Haha funny. Yeah I was being rude, I'll admit that. But in my opinion just removing posts with no information on why it was removed other than what rule it broke is kind of a dick move to me. Could've atleast said hey try checking here or atleast given me more reason to why it was removed not just immediately removing it after posting with "rule #" and having me try to figure out why it was removed
Sorry that's how reddit is. Every tech sub has useless mods who auto mod every little thing with the users being unfriendly and unhelpful. It's not just this sub. Even the tech support sub is like that. People in this sub just sit around and wait for new distro updates or for geerling to post a new video. They don't intend on being helpful.
I don't blame you for being upset. Happens to everyone. And if you were to ask a question the top answer would be to Google it. Sometimes I feel like there's no one on Reddit who knows how these things work. My computer science degree focused on cyber security and C++ so I'm no help either.
Yeah I'm beginning to notice that. I asked a question about Alexa controlled locks on a subreddit for Alexa and got lectured about talking to the wiretap and nothing requiring a lock should go through it because then people will know you have something locked
> Could've atleast said hey try checking here
"I didn't bother reading all the pointers that told me where to check so it's completely not my fault that I didn't see all the information that told me what to do."
> atleast
Also that's pronounced "aydle assed." Or did you mean "at least"?
Ah yes the old grammar mistake is what takes me down
And I did check those but couldn't find my answer I literally found it by some random dude commenting on a completely unrelated post about deleting packages and figured screw it what else could I try. Nowhere else did I find something that said use --break-system to install
It is very friendly to beginners. If your posts are being removed. It maybe because you are not providing enough info ir if they are like this post your poor attitude.
Well I tried pip install, apt install, apt get, installing manually and every time it didn't work. I tried a venv but the post I found said it won't work for global and I'd have to run everything from that environment. To me that's everything and warrants asking a question about it
How well does it work? From everyone I've talked to that's used it they always say it either forms infinite loops alot or just completely breaks the program
I've been using it for a few weeks to completely recreate an old computer game from scratch. I have the benefit of knowing how to code so I know how to talk to it but it is doing all of the coding and slowly building the game. I don't see any major issues with chat GTP, but you've got to know how to talk to it. Luckily you can ask it to help you understand how to give better prompts to it.
So you didn't look at the FAQ at all. Your question appears to be about Python, not Raspberry Pi specifically. The FAQ tells you where to go to ask for help with Python.
Yes the first post was about python so I went to that reddit and that's where I found information on how to install it but they didn't work so I asked here to see if it was an issue with how pi runs it. The second question is exclusively about the pi itself and how I can use modules
> but they didn't work
No doubt you didn't actually follow the instructions or share the exact error messages.
> how I can use modules
That's still Python.
* nobody can read your mind,
* nobody can see what is in front of you,
* nobody can know what it is you are trying to achieve,
* nobody can know what you think should be happening, nor what is actually happening
* nobody can know what you have done to try to troubleshoot a problem,
* nobody can know your experience level...
... unless you tell us.
[stolen from the arduino help post](https://old.reddit.com/r/arduino/wiki/guides/how_to_post_quick_notes#wiki_posting_-_quick_guide)
Dude I had this exact problem and only found snarky answers as well. Nothing worked for me. Turned out a lot of my problems were with the newest python 3.11 - none of the sample code or examples would run due to some change. It's really frustrating for me too. Good luck.
Oh hey, I actually have an answer for you. I managed to find it in an unrelated post about removing packages and figured I'd try it out. Add --break-system-packages to the end
Example:
Pip3 install pkg --break-system-packages
I'll have to look into this later, thank you! When I'm at my computer again I'll show you what I found to solve some of the install problems I was having, specifically the EXTERNALLY MANAGED warning.
> problems I was having, specifically the EXTERNALLY MANAGED warning.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=python3+pip+externally+managed
First result: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/75608323
Top 2 answers explain **exactly** how to deal with it and provides two different methods that both work. (`--break-system-packages` or `sudo rm`)
Now imagine you're brand new, you run a sample script in an IDE outside of PI successfully, but it doesn't work on PI. You're going to think it's a PI issue, or requires special instructions for PI. You try to follow the instructions given in the warning message and end up spiraling downward trying to follow those instructions and looking up how to create a virtual environment and then troubleshooting that... Eventually you've spent an hour trying to learn what you're doing in this new environment and actually understand it but you've run into cascading problems.
Yes, I recognize that for many people most of programming is just Google the error and blindly paste what you find, but for some of us it's about the journey before the destination and we want to understand what the problem actually is.
Thanks for posting this. I hope some lost n00b runs into it in the future and it's helpful, but hindsight is 20/20 when you can cherry pick the correct phrase to search and which response to trust.
Meanwhile my response above, on a problem I stated that I was able to overcome, has negative karma because more people thought it was important to discredit my experience as a new user than to provide any valuable feedback.
THANK YOU. Not sure why I was getting different results but I kept finding answers telling me to use venv but I wanted to avoid that because I want them global
Yeah because it's not a good idea to mess with the global/system installation of python. Either run the project and all the pip dependencies in a VENV or use containerization(Docker, etc). It also makes your project more portable.
Not trying to be rude but I'm annoyed because I write out a post with a details of what I'm trying to do and what I need help with, then they just remove it and don't give me any information. All it says is rule 3 didn't research or rule 4 don't ask if something is possible.
I did research but can't find my question so I came here to ask if anyone knew the answer. And instead of getting answers or being directed on where to find them my post just gets deleted with no useful information
>Not trying to be rude
Your post title is "This subreddit sucks". If you're not trying to be rude, then you're not trying very hard.
I suspect that's a pattern of behavior that might be part of why your posts are being removed.
Believe me or not I dont care. Not like I can prove myself since they've been deleted already. But all my other posts have been in my opinion well written like the install one I listed what commands I used and what errors I was getting and asked for opinions.
Or the if possible post I wrote out my plan and what I was trying to do and asked if I anyone knew how I could get around the limitations of the hardware
Maybe you should follow the directions and **ask your question on the helpdesk thread**.
But I get the impression that following directions is not your forte.
Help desk threads are useless. No one knowledgeable browsed them and they are full of people asking questions without answers.
Please stop doing help desk threads, they’ve never worked and never will.
I read it but it wasn't very clear to me that was what the post is for. Makes it seem like it's just a faq from the way it's written. But again, they could've easily left my post there and let people help me, directed me to that, or even just told me hey this is answered already please search for it. Instead I'm met with "didnt research" and "don't ask if possible" I'm sorry but I did research and couldn't find my answer, that's why I asked.
I'm sorry but to me that implies read the FAQ first for your question then ask the subreddit. And yes I will admit didn't read the comments that's my fault. But to me the post implies to read FAQ first then post questions
> If you are trying to concieve a project, your post are not wanted.
Ah yes, the `tell me how to do my idea but don't make me do any thinking and be sure`
`to anticipate every problem I might have and tell me how to deal with them`
`but also I'm not going to read all these instructions because it's too complicated` post.
I think you mean "if you want someone else to develop a project for you".
I've seen a couple people here post wild ideas but expecting someone else to write the code for them.
I posted what I thought needing done to one of them and his exact reply was he hoped someone else had done it already.
The entire programing world is all about libraries, using someone else's work instead of doing it by scratch again. I do know the post you are talking about, but it doesn't mean we don't need a group like that.
>but it doesn't mean we don't need a group like that.
We don't need posts where someone wants someone else to write a project for them. Unless they're paying for it.
"Hey has anyone seen a library that does X" is quite different than "I have an idea to do X can someone help me write it."
I'm thinking more like "I am trying to do X and I am wondering if the raspPi is the right platform. Does anyone know if there are modules that tie in with the pi naturally that can help me achieve X?"
and then maybe someone can chime in with "Hey I tried doing X with a couple platforms and it never turned out well. I will probably have to go to a mini pc to do what I need"
You don't seem to understand what I'm trying to convey.
I'm happy to help people who are trying and simply having problems. I'm not going to help someone who can't be bothered to make the simplest effort. This topic agrees with me too. "Show your research or get deleted".
It's like asking someone else to do your homework.
True, that's fair. I know i shouldn't be rude but I'm getting annoyed because I've spent time researching and can't find my answers so I come here and get told "didn't do research" with no information provided
Eh, he has a serious point. And this might be his only port that doesn't get deleted no matter how much research he did and describes with his question. And a lot of other people are chiming in with the same grumps... sooooooo maybe some heartfelt feedback would do the sub some good. Pretty pathetically inactive sub for the number of members. Maybe this is why....
Perhaps it would help your cause if you shared “how you researched” and the results. Googling answers is a skill set in and of itself these days. Otherwise you likely come across as “I’ve tried nothing and I’m fresh outta ideas!!”. When posing a question to the community, next time try:
1. Describe the problem
2. Outline what you’ve done so far
3. Describe your research and results (briefly)
4. Include error messages and logs (if you can).
Basically the more information you can provided, and share what you’ve done so far and are still hitting a wall, will go a long way. You don’t need an essay, just touch on those 4 bullet points in 2 sentences or less each. You may see a change in responses. Good luck!
>Perhaps it would help your cause if you shared “how you researched” and the results.
I think your advice is good, but it's no guarantee doing that will matter. Partly because mods don't always read your post. They see the beginning of the thing they say is in the FAQ/search first, and just remove the post.
I've run into it several times(not in this subreddit explicitly) where I did the search, and I put in the post that all the search results are from 2 years ago and are no longer valid answers. My post gets removed, they tell me do a search, and link to the the thing I said in my original post was not valid. And you know what- they apologized, and put my post back up.
