How to use this site

Tomasz · April 27, 2021, 10:35am

So it seems that “you can’t win no matter what you do”. After imposing 10 minute reading requirement to be able to create new topic, what new users do? No, they don’t read for 10 minutes.

Instead, they email support . And what is more ridiculous even if this thread is pointed to them, they fail to read it, send another email complaining that “forum is not user friendly”.

Humanity is apparently nearing their dead end.

Maybe a banner, “this forum requires READING ABILITY” ?

portfoliobuilder · April 27, 2021, 10:35am

@Tomasz this reinforces your earlier comments that customer service is one of the most unpleasant jobs in the world. I would suggest that if a user is to lazy or stupid to use the forum for 10 minutes they are not only unqualified to be AmiBroker users, but they are unqualified to be trading on the financial markets or managing their own finances.

Good luck.

Peter2047 · April 27, 2021, 10:35am

@portfoliobuilder,
I beg to differ. It takes time to learn in any software. The admin should know how long each user has been using this software. Recent users should be flagged as newbees. They deserve to be handheld in the beginning. Don’t you want Amibroker user base to increase ?

Tomasz · April 27, 2021, 10:35am

@Peter2047 then the software would not cost $279/$339 but $4000. Hand-holding is called IT CONSULTING and it is very, very costly. Average IT consulting fee is near $300 per hour. But then nobody would buy it and there would be no user base at all.

FYI: We spend way way more time than 1 hour per user. I just calculated that there were more than 100000 man-hours spent on supporting AmiBroker over the course of 20+ years. This gives 5 hours per user on average for support only. People forget that support is not only writing formulas. Support is zillions of “I lost my keyfile” emails, support is writing Knowledge Base articles, support is answering “why tax has been added” or “give me a demo”, fixing problems generated by 3rd parties (like Yahoo) and so on. This does NOT include development costs that are even larger.

Also “admin” does not know who you are because in 50% of cases:
a) user uses different email address for forum than for order
or
b) user is NOT registered at all (“demo”)

Tomasz · October 6, 2017, 10:57pm

Tomasz · October 6, 2017, 10:57pm

Tomasz · April 27, 2021, 10:35am

FWIW: I've added animated gif to the first post showing precisely how to enter / paste the code and same anim to "educational" notes that show up automatically when new user starts typing new reply or starts new topic (during first 6 posts). Maybe this will allow us to see properly formatted code from new users.

pastecode3

Milosz · April 27, 2021, 10:35am

@Tomasz - it's a good idea, but because some users have read only a few posts before they make their own (it's a pity we cannot restrain them from posting before they read at least 50-100 posts - you have already explained why), they might not know how their codes should look like. They might be used to many other forums which don't provide similar functionalities. For this reason I suggest adding a small example - like this one (or this one):

If you enter or paste your code without proper code tags, it will look like this one:

_SECTION_BEGIN("Price");
SetChartOptions(0,chartShowArrows|chartShowDates);
_N(Title = StrFormat("{{NAME}} - {{INTERVAL}} {{DATE}} Open %g, Hi %g, Lo %g, Close %g (%.1f%%) {{VALUES}}", O, H, L, C, SelectedValue( ROC( C, 1 ) ) ));
Plot( C, "Close", ParamColor("Color", colorDefault ), styleNoTitle | ParamStyle("Style") | GetPriceStyle() );
_SECTION_END();

If someone copies such code from the web page and pastes it to the AFL Editor, in most cases it will result in many editing errors:

Error

If you copy-paste your code properly - using code tags, it should look like this:

_SECTION_BEGIN("Price");
SetChartOptions(0,chartShowArrows|chartShowDates);
_N(Title = StrFormat("{{NAME}} - {{INTERVAL}} {{DATE}} Open %g, Hi %g, Lo %g, Close %g (%.1f%%) {{VALUES}}", O, H, L, C, SelectedValue( ROC( C, 1 ) ) ));
Plot( C, "Close", ParamColor("Color", colorDefault ), styleNoTitle | ParamStyle("Style") | GetPriceStyle() ); 
_SECTION_END();

... such code can by copy-pasted directly to the AFL Editor without any editing errors. Additionally long or wide codes are placed inside a pane - which enables reading and copying them properly.

