Are they paid by Sun to promote
Java's usage or they are extremely unselfish people with spirit of
sacrifice?

Simply because most of them have a true pleasure to share knowledge and
make the things working. There is no sacrifice with answering questions
and digging the books, BTW I have an IT degree but I will not work in
the IT field anymore (law enforcement is now what I am aiming at) mostly
because of the selfish people I have been faced with.

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12
GCS d--- s: a C++ UL+++ P-- L+++ E--- W++ N++ o-- K-- w---
O- M- V- PS+ PE-- Y+ PGP- t 5 X+++ R* tv++ b+ DI++ D--
G e++ h--- r+++ y+++
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

 

[Daniel Pitts]

Hi,

I am just curious about that. I have noticed several people in Java news
group are so hard-working and extremely patient to answer others
questions anytime and any day, much, much better than university
Computer Science professors treating students' questions, even though
professors are paid with a great salary. Why are they doing so? It seems
almost like doing a full time job. Are they paid by Sun to promote
Java's usage or they are extremely unselfish people with spirit of
sacrifice?

Personally, I enjoy discussing problems with people. When you work in
the field long enough, you are greatful to work with people who know
these things. I feel like the more I help people learn to program
well, the less time I'll have to spend later dealing with poorly
written software

Joking aside, I get as much help from this newsgroup as I put into it.
My questions tend to be more advanced, but discussion almost always
leads to new insight. Also, helping people solve their seemingly
trivial problems gives me opportunity to consider better solutions than
I had previously used.

In other words, it helps keep my skills sharp, not only as a
programmer, but as someone who has to help other people understand
things. The only time you're not explaining things to someone is when
you're the intern

 

[Mark Rafn]

Why are some people working so hard to answer others' questions?

Because it's fun and educational to do so. I learn a lot when I answer a
question and see other people comment on my answer.

students' questions, even though professors are paid with a great salary.

Many people put more care into their hobby than into their job. Also, here
I'm free to ignore topics and questions that don't interest me, so I don't get
burnt out on stupid repeat questions in the same way that a professor might.

 

[Randolf Richardson]

Hi,

I am just curious about that. I have noticed several people in Java news
group are so hard-working and extremely patient to answer others
questions anytime and any day, much, much better than university
Computer Science professors treating students' questions, even though
professors are paid with a great salary. Why are they doing so? It seems
almost like doing a full time job. Are they paid by Sun to promote
Java's usage or they are extremely unselfish people with spirit of
sacrifice?

I've really appreciated the help I've received in other forums (unrelated
to Java) when I was new to a topic, and so I try to help others in the
same way -- you could consider to be a form of "community involvement" or
"community service."

Although there isn't really a motivation to profit from this, these
contributions do occasionally result in gaining new clients (most of the
clients I've received from this simply searched for a problem they were
experiencing, read my answer, then contacted me and hired me to solve it
for them). My first client from this was roughly 8 years after the date
my message was posted, and came totally unexpected. The others were
similar as well, thus I doubt most contributors actually see short-term
profit in this. Also, those who do gain clients from newsgroup and eMail
list postings are most likely those who post useful responses frequently,
and for many years.

For those companies that hire experts to post on varoius forums, I doubt
they'd want to do so in secrecy since it would definitely be more
beneificial simply from a marketing perspective to not hide this fact
(which would likely result in bad press down the road anyway), and have
their brand name (and web site address) in every posting signature to
indicate their active involvement. Sun should hire experts the likes of
Roedy Green ( http://www.mindprod.com/jgloss/jgloss.html ) to do this type
of community-oriented work for them.

The people who do this are obviously not selfish, but I don't view it as
a sacrifice, rather I see it as a community-oriented contribution to
global progress.

 

[Mickey Segal]

I get as much help from this newsgroup as I put into it.
My questions tend to be more advanced, but discussion almost always
leads to new insight. Also, helping people solve their seemingly
trivial problems gives me opportunity to consider better solutions than
I had previously used.