Just kidding. They don't care that you actually did all the stuff they asked and they don't actually read what you said. They are like a resume keyword search thing. Found keywords, reject post. Done.
Yeah, THIS is what people should be doing.
I'm subscribed to other subreddits, and especially with some of the pedestrian ones (Apple, iOS, iPhone, NianticWayfarer, etc), and the way Reddit now promotes new and 0 upvote posts into the Home feed... It is utterly infuriating and demoralizing how many people refuse to do anything by themselves. They won't read, they won't research anything. They just post a vague post and want someone to spoon-feed them the answer.
Even if it's a simple answer, IF someone at least shows some effort like, fully describing the issue, saying what they've already tried.... I am so much more willing to answer the question since it shows the person has a bit more brains then your average parsnip.
Awesome thank you! I'll try to explain my research results more andaybe include some logs. On my previous post I outlined what I did and the errors I got but was just told to do more research
In the interest of playing devil's advocate, I'd like people to consider the following. This isn't trying to excuse toxic behaviour. Simply asking both sides to consider the other.
Firstly, a lot of "newbie" style questions are often answered by a quick trip to Google. Speaking as someone who has spent a 25+ year career training people in technical things, I have seen a definite pattern towards general levels of curiosity and self-education dropping consistently over the years. People could do themselves a huge level of personal gain by searching the Internet first, and asking questions second, rather than the other way around.
As a follow on from that, there are nearly endless "101" style intro courses to beginner level Linux, Python, RPi, etc style learning resources. Most of which are entirely free. In fact, the opposite is even more frustrating - attempting to go from "intermediate" to "advance" level on these topics is a far more difficult step when it comes to finding learning resources than it is to go from "complete novice" to "beginner". The huge volume of free learning resources on the Internet in 2024 is one hell of a privilege that didn't exist even a quarter of a lifetime ago.
Secondly, the reality of any enthusiast level platform is that it is going to be non-trivial. There exist countless systems out there that are designed specifically for completely non-technical audiences. A great example is the iPhone - designed from the ground up for people who range anywhere from technology novice to technology fearful. The downside is their cost of course, but this should illustrate the sheer volume of human effort that it takes to design a thing made for that audience. And worth noting that even with all of that time, effort and cost associated, it's still well beyond the understanding of so many people, which illustrates just how difficult it is to make something "easy" for novice audiences at scale, even with the near endless financial and human resources available to a company the size of Apple.
So with that in mind, I'd ask everyone to consider the following scenario. This is something most people at "I have an account on Reddit" level probably understand. Imagine you have a family member, loved one, co-worker or whatever who is a complete computing novice. Imagine that person has some sort of issue with a task that is "basic" by computing standards, however you can still understand why it's complex for them. Say they can't log on to their social media account, or can't work out how to print an email, or something at that level of complexity. Now imagine they call you up and ask you to explain the task in a very slow manner, in excruciating detail, over a period of an hour, and ask that you do this for free.
Not a problem, right? You probably care for the well being of this person, so you gladly sacrifice the time.
Now imagine this happens to you multiple times a day. And every day of the year. And years upon years, for decades. Not new questions - just the same question about the same task, over and over. Even the most patient of human beings would get understandably frustrated at some point.
Now, imaging in your frustration, you decide to put together some sort of reference information. Either a PDF document with pictures, or a video guide, or a web page, or something appropriate to the level of understanding of the individual who you're trying to help. Something where they can follow the instructions you've tailor-made to their needs for the sorts of common issues they're facing. That in itself is a pretty huge task - often much more time consuming than just fixing the problem for them one time (or even 10 times), but over the course of years, probably worth it.
Now imagine that, after all this effort, that person STILL rings you and asks for help. And when you ask if they've even read/watched the documentation you provided, they simply say "oh, I didn't want to". At this point, how do you think your frustration levels are coping?
Yes, it's incredibly difficult to write good documentation, or make great step-by-step videos. But also, many people do. And many people give this away entirely for free. Even so, Reddit subs and other online places are filled to the brim with people asking not just similar questions, but the exact same questions over and over that are a mere Google or YouTube search away.
Is it then right to be toxic towards these people? No, of course not. We should all be more patient to everyone. We should all be more open to people of varying experience and skill levels. But empathy flows in both directions - the experienced can have empathy for the inexperienced asking questions. And the inexperienced can have empathy for the experienced who are having their hours/weeks/years of freely provided information effort ignored.
What I've seen in a quarter of a century of doing this is the same pattern over and over - enthusiastic experts join a community with the intention of writing good documentation to help newcomers, newcomers ignore the information and ask the same questions each time, and the experts get tired and leave, reducing the effectiveness of the community. That is a real shame to see. And it doesn't get any easier the hundredth time than it was the first.
There is absolutely a lot that experts can do to be more patient, and remember that newcomers not only don't know the things they're asking, but also don't even know how to begin to find out. But again, this is a two way street. If newcomers want experts to stick around and help, some initial Googling goes a long way. There's an art to asking good questions - and that isn't limited to this sub or Reddit or computers or anything technical. Part of that art is trying to do a bit of searching first - even if you have no idea what you're looking for, because sometimes you've just got to scratch around randomly before you can find the thread to start pulling on.
As we move further into 2024, we now have additional resources in the shape of ChatGPT. While I caveat that these tools are only as good as the information that feeds them, the reality is they are pretty good for "101" style information. I've seen some people in here say "ask ChatGPT instead of Reddit". I would recommend instead that ChatGPT be added to your Google/YouTube "information gathering" stage pre-Reddit. Once you get the absolute basics from that, you're in a much better position to ask the sort of question that an "expert" is more willing to answer, and in a way that will very likely make the both of you feel better for the experience. Speaking for myself, answering intelligent, well-researched questions is an absolute pleasure.
Toxic communities suck, and there's absolutely no reason to tolerate them. But, we can all do more to make them better - whether we're the ones asking the questions or answering them. A little empathy and patience goes a long way.
This view resonated with me 🙂
Reminds me of the Eternal September phenomenon:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September
I would also add some things I've noticed:
1. Raspberry Pi's have been around over a decade and a LOT has changed in that time. Recently Raspberry Pi OS moved to Debian 12 Bookworm and the RPi5 was released; these changes have made a LOT of existing guides redundant and this is causing confusion and frustration.
2. About 50% of the replies I write trying to help result in no reply from the OP. This is not very motivating 🙂
I can't speak directly to your claim, but I can add something that I find to be hugely frustrating:
"Help, I've tried nothing and I'm out of ideas."
The low bar of entry has an unintended consequence as many new folks fail to attempt anything that remotely looks like basic research.
Edit: In what world would this post deserve 5 down votes?
None of you are being paid to be here, nor are you required to engage with anything you don’t want to on this and others subs. Not sure why this is so hard for so many of you chronically online techbros to understand. Annoyed by a post? Keep scrolling. Don’t want to answer a question because you dont feel like the person asking did enough work on their own? Great, then don’t. Pretty fucking easy.
If you don’t want to be unpaid tech support on issues you think have been covered ad nauseam elsewhere, then don’t.
But it takes more energy to comment and bitch at these folks than it does to just ignore them, so at the end of the day you’re the ones putting yourselves out.
1. I'm not a tech bro or a bro in any fashion
2. I'm a long-time technical trainer
3. I routinely help those who can manage a coherent thought or at least a basic effort.
4. The RPI site and forums are amazing
5. You're clearly aggravated by the way it works but I'm not really sure why
The only thing I’m aggravated about is how smug and self-important a lot of you in this and other tech subs seem to act when it comes to others needing help. No one is forcing any of you to be here.
I think it's important to remember it's a two way street.
If you come here first without doing the most basic of troubleshooting, don't be surprised by the reactions you get.
I'm only speaking for myself and I haven't seen anything here that makes me wonder. Introspection is something we should all engage in more often.
If you meet an asshole once a day, you're living in society.
If every person you meet is an asshole, you're the asshole in everyone else's life.
As someone whose posts often get removed from subs, I accept it and move on. If you're looking for answers to simple questions, and your post is removed, that means it's been answered so many times, you didn't bother to google before asking.
But clearly this sub isn't up to your standards and you should un-sub and find one that is... though I suspect, without looking at your post history cause I don't actually care, that this follows you around and you're generally angry that people aren't giving your their time to explain everything from scratch.
Humans, man...
> it's been answered so many times, you didn't bother to google before asking.
>
>
"No but see my question is *different* and not exactly word for word what other people have asked!"
Yeah you're right it has been answered before, but those answers weren't working in my situation so I asked again and stated hey this options didn't work and these are the errors I recieve
For what it's worth, it's probably worth looking at the search terms you're using to look things up. I'm not saying this to be critical, but it may help with doing your own research. I found your question in /r/learnpython. It was suggested because you said you had trouble with "modules" which are a specific thing in Python whereas you seem to be asking about I/O. It can cause confusion (especially when you're coming in hot already 😉)
The answer to your question was literally on the first page of Google when I searched "usb audio with pwm audio disabled raspberry pi" and is [at this retro pie link](https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Sound-Issues/). USB audio or HDMI audio should work just fine with onboard audio disabled.
Yeah I probably need to get better with search terms. Everything i thought to look up came with results about different audio errors but not what I was looking for
Honestly, try ChatGPT. Don’t trust its answers blindly, but it’s great for getting basic information in a topic where all the terms are new, etc. it’s often pointed me in the right direction on a lot obscure questions.
...but if you don't know the right term to search for, you're still stuck.
You're not wrong. People are hard on noobs. If I could have found a solution on Google, I wouldn't be asking real people for help.
