If this keeps up we'll have to suspend your account to preserve your sanity.

Wait, actually reading doesn't require an account. I'm afraid your sanity is forfeit.

@Tyyppi_77 you might want to stop interacting with this user/question.

Remember the goal: Help vampires are good because they drive engagement and ad revenue.

You're making it sound like this is a recent thing. This has been going on since before I joined in ... uh ... 2014.

You're either ok with garbage content, quietly move on and try to find things worth your time or you are fed up with it and leave. I picked the latter route and it looks like you will not be able to take the former.

I don't think anything changed or got more excessive, you just lose patience for it. Years of mistreatment of the site will do that. We all reach out limit eventually.

This reminds me of Claymore. I have an unreasonable love for that series.

@Tyyppi_77 If you think the other person is not respectful, then perhaps using the tools available is the way to go, e.g. flagging the comments, flagging the question, voting to close, etc.; disengaging and letting the user alone can also be an option.

If you think the user is a help vampire, no one is forced to help them.

Downvoting, and not answering will eventually get the question deleted by the system.

Flag for moderator?

Flag for mod and disengage. Once you think you've provided all the positive contributions you can provide, and you think it's not going anywhere, disengage. No point in whipping a dead horse.

While I get that Vaillancourt is infuriating he is ultimately right. Disengaging is the correct course of action. Your attempt to fix the site is doomed to fail.

There will be. And either you're ok with it or you're not 🤷‍♂️

Gotta make shareholders happy somehow.

They say their English is not the best, then presumably they're from a different culture; some subtlety could be lost between what they want to write and what actually comes out. They could be clueless that their appear entitled.

Sorry, I did not mean that you missed them, I meant that they missed them.

Yes, and they did not think it was rude.

I kinda wanna partner with someone to make a game for motivational reasons.

Wanna become my partner? I'll contribute the ideas and let you write all the code 🤡

I have no idea how to make this easier for you, but at some point you have to let it go. People will ask for having their homework done for them and get away with it and there is nothing you can do about it. Doing the right thing when it affects you personally is the best you can do.

The comment was flagged because of its tone. When I write comments, I try to avoid using "you" and keep it professional (I'm not saying it's the best way to go, but it helped me get less angry). There is no harm in reminding them that asking us to write code for them feels kinda rude, that the scope of the site is to help folks get unstuck with specific game related issues, and not to teach them how to code.

FWIW, I would like too that those users get their heads out of their butt and put in some effort into their question before posting them, but I haven't yet figured out of a way to achieve this. The closest I got to it, I think, is to encourage them to debug their code first, so that they post better questions in the future... and I don't have evidence that it works.

If it helps, consider there maybe users who will take some gentle guidance & put in some work to be part of the community. Like code optimization, sometimes we need to focus on the problems where extra effort will make a difference.

^ Says the user who's been offsite for months :/

Also, I'm empathetic - the impact / prevalence of "do it for me" is frustrating.

@Tyyppi_77 Well, you're welcome to comment how you want, as long as they're in line with the Code of Conduct.

@nwp It seems like a good deal!

That's a line I've crossed at times too, so I empathize with how frustrating it can be. Sometimes I find I have to physically step away from my computer or put my phone down and go stomp my feet or yell just to vent some frustration, and stay away from the page for a while until it passes and I can write something that will be constructive rather than accusatory (even if the accusation is warranted, it's unlikely to sway them).

Or, just ignore them outright. If they're not entitled to me doing free code work for them, they're also not entitled to any justification from me about why. I don't owe them an explanation for not replying, and they've done nothing to earn any more of my mental cycles. So I can leave that for another mod or community member to address if so inclined, or for the community bot to sweep away in good time.

haha yeah. the entitlement is real.

@nwp Myself, I wouldn't describe it as being about shareholders and engagement / revenue / etc. The users maintaining this community are all volunteers - mods and non-mod users alike - we don't get a share of ad revenue or anything like that.

Sure. That's why we are all reduced to either tolerate the issues or leave.

I've had comments of my own deleted too. (Even some I dearly loved!) It's frustrating for sure, but in the long run, it doesn't really make a difference. Neither of us are at risk of losing our commenting privileges or anything like that.

I can't speak for Vaillancourt, but myself, I'd say that asserting that helping someone would be a "waste of time" goes past constructive critique and enters the territory of insult. I think reframing the objection as "Before I spend time helping you with X, I need to see evidence that you are making use of the advice you've been given so far" would carry the same meaning, while being less accusatory in tone.

Exactly. So saying "I will not write it for you. Edit your question to show how you are using the suggestions I've given you already. I will not reply again until you have done so" makes your point just as adamantly.

I'm not asking you to give folks unlimited chances. You can omit the potential of ever replying and just leave it at "I will not reply again." full stop. The thing is to not be insulting with your parting remark, even when they have spent the last f*** you had to give. 😉

It's just a matter of phrasing. "To get help here, you must show a willingness to solve problems. Users will not just give you solutions if you don't demonstrate that you're doing the work with the advice they've given you. That will frustrate them." Also tells them what they're doing and why it's wrong/unhelpful, without making a value judgement that helping them would be a "waste".

I don't contest this. There are plenty of things that are true but rude to say that bluntly. 😉 Getting along in a community sometimes requires sharing unpleasant information with a little diplomacy.

What's a vegan way to say "meat-and-potatoes"^

tofu and potatoes?

not sure

ah, yeah, that could work!

@DMGregory that is a great comment.

Haha, thanks! 😁

In context though, it was generating more off-topic discussion than it was adding clarity, so it had to go.

yeah

About Roblox and their revenue model. youtube.com/watch?v=_gXlauRB1EQ