deleted because of edited post below.

Good. Thanks, Jeremy.

Hi,

In my opinion it does for what concerns earning reputation points. There are some very knowledgeable people hanging around LQ but they don't know how to phrase their words so that a newbie will understand. For example if you type as answer:
or
makes a huge difference. It wouldn't be the first time someone here comes across a post where a user asks how to open a terminal. Politeness is just that extra bit of time and work we put in to phrase our words so that anyone can understand what we mean. But in my opinion has nothing to do with the technical part for which we should award reputation. LQ is a technical forum, the politeness is a person's own input (or not), but since the forums are technical the reputation should only be based on that level I think.

Kind regards,

Eric

Hi,

I perfectly understand you but in my opinion that shouldn't affect the way you look at his technical level. I've been asked several times to teach classes about Linux at my workplace. As long as it's one on one, I'm good with it but when two or more are in the room I just have an instant nervous breakdown and have to look for words. Does that affect my level of expertise and knowledge? No, it does not. Same for the 'hypothetical person' in my opinion. My first colleague who helped me with my first steps into the Unix (AIX)/Linux world used to just shout at me and ask me if a person could really be that dumb if I did something wrong or didn't understand something with the first explanation. That was just his way of not understanding that people are not all equal but, thank God, are unique.

If you can bring yourself 'down' (not meant to be condescending) to the level of a newbie and explain something, then that's great. If you can combine that with the knowledge you already have and share that with a newbie, even better.

As others have indicated on various occasions, I have a lot of patience, try to explain things completely and in the simplest terms, just to help out newcomers to the Linux world. But believe me, that's only here on LQ and at home. At work I'm totally different, seems like a split personality sometimes.

In short, as said in another recent post, I believe that the technical part should be the only one taken into account when assigning/giving reputation.

Kind regards,

Eric

But what if he hurts my feelings so bad I would rather have not received help at all?

That's a very nice decision !

Will some one be kind enough to explain me this statement !

:twocents:
Time to grow up a bit :) As I said before FILTER the words and listen only what you want to !

Hello,

Those kind of feelings have a tendency to fade away real soon once you realize that he/she solved your problem. So I'd just award him/her the reputation well deserved but will note in the comment his attitude in a sort of humorous way like:
or something similar.

Kind regards,

Eric

Yes, indeed, Eric. I would judge you to be the direct opposite of the "hypothetical person" I mentioned.

@EricTRA

Maybe.

@brianL

In one thread I was simply amazed how patient EricTRA was. It seems to me like just about anyone else in that situation would already be cussing at and insulting the OP.

EricTRA allow me to disagree at least in part ;). As I understand it "reputation" is not only technical prowess but includes the ability to teach, i.e. share knowledge (analogous to your above statements btw.) That process of learning is hampered or even prevented when you sneer at people.

I accordingly understood Jeremy's intention to indicate teaching / helping ability. Maybe he can clarify this.

That's a good point. If you're knowledgeable but can't teach, then you're pointless on a help forum.

Hi,

I've got some knowledge, can share that but I'm lousy at teaching. Do you mean now that I'm pointless here on LQ? I have a different opinion of that. You can share knowledge just by typing commands, referring man pages, experiences, configurations, writing your knowledge down and just passing the written paper to someone, and so on. Teaching goes further than just sharing in my opinion and is done at a whole different level.

I mentioned my first baby steps in Unix/Linux land as received shouting and with the necessary insults. But believe me, I've learned the most from that person and am eternally grateful to him.
The youngsters of today are so sensitive I think :)

Kind regards,

Eric

It's not a matter of being able to teach, but being able to choose your words.

To be honest, I'm not sure which bit of the sentence you're having trouble with. When we roll the system out, each member will have a beginning reputation based on specific factors such as time of membership, number of posts, etc. The existing "Helpful" metrics will not be used as part of this, based on feedback from this thread. After the system is rolled out, the Helpful system will be used as part of the reputation system, although there will probably not be a 1-1 ratio between actually repping someone vs. marking a thread as helpful.

--jeremy