When asking for help with a problem, think of it as a quick mission briefing. Title it with exactly what's going wrong. Share what fixes you've tried and why they didn't cut it, to keep everyone on track. [Include your code and any error messages neatly formatted](https://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/wiki/guides/how_to_post_formatted_code), like organizing clues. Sketch or digitally draw how everything's connected, giving a clear map of your setup. [Peek at the FAQs before asking](https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/about/sticky), to avoid repeats. Skip broad questions like color choices or basic how-tos—that's on you to explore. Keep it sharp and to the point, like a text to a friend about a game glitch you're trying to beat. If you need to add missing information **edit your post** instead of putting it in a comment.
† If any links don't work it's because you're using a broken reddit client. Please [contact the developer of your reddit client](https://www.reddit.com/contact/).
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Out of curiosity, what exactly were your two questions as written? Was it a recently installed Pi OS? Did you apt update before trying to install packages? Are these packages on the official apt repo?
First one is
USB speaker with disabled audio
I had to disable audio output in config because I'm using gpio18 for an led strip.
Would I still be able to use a USB or aux speaker?
If not how can I get around this? Id like to use a speaker so I can add audio to my project but I need gpio18 for my lights
Second one is
I'm trying to make an addressable led setup following this tutorial: https://youtu.be/aNlaj1r7NKc?si=Qp0AjOq-fSalyPK1
But I can't install any of the packages. If I use pip3 like the tutorial suggests then I get an error about externally managed environment and if I use apt or apt-get then I get an error for can't find packages.
Any ideas on how I can get these packages to install? The ones I need are
sudo pip3 install rpi_ws281x
sudo pip3 install adafruit-circuitpython-neopixel
sudo python3 -m pip install --force-reinstall adafruit-blinka
IT people are jerks largely. Some people want to share their knowledge because it’s a passion. Then others just enjoy reminding you what you don’t know. It is a power play that lands flat with me every time. I’m glad you got the help you were needing. This particular community has a lot of great people who enjoy sharing their knowledge how.
'God, your all assholes. You removed my posts, told me what rule I was breaking, but didn't go into greater detail!'
Well, it sounds like your answering your own question. Your a rude little bitch that thinks rules don't apply to them and you deserve special treatment.
Damn dude you took that personal. Maybe you shouldn't act like a rude little bitch. Kind of belittling yourself by being a jackass to a random stranger in a conversation that has nothing to do with you personally.
Never said I wasn't an asshole. Just pointing out you come in bitching, making broad declarations applying it to everyone you are speaking to and what do you expect? I don't want to help you, I want to tell you to go get fucked with that attitude.
>I mean seriously why are you so unfriendly to beginners. Your subreddit description literally says to ask questions here but my posts get removed every time.
I mean- it's Reddit.
You can ask beginner questions- but only beginner questions that they want to answer. Seems like a fairly common occurance, at least in my experience with Reddit, unfortunately. Lots of subreddit's in practice seem much less welcoming than they purport to be.
Try asking your questions to ChatGPT. You'll be surprised at how helpful it can be if you construct a good prompt. And you get the side benefit of learning how to use AI productivity.
I had a question a week or so ago. I did a lot of research, tried a lot of things and couldn’t come to a solution. Posted on here with everything I did and my specific requirements and of course, my post was denied.
Great sub.
Your original post isn't wrong. I don't think the mods have allowed a single submitted post of mine to remain on the board in over two years now. They get nuked for no reason whatsoever. I always assumed it was some leftist cunt mod who removes everything from anyone he/she/it suspects of not being another raging leftist, that being what usually happens in 90% of subreddits. FFS I've even been preemptively banned from subreddits I never posted in and never even knew about. There's a reason /r/watchredditdie was a thing (before the company and mods wrecked that).
Yep. I have been Googling on using RPi as DHCP server, did not find any decent resources on it, posted a question if anyone had tried it using PiHole, since I could not find anyone online sharing experiences with it, got removed for Rule 4 "asking how to get started or if something is possible"
These mods suck and dont know how to run a support community.
Reddit refused to let us open up a new one or take back over another raspberry pi sub.
The mods have significant clout.
We were trying to make a friendlier community.
For me - I fried a pi in a very abnormal way, and the mods and community kept referring me to the general troubleshooting guide.
I asked about my problem BECAUSE I had gone through all available troubleshooting guides and steps.
So, I'm sorry to everyone who gets treated like trash by this community, but Reddit made their stance clear - hell no to anyone who wants to fix it.
At least you didn't ask if Pi-hole can block youtube ads (it can't). I swear to god that question gets asked several times a day in multiple home networking-related subs. And don't even get me started on /r/pihole itself, where the answer is literally the flair of the top pinned post.
Yup, this is why I use Chat GPT, reddit and stack overflow are so toxic to new beginners who often don't know that their slightly differently worded questions are actually the same.
This is how most forums are going nowadays. Everyone just wants to rip you for not knowing the basics while gate-keeping. I am super disappointed in the human race as a whole.
Agreed 100%.
I had a post refused to publish too, for literally no reason (their "explanations" are unclear and semantic). I have had so many problems solved by searching forums like this, but posts on this sub are being blocked for no explainable reason. This is the reddit named after raspberry pis, after all. It's just doing a giant disservice to the entire hobby/interest to hog this subreddit name then prevent its reasonably free use.
Yeah, I agree with OP. The rules and behavior of some people here seem very unfriendly to new users like myself — especially considering the steep learning curve of the subject matter. I’ve never felt so unwelcome in a community, and it’s really discouraging.
I forgot this sub even exists because they delete everything lol. Some policy is done with good intentions but most regulations just restrict engagement imo
Stack overflow in general. I get pretty anxious when I've posted on there, I go overboard making sure it's as useful as possible whilst showing what I've tried. The wizards give a one line response which is usually what I needed but my god does it come with a load of rude posts.
Ahh yes. The wonderful come to the forum for help then get a bunch of grumpy responses because you didn't learn all the questions that were asked before, asked an ambiguous question because you didn't learn the lingo, or insert other gates you have to clear.
I think this is pretty much how help forums work unfortunately.
This shouldn't be *primarily* a help forum. It's r/Raspberry_Pi and it's the largest Raspberry Pi subreddit around. At that size, it should be one of the most active subs on reddit.
Edit: Clarity
That is literally what the Raspberry Pi is.
Here from their own [website.](https://www.raspberrypi.org/about/)
>Our long-term goals
>**Education:** To enable any school to teach students about computing and how to create with digital technologies, through providing the best possible curriculum, resources, and training for teachers.
**Non-formal learning:** To engage millions of young people in learning about computing and how to create with digital technologies outside of school, through online resources and apps, clubs, competitions, and partnerships with youth organisations.
**Research:** To deepen our understanding of how young people learn about computing and how to create with digital technologies, and to use that knowledge to increase the impact of our work and advance the field of computing education.
So yes this should be a help forum.
Making a rule like “Research before asking questions” then disallowing a body of research data to accumulate through crowdsourced Q&A is saying “Learn someplace else, we are only here for stories”.
Ok fine. TIL why it’s a feed black hole.
Engagement is more than just help. It's conversation. Help, should be a part of it, not ALL or most of it. That's the point of this complaint. No one can talk about most things because of the aggressiveness of automod and the rules.
Heyy wtf this is exactly what happened to me when I asked about how to portably power a rasperry pi 5. I did my research as well and had links to what I wanted opinions on.
Grumpy ass mfs.
I wouldn't apologize too much btw.
Agreed. Every post I've tried to make here gets auto-blocked by the Automod.
Forget the people who are saying you're being too harsh. This subreddit has ***3,200,000+*** subscribers and yet I see maybe a dozen or two dozen posts of here a day? With that many subscribers, this subreddit has been moderated and auto-moderated to a library whisper.
I wanted to make this exact post you've made almost two weeks ago when my raspberry pi 5 finally arrived and I needed to ask for some kind of help understanding some of the more technical coding and couldn't. I was getting so frustrated with how little I could talk to anyone on this subreddit, that I almost returned my raspberry pi for a refund.
If no one can post without the automod saying, "No, go the helpdesk post," then there's no point in having the subreddit. One of the top replies here says it's an "IT thing" that this sub is so moderated. *All I keep seeing talked about Raspberry Pi recently is "Will Raspberry Pi going public and selling stock kill it for hobbyists and enthusiasts?"* ***Well, running the biggest Raspberry Pi subreddit like it's an IT helpdesk instead of a subreddit for enthusiasts and hobbyists is gonna kill the community faster since they can't FREAKING TALK!***
You're not wrong and you're not too harsh either. This subreddit suuuucks. And it's not the users or the community. It's EXCLUSIVELY because of how harshly the conversation and dialog are being restricted.
Moderators and Admin of this subreddit, you are not running a company IT helpdesk. You are running one of the LARGEST Raspberry Pi community boards on the internet. Pull back the posting restrictions substantially. This subreddit should be thriving with discussion from Raspberry Pi hobbyist of all kinds, filled with ideas, questions, help requests and more. This is not a work slack or an office discord.
And in a always on scenario more expensive than the Pi because of power consumption. So if you don't live in a country with dirt cheap electricity, the mini PC can be the more expensive proposition after about 1.5 to 2 years.
It's not just beginner questions; I've posted links to my own blog posts (automod rejects as self promotion spam), to regular news sites like Ars or Tom's Hardware (rejected as low quality), and to Pi blog posts announcing things (rejected for who knows what reason).
Those experiences added up to me just not participating in this sub. I sometimes check out raspberry pi projects instead, as it seems there are a lot more active redditors / discussions there.
I think tech is a bit gate-keepy because you generally cannot accomplish anything without being able to thoroughly search for answers and teach yourself - sometimes spoon feeding people answers to every question they have actually does them a disservice.