Each user can see how his/her post will look like (before submitting) by clicking in the bottom right corner of the panel. It is advised to have this preview pane opened when writting a post.

Each post can be edited/modified/deleted within the first 15 minutes. For this reason after submitting the post, the user should check if the new post is properly formatted and if it doesn't contain any errors which can be spotted and corrected.

If the user doesn't obey the rules, his/her posts will be removed.

Maybe this helps, because there is nothing more frustrating than watching how much time is wasted on such basic and unproductive things ...

Regards

Tomasz · April 27, 2021, 10:35am

That would be too much reading for “average” newbie. From my experience their reading ends at first paragraph of text.

Milosz · April 27, 2021, 10:35am

But many users do not realise why it is important to use proper code tags. It is not a caprice. A good example might be really useful. They might also not be aware of some other things that I mentioned.

In my opinion, If they fail to read a few lines, such users should be kept away from the forum or at least have their “I don’t care” section Not only do they not input anything but constantly drain positive energy from other users and waste lots of their time… No one of us would like this forum to become one of many others flooded with countless messy and worthless posts…

Tomasz · April 27, 2021, 10:35am

They just won’t read that. It is that simple. You could display blinking red letters and they won’t read. That is the reality today.

IamSOcute · April 27, 2021, 10:35am

I guess many people do not see , folks should use code tags before publishing codes . that's the smartest thing you can do on forum, like I read first post adequately and understood it .

Lennon · April 27, 2021, 10:35am

This is a bit unfair!

New members are not using the search and the number of duplicate topic creation has increased a lot unnecessarily.

I hope we don't need a moderator for this also!

JEETU · April 27, 2021, 10:35am

How do I send my query, recently purchased Amibroker 6.2 and was trying to introduce myself to the form but have not figured out how to send the message to the forum, for some this may be dumb, but I am stuck at the first step ....
regards
Jatinder

Tomasz · April 27, 2021, 10:35am

You managed to post here so the same way you post a query. To post new topic use "New topic"

Tomasz · April 27, 2021, 10:35am

For what it is worth: today I found this article when browsing Discourse Meta site: http://www.skidmore.edu/~pdwyer/e/eoc/help_vampire.htm and I think it is great informative article for both help givers and takers. Takers should check themselves if they are not showing symptoms of "help vampire" and givers get methods to easily spot such individuals and methods to deal with them in a useful way.

For people expecting help I will just quote part of this article:

Before you ask a question...

Before you ask a question in a community, try to find the answer elsewhere. This way you help yourself by stretching your mind and research abilities, and you learn things more thoroughly too. Plus it's good karma.

Always try these avenues first:

Keep troubleshooting . Often we learn that it's easier to give up and ask for help rather than persisting—when we'd get our breakthrough if we'd only delay giving up for another 10 minutes. Respect yourself, go a little further before giving up.
Google , of course. Try at least 3 or 4 searches before you give it up as hopeless.
Mailing lists, forums, and newsgroups . Chances are, you're not the first person on the Earth to have this problem. Luckily we live in an age where we can search the past. Check out these resources next.
Docs . Sometimes they seem impenetrable, but give it a whack. The more you learn, the easier the documentation will be to understand and decipher.
Ask your question—but phrase it differently . Instead of asking your question directly, ask "Has anyone has seen this problem?" or "Can anyone point me in the right direction?" Likely as not, someone will have been there before, and they might know a blog posting or other resource which can help you out. This way, you show you are respectful of their time, and understand your problem is (probably) not unique.

When you do ask a question, try to provide as much background detail as possible.

nsm51 · April 27, 2021, 10:35am

Dear Mods,
I'm having similar issue as posted by another user here.

For some reason, even though the stats meet atleast basic, the New User restrictions have not been lifted.
I get restrictions of posting more than 1 image, or reply 3 times in a topic etc which seem very restrictive to the case i'm pursuing in the 6.30.5 Beta thread.

To cite an example, these stats have also got Level 1.