I am sorry that you feel that way dh4rm4. I am rude at times, but I think I am only rude to the people who deserves it. If people post with an open mind, is open to the idea that *they* may be doing something wrong instead of the *software* automatically being at fault, then I usually very helpful. I hate it when people say:

"Game XYZ doesn't work!"

when the question really should be:

"Game XYZ doesn't work for me when I try to run it in this way:....."

If they supply information about how they start DOSBox, how they mount up the drives, etc, then it is even better. That gives us something to work with. If they don't supply that kind of information, that is usually the first thing I ask for. At that stage I don't even try to figure out the what the problem is. It is a waste of time at that stage. If people really are genuine interested in getting their problem solved, then supplying that kind of basic information is really not too big an effort.

If on the other hand, people are whiners that demand hand-holding all the way, who don't want to do a basic search in the README-file first, who refuses to follow my (or others) excellent guides, then I have no sympathy for them.

I *think* this "rudeness" is common among people who give support on forums, especially forums for open source software. It mostly stems from questions asked in a stupid way not following ANY guidelines which are often easily found when one reads first. As I stated somewhere else I don't think the rudeness is that unappropiate. Users with common sense or long time experience know what to do when they first come to a forum in search for help. They learned this in the past. "Newbies" often don't know netiquette and unless someone rudely points it out for them they don't learn it. They might shy away from here and will feel mistreated, but normally they should then be more experienced on the next forum they show up.
As I wrote above it's fairly common in open source forums, IMO becuase in OS forums the people giving support are volunteers that gain nothing from helping but still do it willingly and actually enjoy helping (I always enjoy it when a problem gets solved) with problems, as long as these are genuine problems and people try to help themselves first.
I do try to be more patient in the Exult forum where I'm part of the dev crew and a moderator, but often I shouldn't replay right away but should wait a day or two. This often helps in lowering my flame sword. But then again I've been "attacked" for having RTFM in my signature (to that person I've explained that even though the original meaning still is valid he could consider another wording we sometimes used "read the FAQ, man!").

What surprises me, is that you, dh4rm4 are actually starting this discussion as you often seemed to me not much nicer than the other regulars 😀
(don't take me wrong, though, I don't complain)

dh4rm4 wrote:

I know you're defined as Affluent (i guess you donated some money to the project)

That title is something that I can set myself in my profile. Don't know if the ability to do so is tied in to me being appointed a moderator here. I guess it is.

It has nothing to do with the fact that I in some long forgotten past donated a 5-10$ to the project. It is simply an indication that I am not a poor student any more, but is an old geezer with a little money in the bank, and a huge debt on my house 😀

Speaking of my title, I do wonder if I should remove the "Moderator" tag from there? I sometime feel people misunderstand what it means to be a forum moderator.... Being a moderator doesn't mean that my word, or my advice, carry any more weight than that of another user - as long as we are talking about answering technical questions here.

My technical knowledge of DOSBox is far below that of h-a-l-9-0-0-0, ykhwong, jal and other people that contribute code to DOSBox, and indefinitely inferior to Qbix, wd, and Harakiet. I am an ... experiened user of DOSBox (and many other "operating systems"), and it is that experience that should count, not that I am a moderator here.

It is only when people start to behave badly, and warnings are being issued, that the Moderator-status should carry any special weight. Because we can, and we occasional do, lock threads that disintegrates into flame-wars.

Being a moderator here at VOGONS is (thankfully) mainly being a janitor. Putting spam in the Trash Can, deleting links to illegal copies of games, deleting duplicate posts, fix some bad BB-code, and occasionally split a thread. It is very seldom that threads needs to be locked, and very, very seldom that people needs to be banned from VOGONS.

Now that I think about it, maybe I should remove that Moderator tag if it is intimidating people? I value my freedom of speech very much, and if hiding the Moderator status means that I don't need to weigh my every word on a scale, then I would do it in a heartbeat.

I think you are doing a great job as moderator and you don't need neither to apologize nor feel ashamed or something. Anyway, I find this discussion interesting.

I feel that being a moderator *might* include some other subtle or not so clear purposes as pointing out grammatical errors, bad spelling, netiqette and the such. How can we help you if you are not understood in the first place?

Also, reminding anyone how to properly ask for help is not a bad thing, because it's reciprocal. When posts are written the right way, everyone wins.

That's my two cents.