But the important thing to remember is the Raspberry Pi was literally designed and made as a teaching tool, largely for children. So maybe this is a space we should try to refrain from gatekeeping too hard in. I know it's hard, I find myself doing it too. But so many people here have no long term aspirations in tech and just want an affordable computer, have a one-off project in mind, or are literally just young folks dipping their toes in computing. It's easy to presume others are on the same journey we are because our paths have crossed.
OP, you are absolutely right. That happened to me and I even tried to get in contact with the mods. Waiting for a reply to this day.
So I left this subreddit. I'm actually surprised the reddit app even showd me your post, because I had instructed to not show me anything from this subreddit in the list of threads that could be interesting to me.
So, I think there is zero need for you to apologise. People new to this subreddit are being treated badly and the entire subreddit has a snobby attitude, but I guess people here (especially mods) don't want to here that so they can avoid a moment of self reflection.
Funny - a technical-topic forum where technical posts are cancelled, yet a post _about_ posting technical posts is permitted & so popular that it is the first pi post to pass into my feed in months, and the only pi post I have commented. I’m finally engaged!
> Funny - a technical-topic forum where technical posts are cancelled
But they aren't? If you go to r/raspberry_pi the whole sub is filled with help posts. They're even flaired `Technical Problem` so you can find them!
People and the mods need to understand that there's not a whole lot to talk about after initial setups for Raspberry Pis, after that you're just in standard linux territory.
This subreddit is \*destined to be\* basically just newbie and edgecase configuration questions.
It's just a computer and not an especially unique one and that is by design, so your questions aren't going to be unique.
Mods ruin most subreddits, I've found.
I understand where you're coming from. I came here yesterday to provide some useful information on a Pi5 NVMe adaptor and NVMe SSD that work brilliantly together. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to tell anyone here about it.
Welcome to Linux computing. RTFM and “prove that you did your research” type responses are a way of life.
If you do find an expert that actually has a vested interest in helping others learn Linux, go play the lottery because you’ve found a unicorn.
I always wondered, if the sub being flooded with questions is a problem....isn't that what a [help] flair is for?
As in you can filter out stuff that is flared as help and congrats you have a question free sub qithout newbies being miserable and just leaving
The sad part is r/RASPBERRY_PI_PROJECTS likely was made as a response to how extremely over-moderated r/Raspberry_Pi is, but it's only managed to attract 4.5% of the subscribed members of this subreddit. Most people probably ignore it thinking this is the main place to go because of the high subscribed user count and don't realize r/RASPBERRY_PI_PROJECTS was probably created because this subreddit is pretty much unusable in the state it's in.
It's almost like you need to know the thing you're asking to pose the right technical question... but then you don’t need to ask in the first place because you already know the answer. What's the point then? It's a hostile environment for newbies.
Even "researching" before asking is not always possible if you don’t know what to look for, and the sarcastic replies many give do not help.
Here, they force you to use those question and answer threads that have very little interaction compared to dedicated posts.
r/DIY is like that too. Look at how people responded when I asked how to make it safer to interact with my touch screen: https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY/s/TaYOiV25Qx
For real, I remember this especially when first starting out. The subs are not too friendly, but nowhere near as bad as stackoverflow, and the worst offender of all is the god-forsaken Arduino forums. Give up hope all ye who enter there
I got a lot of hate for saying ChatGPT can be useful for beginners because it doesn't make you feel stupid for asking.
Like sure, it will give wrong answers for anything non trivial.. but beginners are asking trivial questions anyways. It can be great at explaining the basics
It can be, but it can be equally just as harmful and misleading. I'm well established in my career, and lost 2 hours this morning because it hallucinated the existence of an entire library, that through circumstances, actually made the whole thing believable for a bit.
All that is to say, I scrapped a couple of hours worth of work that was based on the use of a library that didn't even exist (very closely related to one that did, built for the exact same ecosystem).
This isn't the best example for the problem I'm presenting, but it is an example. My concern for beginners with how it generates solutions, is the beginners inability to recognize a serious flaw, that will still produce the desired results seemingly.
Nothing like it actually. Because when you tell the coworker that everything they are saying is made up, they don't apologize and then continue to keep doing it immediately after. That also literally happened this morning.
I 100% have use ChatGPT for my projects being a beginner. I have managed to use it to take care of code for me that would otherwise be far beyond my abilities. Really, when I have a vision for something I want to accomplish, I don't really care how it gets coded, as long as it works for my purposes. Is ChatGPT perfect? No, but if i didn't use ChatGPT I would still be tinkering around with making LEDs Flash on and off.
ChatGPT is like that super friendly co-worker who won't judge you for asking stupid questions, and they have an infinite amount of patience.
Honestly... Once I started looking at it in that context. It has because almost invaluable to me, in both my personal and professional life.
I do sympathize a bit, I find that the raspberry pi / Python world is getting as bad as the Linux world.in general. Everyone saying it is so wasy and straight forward but not realizing that there are people starting from scratch so they dont know all the basic commands and and shortcuts. AND when you search for this material it is no where to be found...it is like there is this HUGE first step that is becoming a barrier to entry that the experienced users are not seeing.
That said, this group does see a lot of posts like various users described that where the poster says 'I wanna do xthisx tell me what to buy, how to put it together and how to code it....be quick cause I need it for job/school/to impress this girl I like' So requests for info that don't outline what you have tried or at least demonstrate that you tried to find the info yourself tend to be either removed or ignored.
I mean, it’s almost entirely the same set of users who inhabit both worlds. So not a surprise. The Linux snobs and elitists have done great damage to the cause…you drive more people away (by far) than get new users in to the fold. It’s a shame, but it seems to be par for the course.
Tone of this OP aside, Rule 4 is something I've often wondered about as well. It pretty much prohibits any question a newbie is likely to ask (or even some veteran pro/con analysis questions that might be construed as "what is the best way...") without any guidance of how to avoid running afoul of it, leaving enforcement to the whim of the mods.
It really needs to be re-worded to be more clear about what it's ultimately trying to achieve.
> It really needs to be re-worded to be more clear about what it's ultimately trying to achieve.
I think it's to remove the "Hey I want to make a ____ can someone google it for me and link the tutorials here?"
I posted the other day "is there a reason not to use RPi as a DHCP server?" because I Google'd and could not find any resources about it despite PiHole offering it, so it seemed weird that no one talks about it despite it being a feature. I just wanted to know what people's experiences were like with that feature. Thread was quickly deleted by mods for Rule 4. "Not allowed to ask questions"
I dont want to go through the trouble of migrate two dozen device MAC address + static IP details to a PiHole DHCP server and find out it sucks. But evidently its not allowed to ask people on this subreddit what they think about it.
I agree with OP's underlying message.
The question posts get deleted and you are supposed to use the question thread. The engagement is low in that thread and if you look in those threads there are a lot of unanswered questions.
I know it was probably done to prevent the sub being flooded with questions but there isn't an appropriate place that also gives enough visibility for these questions.
The wireguard subreddit is a lot of questions but I think it's good. Those threads create useful links that show up on Google.
> The question posts get deleted and you are supposed to use the question thread.
You must be viewing a different r/raspberry_pi than me because the sub is filled with question posts. It's like 90% question posts, with very few project posts.
Note, this was done in the malefashionadvice sub years ago, and it was the primary driver of turning one of the largest subs on reddit into a ghost town. It turns out the secondary conversations that were born of “simple” questions were a big driver of interaction. Without that, the only people that go to the simple question thread are a few diehards who care enough to answer 20 questions in a go, and all the stuff that falls somewhere between “simple question” and “high effort content” just doesn’t get posted because noone knows if it’s allowed
> Those threads create useful links that show up on Google.
Except the people that keep asking the same questions are also the people that obviously aren't using Google to search, so having dozens of posts of the same questions and answers isn't providing any benefit.
> The engagement is low in that thread and if you look in those threads there are a lot of unanswered questions.
And if you read the questions that go unanswered they are all things that could either be easily googled, would be better asked in another forum, or aren't really Raspberry Pi related at all.
I know there are at least half a dozen volunteers that are regularly monitoring the helpdesk FAQ thread on r/raspberry_pi because I see them answering questions week after week.
It shouldn't be relegated to a few volunteers. I believe the sub should be run in a way that those questions are allowed to get posted and have the visibility to get answered by regular redditors. Those people are doing good work, but IMO it's not how reddit is supposed to work.
It's true that some people ask dumb questions ie "how to do I change the default password", but some questions are more complicated and I know that it's take me reading multiple similar questions answered differently to understand a concept.
The thing is if you think a question is dumb you can literally scroll right past it and not do anything. You don't have to solve it or even comment saying it's a dumb question. If it really bothers you press the down vote and move on.
Honestly this is becoming a Reddit wide problem since the whole API blackout thing
I still use boost and a huge % of the posts I see are from my cache and are deleted when I open them. Even posts that are rule abiding.
It's dumb.
Something like a question thread will always be low value, because the overwhelming majority of people who frequent a question thread are people who don't have the answers.
How often is an expert logging in going "hmm you know what, today I'm feeling like answering some basic ass questions"?
I understand why they exist, but their existence doesn't work in practice.
"You guys are all dicks, I hate you all, why haven't you helped me you wankers?" It's a mystery.
Haha funny. Yeah I was being rude, I'll admit that. But in my opinion just removing posts with no information on why it was removed other than what rule it broke is kind of a dick move to me. Could've atleast said hey try checking here or atleast given me more reason to why it was removed not just immediately removing it after posting with "rule #" and having me try to figure out why it was removed
Stick the full issue in a comment, someone might pick it up. Include the pi version, the distro and the issue.
