Lazyitas

[mikehendle]

Hi All,

Seems like we are having a epidemic of lazyites over the last few months,what the main symptom is failure to read instructions,not reading readme's,and not bothering to look at stickies,and last of all not giving us as clue of what is going wrong.
and please try and start by using proper English,not starting with words like so I or crud I

Please if you are guilty of lazyites have a thought for those of us who are trying to help you,by helping us first
We all had to learn by trial and error especially in those early days 10 years ago,also MSTS is a simulation so works totaly different to Games like GTA
This will porbably fall on deaf ears
Mike

[randydayt]

Maybe Train-Sim needs a small tutorial that one is forced to read and test out of before being allowed to post.
Something simple like how to search the forum for answers or find computer specs.
Maybe a small lesson on to use Google Translate and the function of the F7 key.

Randy

[Komachi]

TO be fair, the search option on this forum sucks lugnuts. For example, if I search 'Shinkansen' because I'm curious to see if there's someone who's made one and posted about it? and the first FIVE results aren't even RELATED. Heck the FIRST one has to do with TGV's! And it gives you SO many pages, I mean it's unreasonable to expect everyone to search through ALL the pages before posting. You'd be old and gray by the time you did that!

[frankoburns]

This is a problem that will never go away so I guess we just learn to live with it. The "NEWBS" don't know any better than to use slang terms for words that have become the norms for social interaction. Thats why we have all these new "shortcuts" for words and expressions (OMG, U, C $, LOL, etc..) It's just plain ignorant to express yourself that way! They expect and demand answers because having to ask never occured to them....they are handicapped in the manners department and humility is not in their personality. The rest of the "lazy-butt" mentality is made up by those who don't care about learning or expending effort, and do so at the expense of others..Ever help someone out and you don't even get a thanks? Or worse, they actually ignore your help and continue asking stupid questions? And the single biggest thing that keeps things in the sim from working: FOLLOW DIRECTIONS! They weren't put there for your health or to be ignored! "If you don't follow instructions, IT AIN'T GONNA WORK; PERIOD! Thats become a big problem here lately, along with not reading the stickied topic which could answer more than 90 percent of their questions..dredging up 5,6, even 10 year old threads?? There's an example of that one thread down from this post; a thread from 4 years ago! Come on, don't you read the dates on that last post? OOOPPS, too much effort! When some of us here started out, there wasn't any old posts to dredge up...we winged it because some of us were here BEFORE MSTS was released..OLD POSTS are for reference! They were left there for others coming into the hobby to learn from! If you are new, there is a wealth of info here to learn from if you are willing to expend a little effort to obtain it. If you are just lazy and inconsiderate, TOUGH TURDS! I'll not be helping you any more...I'm going to run the sim and hang out in the screenie forum...I'm tired of helping those who would rather be lazy and unwilling to listen and learn anything! It won't change and those who think it will; Well good luck with that!

[BNSF1959]

Maybe Train-Sim needs a small tutorial that one is forced to read and test out of before being allowed to post.
Something simple like how to search the forum for answers or find computer specs.
Maybe a small lesson on to use Google Translate and the function of the F7 key.

I don't think we need any more tutorials here. We have a enough and there is a link to steam4me sticky in MSTS and on the FAQ.
I'm gonna sticky this one. Can't fix stupid. If you put a giant flashing billboard in front of them and they still don't see it. Everyone said their share and I will leave this open as long there is no flamewar. I will be keeping an eye on this one. Thank you guys for speaking up.

[DCRR1]

Frank, I agree with you, except on old posts. Look on the bright side, at least they DID a search!!

What gets me is when I "discover" the age of the post. I feel like someone just said "gotcha!"


John

[EricF]

It's been said many times -- MSTS isn't plug-and-play. And for a newer generation of folks using tablets, smartphones, touch interfaces and now entire computer systems designed around simplified user interfaces, it's a huge learning curve. Even reasonably computer-savvy gamers are still coming in from a very different environment.

ANSI vs Unicode -- why does it matter to MSTS?
What's a structured configuration file?
What's a header in on one of those files for and why is it so important to leave it alone?
Why doesn't a GPU matter much to MSTS?
What's UAC file and folder redirection and why does it matter to MSTS?
What the heck are all those file extensions that MSTS uses -- .eng, .wag, .cvf, .con, .act, .sms, .ace and more?
What's this BIN patch everybody keeps talking about?

Very few new MSTS users are likely to know what any of that technobabble means. Experienced folks here have wrestled with it all and learned, sometimes the hard way.

