HELP SNOBS

I happened to have a computer problem the other month so after trying to figure it out myself for a while I thought that a bit of expert advice would not go amiss. I signed up to a forum and was pretty much given, albeit not explicitly, the solution I required.

Interestingly on one of the signatures of the people that helped me was a ink to a topic called 'Help Vampire'. Intrigued I clicked on it and learnt that 'Help Vampires' are people who suck the life out of someone they are asking help from either by continually asking questions or, more pertinently, by not showing any effort themselves to actually try to nut out the problem.

Now, I appreciate there are people out there who take advantage, after all as the old adage goes "why do something when you can get someone else to do it for you?". Assuming of course that people who do ask these questions have that intention. Yet it got me thinking, is there, conversely, such a thing as a 'Help Snob'? My definition of a 'Help Snob' is someone who knows his subject but enjoys the perverse thrill of lecturing others about 'needing to research'.

They might even maintain a help website such as the one I visited so they can lord it over other people who are indeed stuck, as I was. The thing is by being so smug in their attitude they conveniently forget that once upon a time, unless they are totally self-taught, which is unlikely, they needed help to learn, if not computing then something else. Also when a person knows something, they, usually, know it back to front and cannot understand why others do not.

In short a 'Help Snob' would be analogous to a driving instructor becoming irritated when you demonstrate you cannot use the controls with a disdainful "it is easy!". This sort of unncessary oneupmanship does little to move things forward, indeed it takes more time to strut and argue than to actually explain the solution. In addition this attitude simply does not impress many. It is also a bad teaching method, in my opinion, to effectively say, "have a guess." just so they can play the 'all-knowing professor' for a few moments. My own learning style is based on plenty of examples and explanation and sometimes the solution to the problem simply will not sink in, the circuit, therefore, needs to be broken with a little help and explanation.

A lot of the people on these "help" sites would probably counter by saying "I am not getting paid to do this, why should I drop everything and give you the answer?" to which I would say "why do it at all, if dealing with 'amateurs' annoys you so much?" Maybe it is just part of a human condition. Maybe, in reality, a lot of us resent giving other people our help, by default? Mercifully, however, not everyone is like this and to those that have taken the time in the past, I thank you.