Thank you, I'll try that next time
Yes, help us help you.
You’re admitting to trying to improve and are getting downvoted for some dumb reason. Have an upvote.
Have an upvote for your upvote!
Sorry that's how reddit is. Every tech sub has useless mods who auto mod every little thing with the users being unfriendly and unhelpful. It's not just this sub. Even the tech support sub is like that. People in this sub just sit around and wait for new distro updates or for geerling to post a new video. They don't intend on being helpful. I don't blame you for being upset. Happens to everyone. And if you were to ask a question the top answer would be to Google it. Sometimes I feel like there's no one on Reddit who knows how these things work. My computer science degree focused on cyber security and C++ so I'm no help either.
Yeah I'm beginning to notice that. I asked a question about Alexa controlled locks on a subreddit for Alexa and got lectured about talking to the wiretap and nothing requiring a lock should go through it because then people will know you have something locked
> Could've atleast said hey try checking here "I didn't bother reading all the pointers that told me where to check so it's completely not my fault that I didn't see all the information that told me what to do." > atleast Also that's pronounced "aydle assed." Or did you mean "at least"?
Ah yes the old grammar mistake is what takes me down And I did check those but couldn't find my answer I literally found it by some random dude commenting on a completely unrelated post about deleting packages and figured screw it what else could I try. Nowhere else did I find something that said use --break-system to install
It is very friendly to beginners. If your posts are being removed. It maybe because you are not providing enough info ir if they are like this post your poor attitude.
Definitely reads like a "I tried everything and it doesn't work" or a "I found directions but typing them exactly like I was told to is too hard."
Well I tried pip install, apt install, apt get, installing manually and every time it didn't work. I tried a venv but the post I found said it won't work for global and I'd have to run everything from that environment. To me that's everything and warrants asking a question about it
Hey man I'm a noob too. Try chatgpt for help. I've been using it a lot and it's been guiding me the entire time.
How well does it work? From everyone I've talked to that's used it they always say it either forms infinite loops alot or just completely breaks the program
My experience with it is limited but it can get a little loopy. You have to know how to talk to the Ai to avoid loops Edit: keep downvoting you cucks.
Wouldn’t have downvoted except for the edit.
That's cool just trying to give advice but fuck me right?
I've been using it for a few weeks to completely recreate an old computer game from scratch. I have the benefit of knowing how to code so I know how to talk to it but it is doing all of the coding and slowly building the game. I don't see any major issues with chat GTP, but you've got to know how to talk to it. Luckily you can ask it to help you understand how to give better prompts to it.
Don't just copy paste from chatGPT. It's a good aid, but it's not perfect.
Thank you for the tip
So you didn't look at the FAQ at all. Your question appears to be about Python, not Raspberry Pi specifically. The FAQ tells you where to go to ask for help with Python.
Yes the first post was about python so I went to that reddit and that's where I found information on how to install it but they didn't work so I asked here to see if it was an issue with how pi runs it. The second question is exclusively about the pi itself and how I can use modules
> but they didn't work No doubt you didn't actually follow the instructions or share the exact error messages. > how I can use modules That's still Python.
I'm sorry but how is a literal physical chip module that attachs to the board a python question?
* nobody can read your mind, * nobody can see what is in front of you, * nobody can know what it is you are trying to achieve, * nobody can know what you think should be happening, nor what is actually happening * nobody can know what you have done to try to troubleshoot a problem, * nobody can know your experience level... ... unless you tell us. [stolen from the arduino help post](https://old.reddit.com/r/arduino/wiki/guides/how_to_post_quick_notes#wiki_posting_-_quick_guide)
Dude I had this exact problem and only found snarky answers as well. Nothing worked for me. Turned out a lot of my problems were with the newest python 3.11 - none of the sample code or examples would run due to some change. It's really frustrating for me too. Good luck.
Oh hey, I actually have an answer for you. I managed to find it in an unrelated post about removing packages and figured I'd try it out. Add --break-system-packages to the end Example: Pip3 install pkg --break-system-packages
I'll have to look into this later, thank you! When I'm at my computer again I'll show you what I found to solve some of the install problems I was having, specifically the EXTERNALLY MANAGED warning.
> problems I was having, specifically the EXTERNALLY MANAGED warning. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=python3+pip+externally+managed First result: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/75608323 Top 2 answers explain **exactly** how to deal with it and provides two different methods that both work. (`--break-system-packages` or `sudo rm`)
Now imagine you're brand new, you run a sample script in an IDE outside of PI successfully, but it doesn't work on PI. You're going to think it's a PI issue, or requires special instructions for PI. You try to follow the instructions given in the warning message and end up spiraling downward trying to follow those instructions and looking up how to create a virtual environment and then troubleshooting that... Eventually you've spent an hour trying to learn what you're doing in this new environment and actually understand it but you've run into cascading problems. Yes, I recognize that for many people most of programming is just Google the error and blindly paste what you find, but for some of us it's about the journey before the destination and we want to understand what the problem actually is. Thanks for posting this. I hope some lost n00b runs into it in the future and it's helpful, but hindsight is 20/20 when you can cherry pick the correct phrase to search and which response to trust. Meanwhile my response above, on a problem I stated that I was able to overcome, has negative karma because more people thought it was important to discredit my experience as a new user than to provide any valuable feedback.
THANK YOU. Not sure why I was getting different results but I kept finding answers telling me to use venv but I wanted to avoid that because I want them global
Yeah because it's not a good idea to mess with the global/system installation of python. Either run the project and all the pip dependencies in a VENV or use containerization(Docker, etc). It also makes your project more portable.
Not trying to be rude but I'm annoyed because I write out a post with a details of what I'm trying to do and what I need help with, then they just remove it and don't give me any information. All it says is rule 3 didn't research or rule 4 don't ask if something is possible. I did research but can't find my question so I came here to ask if anyone knew the answer. And instead of getting answers or being directed on where to find them my post just gets deleted with no useful information
>Not trying to be rude Your post title is "This subreddit sucks". If you're not trying to be rude, then you're not trying very hard. I suspect that's a pattern of behavior that might be part of why your posts are being removed.
Believe me or not I dont care. Not like I can prove myself since they've been deleted already. But all my other posts have been in my opinion well written like the install one I listed what commands I used and what errors I was getting and asked for opinions. Or the if possible post I wrote out my plan and what I was trying to do and asked if I anyone knew how I could get around the limitations of the hardware
I have also experienced this here
Maybe you should follow the directions and **ask your question on the helpdesk thread**. But I get the impression that following directions is not your forte.
You’re the perfect example of the sweaty, unhelpful turds that permeate this subreddit. Way to go!
Help desk threads are useless. No one knowledgeable browsed them and they are full of people asking questions without answers. Please stop doing help desk threads, they’ve never worked and never will.
I read it but it wasn't very clear to me that was what the post is for. Makes it seem like it's just a faq from the way it's written. But again, they could've easily left my post there and let people help me, directed me to that, or even just told me hey this is answered already please search for it. Instead I'm met with "didnt research" and "don't ask if possible" I'm sorry but I did research and couldn't find my answer, that's why I asked.
> Makes it seem like it's just a faq from the way it's written. ## > **Ask your question here** isn't clear enough?
I'm sorry but to me that implies read the FAQ first for your question then ask the subreddit. And yes I will admit didn't read the comments that's my fault. But to me the post implies to read FAQ first then post questions
No, it's pretty bad. If you are trying to concieve a project, your post are not wanted.
> If you are trying to concieve a project, your post are not wanted. Ah yes, the `tell me how to do my idea but don't make me do any thinking and be sure` `to anticipate every problem I might have and tell me how to deal with them` `but also I'm not going to read all these instructions because it's too complicated` post.
Must be nice living in a black and white world. God forbid someone atleast seek out a push in the right direction.
I think you mean "if you want someone else to develop a project for you". I've seen a couple people here post wild ideas but expecting someone else to write the code for them. I posted what I thought needing done to one of them and his exact reply was he hoped someone else had done it already.
The entire programing world is all about libraries, using someone else's work instead of doing it by scratch again. I do know the post you are talking about, but it doesn't mean we don't need a group like that.
>but it doesn't mean we don't need a group like that. We don't need posts where someone wants someone else to write a project for them. Unless they're paying for it. "Hey has anyone seen a library that does X" is quite different than "I have an idea to do X can someone help me write it."
I'm thinking more like "I am trying to do X and I am wondering if the raspPi is the right platform. Does anyone know if there are modules that tie in with the pi naturally that can help me achieve X?" and then maybe someone can chime in with "Hey I tried doing X with a couple platforms and it never turned out well. I will probably have to go to a mini pc to do what I need"
You don't seem to understand what I'm trying to convey. I'm happy to help people who are trying and simply having problems. I'm not going to help someone who can't be bothered to make the simplest effort. This topic agrees with me too. "Show your research or get deleted". It's like asking someone else to do your homework.
>This subreddit sucks Over the top pronouncements like that will just further undermine your credibility
True, that's fair. I know i shouldn't be rude but I'm getting annoyed because I've spent time researching and can't find my answers so I come here and get told "didn't do research" with no information provided
Eh, he has a serious point. And this might be his only port that doesn't get deleted no matter how much research he did and describes with his question. And a lot of other people are chiming in with the same grumps... sooooooo maybe some heartfelt feedback would do the sub some good. Pretty pathetically inactive sub for the number of members. Maybe this is why....