I try hard helping other people. With problems if they are in my alley of problems. Since I am a moderator at a little small forum, and I help out of nonselfishness , and it gives me great joy when either a problem or a wondering is solved. Without any rude comments. And if there is a "hidden" agenda in what I am doing, then it is positive karma, but is that really a hidden agenda ? not really. I just enjoy helping people 😀 That is why, I sometimes gets a bit annoyed over the "bang it is forbidden ! you stupid fuck, go ask at the abandonia forum" comment . Since I know that forum. And it is a great forum where I am a member too.

Since I am a moderator at a little small forum

Yeh small little forums are nice.

That is why, I sometimes gets a bit annoyed over the "bang it is forbidden ! you stupid fuck, go ask at the abandonia forum" comment . Since I know that forum. And it is a great forum where I am a member too.

I have to beg to differ on this one, see the neighbouring thread at
coldcall has his say about DOSBox and abandonware
The stupid fuck only comes into play when the new one shoots first, rudeness may always replied to with rudeness but not with insults, you can rudely discuss something but not with insults. Also as others have written there before there are two reasons to send abandonware users to the point of origin. One is obvious legal matters. The other is that a lot of times the abandonware software is faulty due to varios reasons (preinstalled configs that screw with the user, rips that leave important stuff out and so on...). It is NOT a judgement of the abandonia(or whatever) forum.

Tact Filters - http://www.mit.edu/~jcb/tact.html

Tact Filters […]
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Tact Filters

I came up with this idea several years ago in a conversation with a friend at MIT, who was regularly finding herself upset by other people who worked in her lab. The analogy worked so well in helping her to understand her co-workers that I decided to write it up and put it on the web. I've gotten quite a few email messages since then from other people who have also found it helpful.

All people have a "tact filter", which applies tact in one direction to everything that passes through it. Most "normal people" have the tact filter positioned to apply tact in the outgoing direction. Thus whatever normal people say gets the appropriate amount of tact applied to it before they say it. This is because when they were growing up, their parents continually drilled into their heads statements like, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all!"

"Nerds," on the other hand, have their tact filter positioned to apply tact in the incoming direction. Thus, whatever anyone says to them gets the appropriate amount of tact added when they hear it. This is because when nerds were growing up, they continually got picked on, and their parents continually drilled into their heads statements like, "They're just saying those mean things because they're jealous. They don't really mean it."

When normal people talk to each other, both people usually apply the appropriate amount of tact to everything they say, and no one's feelings get hurt. When nerds talk to each other, both people usually apply the appropriate amount of tact to everything they hear, and no one's feelings get hurt. However, when normal people talk to nerds, the nerds often get frustrated because the normal people seem to be dodging the real issues and not saying what they really mean. Worse yet, when nerds talk to normal people, the normal people's feelings often get hurt because the nerds don't apply tact, assuming the normal person will take their blunt statements and apply whatever tact is necessary.

So, nerds need to understand that normal people have to apply tact to everything they say; they become really uncomfortable if they can't do this. Normal people need to understand that despite the fact that nerds are usually tactless, things they say are almost never meant personally and shouldn't be taken that way. Both types of people need to be extra patient when dealing with someone whose tact filter is backwards relative to their own.

Reflections on this Essay after Ten Years

During the ten years since I wrote up the Tact Filter theory and put it on the (then fledgeling) web, I've gotten quite a bit of fan mail about it. I've been tempted to make some minor edits (such as substituting "geek" for "nerd"), but I think that's better left to this addendum.

Related Links

* Fanspeak, originally posted to [url=news://rec.arts.sf.fandom]rec.arts.sf.fandom[/url] in 1999 by Cally Soukupa, and mirrored on Karl Musser's website.
* Ozark English, posted by Suzette Haden Elgin in her LiveJournal.

Copyright © 1996, 2006 by Jeff Bigler. Permission is granted to redistribute this text in its entirety, provided that this copyright notice and either the URL for the page (http://www.mit.edu/~jcb/tact.html) or a link to it is included. All other rights reserved.

Nice. Now we just need some kind of electronic device to translate between nerds and normal people and the world will be at peace....

I would say a person could perform this function but if you've seen Office Space then you know that Tom Smykowski (Jump to Conclusions guy) got fired because his job was useless........or was it!

Frankly, MiniMax, you are not rude by my standards. For perspective, Star Wars vs Star Trek debaters say "fuck you" just as casual as we say "how are you". 🤣

On the other hand, the fact that the poster ripped the game (instead of buying it) does not always mean that the problem comes from bad ripping --it could be some other things, and it could be interesting to analyze and be solved, especially if there is someone else who legally bought the game and experiencing the same problem.

That's not saying that you're suddenly obliged to help the poster; after all, we're here out of interests instead of obligation, aren't we? 😀