So for anyone new to MSTS, it's important to know you're diving into some deep waters. Take it a little at a time. Don't expect to load up MSTS and drop in a bunch of new content in an evening and have it all working. Before you do anything, make sure you know the steps you'll be taking so you can back out. Make backups often.

When you ask questions, be prepared to explain your particular setup and problem clearly, in detail, and expect that it might take a little time, experimenting, and discussion to find the solution. Every problem comes with another set of questions. There are few instant fixes in MSTS, especially when you're first learning.

You'll also have to install and learn a few other software tools, such as Route Riter and Shape Viewer, to be able to effectively troubleshoot and manage MSTS. You'll have to commit to developing a new software skill set to have a satisfying experience in MSTS.

And last, there's no "official" support for MSTS anywhere. Microsoft ended that years ago. According to Microsoft, MSTS isn't even compatible with anything past Windows XP. So there's no help from there. If you Google MSTS, you'll probably find these forums in the top hits, so a lot of newcomers might mistakenly think that the "official" support is here. It's not, really. We all help because it's a hobby. Support given here is "best effort" and not under any obligations to anyone. We just enjoy MSTS.

Newcomers with questions are more likely to have us teach you solutions and techniques to solve problems, rather than hand out instant fixes. Be polite and patient, and we can help you work yourself out of a problem. But it takes participation and willingness to learn.

[crstagg]

It's been said many times -- MSTS isn't plug-and-play. And for a newer generation of folks using tablets, smartphones, touch interfaces and now entire computer systems designed around simplified user interfaces, it's a huge learning curve. Even reasonably computer-savvy gamers are still coming in from a very different environment.

ANSI vs Unicode -- why does it matter to MSTS?
What's a structured configuration file?
What's a header in on one of those files for and why is it so important to leave it alone?
Why doesn't a GPU matter much to MSTS?
What's UAC file and folder redirection and why does it matter to MSTS?
What the heck are all those file extensions that MSTS uses -- .eng, .wag, .cvf, .con, .act, .sms, .ace and more?
What's this BIN patch everybody keeps talking about?

Very few new MSTS users are likely to know what any of that technobabble means. Experienced folks here have wrestled with it all and learned, sometimes the hard way.

So for anyone new to MSTS, it's important to know you're diving into some deep waters. Take it a little at a time. Don't expect to load up MSTS and drop in a bunch of new content in an evening and have it all working. Before you do anything, make sure you know the steps you'll be taking so you can back out. Make backups often.

When you ask questions, be prepared to explain your particular setup and problem clearly, in detail, and expect that it might take a little time, experimenting, and discussion to find the solution. Every problem comes with another set of questions. There are few instant fixes in MSTS, especially when you're first learning.

You'll also have to install and learn a few other software tools, such as Route Riter and Shape Viewer, to be able to effectively troubleshoot and manage MSTS. You'll have to commit to developing a new software skill set to have a satisfying experience in MSTS.

And last, there's no "official" support for MSTS anywhere. Microsoft ended that years ago. According to Microsoft, MSTS isn't even compatible with anything past Windows XP. So there's no help from there. If you Google MSTS, you'll probably find these forums in the top hits, so a lot of newcomers might mistakenly think that the "official" support is here. It's not, really. We all help because it's a hobby. Support given here is "best effort" and not under any obligations to anyone. We just enjoy MSTS.

Newcomers with questions are more likely to have us teach you solutions and techniques to solve problems, rather than hand out instant fixes. Be polite and patient, and we can help you work yourself out of a problem. But it takes participation and willingness to learn.

Well said, as usual, Eric. Another point is new users of PCs and MSTS probably don't even have their Windows Explorer set to display file extensions, even if, they know how to use Windows Explorer and know the difference between it and Internet Explorer.

[slipperman]

Hi,
That's a very good post, Eric, and a very important additional requirement noted by Charles

The big job is : How do you get newcomers to read it, when instructions and readme's don't seem to be given even a cursory glance??

Regards, from one of the "old school" !!

Ged

[mdeming]

The big job is : How do you get newcomers to read it, when instructions and readme's don't seem to be given even a cursory glance??

You probably never will with a certain percentage of people. How many people actually read EULA's or credit card info or the fine print on so many objects in our daily lives? Same is true here. The number of people who actually will read the stickies or the fine print is going to be small. No amount of cajoling or whatever will change it. The only to deal with it is to change how you react to it. I cannot understand why people get upset by that kind of stuff, tell them to rtfm, when they know they wont, and do this time and time again. If it bothers you don't answer the post. If no one answers the post maybe they will start looking for the answer on their own, but no matter what if you do not answer the annoying question then at the very least you will be less annoyed.