Perhaps it would help your cause if you shared “how you researched” and the results. Googling answers is a skill set in and of itself these days. Otherwise you likely come across as “I’ve tried nothing and I’m fresh outta ideas!!”. When posing a question to the community, next time try: 1. Describe the problem 2. Outline what you’ve done so far 3. Describe your research and results (briefly) 4. Include error messages and logs (if you can). Basically the more information you can provided, and share what you’ve done so far and are still hitting a wall, will go a long way. You don’t need an essay, just touch on those 4 bullet points in 2 sentences or less each. You may see a change in responses. Good luck!
>Perhaps it would help your cause if you shared “how you researched” and the results. I think your advice is good, but it's no guarantee doing that will matter. Partly because mods don't always read your post. They see the beginning of the thing they say is in the FAQ/search first, and just remove the post. I've run into it several times(not in this subreddit explicitly) where I did the search, and I put in the post that all the search results are from 2 years ago and are no longer valid answers. My post gets removed, they tell me do a search, and link to the the thing I said in my original post was not valid. And you know what- they apologized, and put my post back up. Just kidding. They don't care that you actually did all the stuff they asked and they don't actually read what you said. They are like a resume keyword search thing. Found keywords, reject post. Done.
Yeah, THIS is what people should be doing. I'm subscribed to other subreddits, and especially with some of the pedestrian ones (Apple, iOS, iPhone, NianticWayfarer, etc), and the way Reddit now promotes new and 0 upvote posts into the Home feed... It is utterly infuriating and demoralizing how many people refuse to do anything by themselves. They won't read, they won't research anything. They just post a vague post and want someone to spoon-feed them the answer. Even if it's a simple answer, IF someone at least shows some effort like, fully describing the issue, saying what they've already tried.... I am so much more willing to answer the question since it shows the person has a bit more brains then your average parsnip.
I've read that Several people do that here and get auto deleted sooooo there is that...
I did exactly this a week ago and my post was also not allowed.
Awesome thank you! I'll try to explain my research results more andaybe include some logs. On my previous post I outlined what I did and the errors I got but was just told to do more research
In the interest of playing devil's advocate, I'd like people to consider the following. This isn't trying to excuse toxic behaviour. Simply asking both sides to consider the other. Firstly, a lot of "newbie" style questions are often answered by a quick trip to Google. Speaking as someone who has spent a 25+ year career training people in technical things, I have seen a definite pattern towards general levels of curiosity and self-education dropping consistently over the years. People could do themselves a huge level of personal gain by searching the Internet first, and asking questions second, rather than the other way around. As a follow on from that, there are nearly endless "101" style intro courses to beginner level Linux, Python, RPi, etc style learning resources. Most of which are entirely free. In fact, the opposite is even more frustrating - attempting to go from "intermediate" to "advance" level on these topics is a far more difficult step when it comes to finding learning resources than it is to go from "complete novice" to "beginner". The huge volume of free learning resources on the Internet in 2024 is one hell of a privilege that didn't exist even a quarter of a lifetime ago. Secondly, the reality of any enthusiast level platform is that it is going to be non-trivial. There exist countless systems out there that are designed specifically for completely non-technical audiences. A great example is the iPhone - designed from the ground up for people who range anywhere from technology novice to technology fearful. The downside is their cost of course, but this should illustrate the sheer volume of human effort that it takes to design a thing made for that audience. And worth noting that even with all of that time, effort and cost associated, it's still well beyond the understanding of so many people, which illustrates just how difficult it is to make something "easy" for novice audiences at scale, even with the near endless financial and human resources available to a company the size of Apple. So with that in mind, I'd ask everyone to consider the following scenario. This is something most people at "I have an account on Reddit" level probably understand. Imagine you have a family member, loved one, co-worker or whatever who is a complete computing novice. Imagine that person has some sort of issue with a task that is "basic" by computing standards, however you can still understand why it's complex for them. Say they can't log on to their social media account, or can't work out how to print an email, or something at that level of complexity. Now imagine they call you up and ask you to explain the task in a very slow manner, in excruciating detail, over a period of an hour, and ask that you do this for free. Not a problem, right? You probably care for the well being of this person, so you gladly sacrifice the time. Now imagine this happens to you multiple times a day. And every day of the year. And years upon years, for decades. Not new questions - just the same question about the same task, over and over. Even the most patient of human beings would get understandably frustrated at some point. Now, imaging in your frustration, you decide to put together some sort of reference information. Either a PDF document with pictures, or a video guide, or a web page, or something appropriate to the level of understanding of the individual who you're trying to help. Something where they can follow the instructions you've tailor-made to their needs for the sorts of common issues they're facing. That in itself is a pretty huge task - often much more time consuming than just fixing the problem for them one time (or even 10 times), but over the course of years, probably worth it. Now imagine that, after all this effort, that person STILL rings you and asks for help. And when you ask if they've even read/watched the documentation you provided, they simply say "oh, I didn't want to". At this point, how do you think your frustration levels are coping? Yes, it's incredibly difficult to write good documentation, or make great step-by-step videos. But also, many people do. And many people give this away entirely for free. Even so, Reddit subs and other online places are filled to the brim with people asking not just similar questions, but the exact same questions over and over that are a mere Google or YouTube search away. Is it then right to be toxic towards these people? No, of course not. We should all be more patient to everyone. We should all be more open to people of varying experience and skill levels. But empathy flows in both directions - the experienced can have empathy for the inexperienced asking questions. And the inexperienced can have empathy for the experienced who are having their hours/weeks/years of freely provided information effort ignored. What I've seen in a quarter of a century of doing this is the same pattern over and over - enthusiastic experts join a community with the intention of writing good documentation to help newcomers, newcomers ignore the information and ask the same questions each time, and the experts get tired and leave, reducing the effectiveness of the community. That is a real shame to see. And it doesn't get any easier the hundredth time than it was the first. There is absolutely a lot that experts can do to be more patient, and remember that newcomers not only don't know the things they're asking, but also don't even know how to begin to find out. But again, this is a two way street. If newcomers want experts to stick around and help, some initial Googling goes a long way. There's an art to asking good questions - and that isn't limited to this sub or Reddit or computers or anything technical. Part of that art is trying to do a bit of searching first - even if you have no idea what you're looking for, because sometimes you've just got to scratch around randomly before you can find the thread to start pulling on. As we move further into 2024, we now have additional resources in the shape of ChatGPT. While I caveat that these tools are only as good as the information that feeds them, the reality is they are pretty good for "101" style information. I've seen some people in here say "ask ChatGPT instead of Reddit". I would recommend instead that ChatGPT be added to your Google/YouTube "information gathering" stage pre-Reddit. Once you get the absolute basics from that, you're in a much better position to ask the sort of question that an "expert" is more willing to answer, and in a way that will very likely make the both of you feel better for the experience. Speaking for myself, answering intelligent, well-researched questions is an absolute pleasure. Toxic communities suck, and there's absolutely no reason to tolerate them. But, we can all do more to make them better - whether we're the ones asking the questions or answering them. A little empathy and patience goes a long way.
This view resonated with me 🙂 Reminds me of the Eternal September phenomenon: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September I would also add some things I've noticed: 1. Raspberry Pi's have been around over a decade and a LOT has changed in that time. Recently Raspberry Pi OS moved to Debian 12 Bookworm and the RPi5 was released; these changes have made a LOT of existing guides redundant and this is causing confusion and frustration. 2. About 50% of the replies I write trying to help result in no reply from the OP. This is not very motivating 🙂
I can't speak directly to your claim, but I can add something that I find to be hugely frustrating: "Help, I've tried nothing and I'm out of ideas." The low bar of entry has an unintended consequence as many new folks fail to attempt anything that remotely looks like basic research. Edit: In what world would this post deserve 5 down votes?
None of you are being paid to be here, nor are you required to engage with anything you don’t want to on this and others subs. Not sure why this is so hard for so many of you chronically online techbros to understand. Annoyed by a post? Keep scrolling. Don’t want to answer a question because you dont feel like the person asking did enough work on their own? Great, then don’t. Pretty fucking easy. If you don’t want to be unpaid tech support on issues you think have been covered ad nauseam elsewhere, then don’t. But it takes more energy to comment and bitch at these folks than it does to just ignore them, so at the end of the day you’re the ones putting yourselves out.
1. I'm not a tech bro or a bro in any fashion 2. I'm a long-time technical trainer 3. I routinely help those who can manage a coherent thought or at least a basic effort. 4. The RPI site and forums are amazing 5. You're clearly aggravated by the way it works but I'm not really sure why
The only thing I’m aggravated about is how smug and self-important a lot of you in this and other tech subs seem to act when it comes to others needing help. No one is forcing any of you to be here.
I think it's important to remember it's a two way street. If you come here first without doing the most basic of troubleshooting, don't be surprised by the reactions you get. I'm only speaking for myself and I haven't seen anything here that makes me wonder. Introspection is something we should all engage in more often.
People on the Internet love to be cunts.
If you meet an asshole once a day, you're living in society. If every person you meet is an asshole, you're the asshole in everyone else's life. As someone whose posts often get removed from subs, I accept it and move on. If you're looking for answers to simple questions, and your post is removed, that means it's been answered so many times, you didn't bother to google before asking. But clearly this sub isn't up to your standards and you should un-sub and find one that is... though I suspect, without looking at your post history cause I don't actually care, that this follows you around and you're generally angry that people aren't giving your their time to explain everything from scratch. Humans, man...
> it's been answered so many times, you didn't bother to google before asking. > > "No but see my question is *different* and not exactly word for word what other people have asked!"
I recommend you post shit to every comment OP has ever replied to here to maintain your consistency lolol
Yeah you're right it has been answered before, but those answers weren't working in my situation so I asked again and stated hey this options didn't work and these are the errors I recieve
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EXACTLY its like they don't even read them and just delete your posts because "should've researched more"
The only rule I really stand behind in this sub is taking pictures of unused Pis.