In other words, it helps keep my skills sharp, not only as a
programmer, but as someone who has to help other people understand
things.

That sums it up nicely. People read newsgroups for their own information
needs, but once you've read someone else's problem it is often very quick to
pass along useful information. Also, helping people solve problems getting
Java working often makes us experts when our customers have a problem.

 

[Andrew Thompson]

"What Mickey and Daniel said" basically sums up why
I post, and try to 'help out'* about the place.

* Of course, my penchant for making posts intended
to keep the place 'neat & tidy' (according to my
perception of 'neat & tidy') does cause occasional
challenges to the effect that I am not here to help.

I'll leave the distinction, to the interested reader.

Andrew T.

 

[Hal Rosser]

Hi,

I am just curious about that. I have noticed several people in Java news
group are so hard-working and extremely patient to answer others questions
anytime and any day, much, much better than university Computer Science
professors treating students' questions, even though professors are paid
with a great salary. Why are they doing so? It seems almost like doing a
full time job. Are they paid by Sun to promote Java's usage or they are
extremely unselfish people with spirit of sacrifice?

Those who help others help themselves. Its a learning process for all
concerned, usually.
Some answers you get here may not be direct answers, but a shove in the
right direction (usually toward a reference or the API).
University instructors also often point us toward a reference rather than
answer outright - so they are really doing us a favor by making us discover
several sources of information (Like this newsgroup, various texts, the Sun
website, and the API.)
When you get on the job, the University professor may not be there to answer
your question, but the sources he pointed you toward will probably persist.

 

[ali]

Hi,

I am just curious about that. I have noticed several people in Java news
group are so hard-working and extremely patient to answer others
questions anytime and any day, much, much better than university
Computer Science professors treating students' questions, even though
professors are paid with a great salary. Why are they doing so? It seems
almost like doing a full time job. Are they paid by Sun to promote
Java's usage or they are extremely unselfish people with spirit of
sacrifice?

i really loved the answers on this topic if all the groups and all
other groups members think the same way we would be in a perfect world

 

[Andreas Leitgeb]

i really loved the answers on this topic if all the groups and all
other groups members think the same way we would be in a perfect world

While reading this group, and giving (at least intendedly) helpful
answers, probably all think alike. That doesn't necessarily mean,
that in real world we are even remotely as altruistic ;-)

 

[blmblm]

Hi,

I am just curious about that. I have noticed several people in Java news
group are so hard-working and extremely patient to answer others
questions anytime and any day, much, much better than university
Computer Science professors treating students' questions, even though
professors are paid with a great salary. Why are they doing so? It seems
almost like doing a full time job. Are they paid by Sun to promote
Java's usage or they are extremely unselfish people with spirit of
sacrifice?

Others have already given the reasons I'd give for why I help, on
the rare occasions when I do [1]: because it teaches me something as
well, and as a way of, um, "giving back" to the Usenet community for
the excellent help I've received in various newsgroups over the years.

But a few words in defense of those university Computer Science
professors [2]: For some of them, promotions and pay raises and
professional recognition depend on lot more on publishing papers
and bringing in grant money than on doing a great job of teaching
classes, and it's probably not too surprising that they're apt to
focus on the parts of their jobs that "count" most. Whether that's
a good way for things to be -- well, probably too far off-topic for
this group. And while I'm pretty sure they're paid a lot better
than professors in fields where there's not an industry market for
PhDs, I'm told that industry pays better still.

Not that there aren't some bad apples in the barrel, but maybe some
of them aren't as bad as they might seem?

[1] It might be more often, but usually by the time I get to a post
with a question I can answer, someone else has already posted at least
as good an answer as I could give!

[2] I'm not unbiased here, being one of them. I teach at a
school that *does* value teaching, and I like answering questions
(and usually spend a lot of time doing so), but not everyone's in
that camp.