Just for the record, because it seems some people have taken the unimportant parts of phil’s post a little too seriously, and completely ignored the majority of it which is quite important…
I don’t ban people. If a ban happens, it’s by community decision - but that’s extremely unlikely, generally you would need to be a grade-A asshole to earn such treatment in return. We make all efforts to find an amicable way to deal with any issues that might arise. Nobody here wants to ban anyone and we won’t do it unless you force us to.
That said…
Let’s make this simpler to understand. Let’s pretend the forum is just three people, TK, Bob and Fred.
Scenario A
TK makes a midibox, and he shares his design with the world.
Bob decides he wants to build one too. Being a hard working person he makes as much effort as he can, but there are a few things he needs help with, so he asks the forum.
TK helps Bob out and the box is in progress again. Bob spreads his knowledge around by updating the wiki for future midiboxers, and keeps building his midibox.
In the meantime, TK is working on a cool new app. Bob is looking forward to building that new toy when it is released.
Now along comes Fred. being a hard working person he makes as much effort as he can, including reading Bob’s wiki pages, but there are a few things he needs help with, so he asks the forum.
TK is writing the cool new app, and Bob realises this, so he takes a little time out of his own build, to help Fred. What a generous guy.
Fred spreads his knowledge around by updating Bob’s wiki pages for future midiboxers, and keeps building his midibox.
A short time later, Bob and then Fred finish their midiboxes.
At the same time, TK finishes his cool new app.
The whole scenario repeats, and there are cool new apps and completed midiboxes everywhere. They all live happily ever after.
Scenario B
TK makes a midibox, and he shares his design with the world.
Bob decides he wants to build one too. Being a hard working person he makes as much effort as he can, but there are a few things he needs help with, so he asks the forum.
TK helps Bob out and the box is in progress again. Bob spreads his knowledge around by updating the wiki for future midiboxers, and keeps building his midibox.
In the meantime, TK is working on a cool new app. Bob is looking forward to building that new toy when it is released.
Now along comes Fred. being a selfish lazy bugger, he makes little to no effort, doesn’t read TK’s webpages or Bob’s wiki pages, and goes direct to asking the forum.
TK is writing the cool new app, and Bob realises this, so he takes a little time out of his own build, to help Fred. What a generous guy.
Sadly, because Fred has been lazy, he has *lots* of questions. Bob cannot commit as much time to helping, as Fred needs to get so many answers.
This means that TK needs to take some time to help Fred too.
Now, Bob has not finished his app yet, because he was busy helping Fred.
Likewise, TK has not finished the new app, because he was busy helping Fred.
Fred is progressing well. He doesn’t bother to update the wiki with the info he learned, and because of this, future midiboxers will have a harder time and need to ask more questions.
The whole scenario repeats, there are no new midiboxes, and noone ever finishes their own, because they are always helping someone else.
… The end.
Look, making a midibox takes time and effort. That is unavoidable - as much as we’d like them to appear by magic, that ain’t gonna happen. You have a choice: You can make that effort yourself, or you can offload it onto the people around you. If you offload it, you are choosing to take something (their midibox) away from those people.
The choice is yours, but if you choose to be a lazy bugger who wants to take way everyone else’s midibox because you want one… You can expect them to respond in a negative manner. You just took away their midibox, what do you expect, a red-carpet welcome? They might just ignore you when you ask questions (who knows, maybe you’ll get desperate and actually read the webpages!). If you’re new, they might tell you to go read the webpages, in the assumption that you didn’t realise that it was up to you.
Otherwise, you can choose to make an effort for yourself, and not only can you have a midibox, but you can ensure that everyone else can have one too. If you’ve made that effort, it will be obvious, and the people around you will be happy to take a little time out of their own projects to help you if you have any questions. Because you’ve made the initial effort, they won’t have to help much, so it’s no big inconvenience.
The choice is yours. Don’t blame others for the consequences of your decision.
Edit: Diced out a bad word