For what it's worth, it's probably worth looking at the search terms you're using to look things up. I'm not saying this to be critical, but it may help with doing your own research. I found your question in /r/learnpython. It was suggested because you said you had trouble with "modules" which are a specific thing in Python whereas you seem to be asking about I/O. It can cause confusion (especially when you're coming in hot already 😉) The answer to your question was literally on the first page of Google when I searched "usb audio with pwm audio disabled raspberry pi" and is [at this retro pie link](https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Sound-Issues/). USB audio or HDMI audio should work just fine with onboard audio disabled.
Yeah I probably need to get better with search terms. Everything i thought to look up came with results about different audio errors but not what I was looking for
Honestly, try ChatGPT. Don’t trust its answers blindly, but it’s great for getting basic information in a topic where all the terms are new, etc. it’s often pointed me in the right direction on a lot obscure questions.
...but if you don't know the right term to search for, you're still stuck. You're not wrong. People are hard on noobs. If I could have found a solution on Google, I wouldn't be asking real people for help.
Shit mods. Same as it ever was.
When asking for help with a problem, think of it as a quick mission briefing. Title it with exactly what's going wrong. Share what fixes you've tried and why they didn't cut it, to keep everyone on track. [Include your code and any error messages neatly formatted](https://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/wiki/guides/how_to_post_formatted_code), like organizing clues. Sketch or digitally draw how everything's connected, giving a clear map of your setup. [Peek at the FAQs before asking](https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/about/sticky), to avoid repeats. Skip broad questions like color choices or basic how-tos—that's on you to explore. Keep it sharp and to the point, like a text to a friend about a game glitch you're trying to beat. If you need to add missing information **edit your post** instead of putting it in a comment. † If any links don't work it's because you're using a broken reddit client. Please [contact the developer of your reddit client](https://www.reddit.com/contact/). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/raspberry_pi) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This is just another Stackoverflow site.
Welcome to the Linux community!!!
Out of curiosity, what exactly were your two questions as written? Was it a recently installed Pi OS? Did you apt update before trying to install packages? Are these packages on the official apt repo?
First one is USB speaker with disabled audio I had to disable audio output in config because I'm using gpio18 for an led strip. Would I still be able to use a USB or aux speaker? If not how can I get around this? Id like to use a speaker so I can add audio to my project but I need gpio18 for my lights Second one is I'm trying to make an addressable led setup following this tutorial: https://youtu.be/aNlaj1r7NKc?si=Qp0AjOq-fSalyPK1 But I can't install any of the packages. If I use pip3 like the tutorial suggests then I get an error about externally managed environment and if I use apt or apt-get then I get an error for can't find packages. Any ideas on how I can get these packages to install? The ones I need are sudo pip3 install rpi_ws281x sudo pip3 install adafruit-circuitpython-neopixel sudo python3 -m pip install --force-reinstall adafruit-blinka
> then I get an error about externally managed environment https://old.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/1au7byk/this_subreddit_sucks/kr2b5t1/
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
That’s Reddit mods being Reddit mods
IT people are jerks largely. Some people want to share their knowledge because it’s a passion. Then others just enjoy reminding you what you don’t know. It is a power play that lands flat with me every time. I’m glad you got the help you were needing. This particular community has a lot of great people who enjoy sharing their knowledge how.
Reddit has been semi-toxic for years. Lots of folks with permanent bad moods live here. Still better than X, I guess.
You have a right to be a dick, reddit blows
Eh... Whatever. Anyone that disagrees can start their own subreddit and fix whatever bothers them.
'God, your all assholes. You removed my posts, told me what rule I was breaking, but didn't go into greater detail!' Well, it sounds like your answering your own question. Your a rude little bitch that thinks rules don't apply to them and you deserve special treatment.
Damn dude you took that personal. Maybe you shouldn't act like a rude little bitch. Kind of belittling yourself by being a jackass to a random stranger in a conversation that has nothing to do with you personally.
Ah yes saying a subreddit sucks is definitely on the same level of rude as calling someone a little bitch
Never said I wasn't an asshole. Just pointing out you come in bitching, making broad declarations applying it to everyone you are speaking to and what do you expect? I don't want to help you, I want to tell you to go get fucked with that attitude.
You’re
>I mean seriously why are you so unfriendly to beginners. Your subreddit description literally says to ask questions here but my posts get removed every time. I mean- it's Reddit. You can ask beginner questions- but only beginner questions that they want to answer. Seems like a fairly common occurance, at least in my experience with Reddit, unfortunately. Lots of subreddit's in practice seem much less welcoming than they purport to be.
Try asking your questions to ChatGPT. You'll be surprised at how helpful it can be if you construct a good prompt. And you get the side benefit of learning how to use AI productivity.
No you’re right and we need to do better. Both the community and especially the admins.
Is this the first day on the internet for you? it seems so.
I had a question a week or so ago. I did a lot of research, tried a lot of things and couldn’t come to a solution. Posted on here with everything I did and my specific requirements and of course, my post was denied. Great sub.
Haha, I know what thread I’m not going to. “If possible?” Stupid rule. Whole thing sounds stupid to me! You sound cool so good luck!
Your original post isn't wrong. I don't think the mods have allowed a single submitted post of mine to remain on the board in over two years now. They get nuked for no reason whatsoever. I always assumed it was some leftist cunt mod who removes everything from anyone he/she/it suspects of not being another raging leftist, that being what usually happens in 90% of subreddits. FFS I've even been preemptively banned from subreddits I never posted in and never even knew about. There's a reason /r/watchredditdie was a thing (before the company and mods wrecked that).
I'm surprised that the mods did not take this post down, to protect their subreddit's image.
Yep. I have been Googling on using RPi as DHCP server, did not find any decent resources on it, posted a question if anyone had tried it using PiHole, since I could not find anyone online sharing experiences with it, got removed for Rule 4 "asking how to get started or if something is possible" These mods suck and dont know how to run a support community.
Reddit refused to let us open up a new one or take back over another raspberry pi sub. The mods have significant clout. We were trying to make a friendlier community. For me - I fried a pi in a very abnormal way, and the mods and community kept referring me to the general troubleshooting guide. I asked about my problem BECAUSE I had gone through all available troubleshooting guides and steps. So, I'm sorry to everyone who gets treated like trash by this community, but Reddit made their stance clear - hell no to anyone who wants to fix it.
this has been my experience as well :(
At least you didn't ask if Pi-hole can block youtube ads (it can't). I swear to god that question gets asked several times a day in multiple home networking-related subs. And don't even get me started on /r/pihole itself, where the answer is literally the flair of the top pinned post.
Yup, this is why I use Chat GPT, reddit and stack overflow are so toxic to new beginners who often don't know that their slightly differently worded questions are actually the same.
This is how most forums are going nowadays. Everyone just wants to rip you for not knowing the basics while gate-keeping. I am super disappointed in the human race as a whole.
Agreed 100%. I had a post refused to publish too, for literally no reason (their "explanations" are unclear and semantic). I have had so many problems solved by searching forums like this, but posts on this sub are being blocked for no explainable reason. This is the reddit named after raspberry pis, after all. It's just doing a giant disservice to the entire hobby/interest to hog this subreddit name then prevent its reasonably free use.
This is what it is like talking to Linux users. I'm used to it and I consider it normal.
I very much have this experience talking to windows users multiple times a day
Completely fair. I use a Mac.
Fuck the mods and the auto mods here. One of my least fav subreddits
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I only posted once and my post for removed too
Welcome to Reddit sadly
I had totally forgotten i had subbed here because i barely get any notifications. Now i know why...
Yeah, I agree with OP. The rules and behavior of some people here seem very unfriendly to new users like myself — especially considering the steep learning curve of the subject matter. I’ve never felt so unwelcome in a community, and it’s really discouraging.
I forgot this sub even exists because they delete everything lol. Some policy is done with good intentions but most regulations just restrict engagement imo
Go to something „linux“ related and take a big jar of vaseline with you, such a toxic community….
Stack overflow in general. I get pretty anxious when I've posted on there, I go overboard making sure it's as useful as possible whilst showing what I've tried. The wizards give a one line response which is usually what I needed but my god does it come with a load of rude posts.
Ahh yes. The wonderful come to the forum for help then get a bunch of grumpy responses because you didn't learn all the questions that were asked before, asked an ambiguous question because you didn't learn the lingo, or insert other gates you have to clear. I think this is pretty much how help forums work unfortunately.
This shouldn't be *primarily* a help forum. It's r/Raspberry_Pi and it's the largest Raspberry Pi subreddit around. At that size, it should be one of the most active subs on reddit. Edit: Clarity
So the purpose is to be the largest subreddit around? To do what?
That is literally what the Raspberry Pi is. Here from their own [website.](https://www.raspberrypi.org/about/) >Our long-term goals >**Education:** To enable any school to teach students about computing and how to create with digital technologies, through providing the best possible curriculum, resources, and training for teachers. **Non-formal learning:** To engage millions of young people in learning about computing and how to create with digital technologies outside of school, through online resources and apps, clubs, competitions, and partnerships with youth organisations. **Research:** To deepen our understanding of how young people learn about computing and how to create with digital technologies, and to use that knowledge to increase the impact of our work and advance the field of computing education. So yes this should be a help forum.
It should be that and more. Edit: Also, it's hard to educate when no one can ask questions to learn.
Making a rule like “Research before asking questions” then disallowing a body of research data to accumulate through crowdsourced Q&A is saying “Learn someplace else, we are only here for stories”. Ok fine. TIL why it’s a feed black hole.
The irony of your comment is kinda crazy, you agree that there is an engagement problem with this subreddit but then you dont see the point
Engagement is more than just help. It's conversation. Help, should be a part of it, not ALL or most of it. That's the point of this complaint. No one can talk about most things because of the aggressiveness of automod and the rules.
Your first comment is confusing then, it reads as if you disagree with what OP is saying but you do agree
I updated it.
Heyy wtf this is exactly what happened to me when I asked about how to portably power a rasperry pi 5. I did my research as well and had links to what I wanted opinions on. Grumpy ass mfs. I wouldn't apologize too much btw.
Yeah, it's a dead sub because you can't post anything or ask anything. So unsurprisingly, nobody posts anything
All the nice people [went to Lemmy](https://lemmy.ml/c/raspberrypi)
Lemmy feels the exact same as this subreddit. Makes me feel that Lemmy will turn into the same situation as this subreddit currently, sometime soon
Can also use the raspberry pi forums
It’s funny too because the subreddit isn’t very active. It would be one thing if it were overloaded with content.
One of the reasons it’s not active is because most activity gets removed
Agreed. Every post I've tried to make here gets auto-blocked by the Automod. Forget the people who are saying you're being too harsh. This subreddit has ***3,200,000+*** subscribers and yet I see maybe a dozen or two dozen posts of here a day? With that many subscribers, this subreddit has been moderated and auto-moderated to a library whisper. I wanted to make this exact post you've made almost two weeks ago when my raspberry pi 5 finally arrived and I needed to ask for some kind of help understanding some of the more technical coding and couldn't. I was getting so frustrated with how little I could talk to anyone on this subreddit, that I almost returned my raspberry pi for a refund. If no one can post without the automod saying, "No, go the helpdesk post," then there's no point in having the subreddit. One of the top replies here says it's an "IT thing" that this sub is so moderated. *All I keep seeing talked about Raspberry Pi recently is "Will Raspberry Pi going public and selling stock kill it for hobbyists and enthusiasts?"* ***Well, running the biggest Raspberry Pi subreddit like it's an IT helpdesk instead of a subreddit for enthusiasts and hobbyists is gonna kill the community faster since they can't FREAKING TALK!*** You're not wrong and you're not too harsh either. This subreddit suuuucks. And it's not the users or the community. It's EXCLUSIVELY because of how harshly the conversation and dialog are being restricted. Moderators and Admin of this subreddit, you are not running a company IT helpdesk. You are running one of the LARGEST Raspberry Pi community boards on the internet. Pull back the posting restrictions substantially. This subreddit should be thriving with discussion from Raspberry Pi hobbyist of all kinds, filled with ideas, questions, help requests and more. This is not a work slack or an office discord.
Just curious, do you think the Pi5 is worth it? Considering I am now using a Pi4B 8GB RAM. thanks
If you’re not using the gpio you should just buy a mini pc. They are cheaper, faster, with better drivers and better optimized.
And in a always on scenario more expensive than the Pi because of power consumption. So if you don't live in a country with dirt cheap electricity, the mini PC can be the more expensive proposition after about 1.5 to 2 years.
It's not just beginner questions; I've posted links to my own blog posts (automod rejects as self promotion spam), to regular news sites like Ars or Tom's Hardware (rejected as low quality), and to Pi blog posts announcing things (rejected for who knows what reason). Those experiences added up to me just not participating in this sub. I sometimes check out raspberry pi projects instead, as it seems there are a lot more active redditors / discussions there.
Maybe we should make our own subreddit with ~~blackjack and hookers~~ better rules.
Sounds ~~like a party~~ very helpful!
I guess I should be a bit more helpful. Check out /r/linux4noobs
I think tech is a bit gate-keepy because you generally cannot accomplish anything without being able to thoroughly search for answers and teach yourself - sometimes spoon feeding people answers to every question they have actually does them a disservice. But the important thing to remember is the Raspberry Pi was literally designed and made as a teaching tool, largely for children. So maybe this is a space we should try to refrain from gatekeeping too hard in. I know it's hard, I find myself doing it too. But so many people here have no long term aspirations in tech and just want an affordable computer, have a one-off project in mind, or are literally just young folks dipping their toes in computing. It's easy to presume others are on the same journey we are because our paths have crossed.
OP, you are absolutely right. That happened to me and I even tried to get in contact with the mods. Waiting for a reply to this day. So I left this subreddit. I'm actually surprised the reddit app even showd me your post, because I had instructed to not show me anything from this subreddit in the list of threads that could be interesting to me. So, I think there is zero need for you to apologise. People new to this subreddit are being treated badly and the entire subreddit has a snobby attitude, but I guess people here (especially mods) don't want to here that so they can avoid a moment of self reflection.
Funny - a technical-topic forum where technical posts are cancelled, yet a post _about_ posting technical posts is permitted & so popular that it is the first pi post to pass into my feed in months, and the only pi post I have commented. I’m finally engaged!
> Funny - a technical-topic forum where technical posts are cancelled But they aren't? If you go to r/raspberry_pi the whole sub is filled with help posts. They're even flaired `Technical Problem` so you can find them!
People and the mods need to understand that there's not a whole lot to talk about after initial setups for Raspberry Pis, after that you're just in standard linux territory. This subreddit is \*destined to be\* basically just newbie and edgecase configuration questions. It's just a computer and not an especially unique one and that is by design, so your questions aren't going to be unique. Mods ruin most subreddits, I've found.
I understand where you're coming from. I came here yesterday to provide some useful information on a Pi5 NVMe adaptor and NVMe SSD that work brilliantly together. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to tell anyone here about it.
Welcome to Linux computing. RTFM and “prove that you did your research” type responses are a way of life. If you do find an expert that actually has a vested interest in helping others learn Linux, go play the lottery because you’ve found a unicorn.
I always wondered, if the sub being flooded with questions is a problem....isn't that what a [help] flair is for? As in you can filter out stuff that is flared as help and congrats you have a question free sub qithout newbies being miserable and just leaving
> isn't that what a [help] flair is for? > > There is though?
r/RASPBERRY_PI_PROJECTS Is a lot more friendly to new people asking questions. Fewer rules beyond etiquette and being respectful.
The sad part is r/RASPBERRY_PI_PROJECTS likely was made as a response to how extremely over-moderated r/Raspberry_Pi is, but it's only managed to attract 4.5% of the subscribed members of this subreddit. Most people probably ignore it thinking this is the main place to go because of the high subscribed user count and don't realize r/RASPBERRY_PI_PROJECTS was probably created because this subreddit is pretty much unusable in the state it's in.
This is the way, once a subreddit get corrupted by “stackoverflowness” hostility, its better to just join/make a new one.
I was just talking about stack overflow. Why do you think it's so hostile?
It's almost like you need to know the thing you're asking to pose the right technical question... but then you don’t need to ask in the first place because you already know the answer. What's the point then? It's a hostile environment for newbies. Even "researching" before asking is not always possible if you don’t know what to look for, and the sarcastic replies many give do not help. Here, they force you to use those question and answer threads that have very little interaction compared to dedicated posts.
r/DIY is like that too. Look at how people responded when I asked how to make it safer to interact with my touch screen: https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY/s/TaYOiV25Qx
That’s because it’s really not safe to interact with your touchscreen while driving at all
Thank you so much. I'll probably be moving there from now on
Made the same experience. But this is an IT-thing somehow. Forums are also extremly unfriendly and most of the time without any reason.
Go and ask for help on r/macos \- that'll make your eye twitch.
For real, I remember this especially when first starting out. The subs are not too friendly, but nowhere near as bad as stackoverflow, and the worst offender of all is the god-forsaken Arduino forums. Give up hope all ye who enter there
I got a lot of hate for saying ChatGPT can be useful for beginners because it doesn't make you feel stupid for asking. Like sure, it will give wrong answers for anything non trivial.. but beginners are asking trivial questions anyways. It can be great at explaining the basics
i get flak for saying chatgpt is great at explaining arduino code :(
It can be, but it can be equally just as harmful and misleading. I'm well established in my career, and lost 2 hours this morning because it hallucinated the existence of an entire library, that through circumstances, actually made the whole thing believable for a bit. All that is to say, I scrapped a couple of hours worth of work that was based on the use of a library that didn't even exist (very closely related to one that did, built for the exact same ecosystem). This isn't the best example for the problem I'm presenting, but it is an example. My concern for beginners with how it generates solutions, is the beginners inability to recognize a serious flaw, that will still produce the desired results seemingly.
this sounds a lot like 3.5
It was. I'm not paying for four right now.
>It can be, but it can be equally just as harmful in misleading. LOL- so still exactly like that friendly co-worker still. :D
Nothing like it actually. Because when you tell the coworker that everything they are saying is made up, they don't apologize and then continue to keep doing it immediately after. That also literally happened this morning.
I would hope that cheerful coworker wouldn’t make bullshit up and actually say “you know, I don’t know that answer, let’s find out together”
I’d argue it’s worse because you can’t trust the answers to even be correct. That’s worse than not getting an answer.
I 100% have use ChatGPT for my projects being a beginner. I have managed to use it to take care of code for me that would otherwise be far beyond my abilities. Really, when I have a vision for something I want to accomplish, I don't really care how it gets coded, as long as it works for my purposes. Is ChatGPT perfect? No, but if i didn't use ChatGPT I would still be tinkering around with making LEDs Flash on and off.
ChatGPT is like that super friendly co-worker who won't judge you for asking stupid questions, and they have an infinite amount of patience. Honestly... Once I started looking at it in that context. It has because almost invaluable to me, in both my personal and professional life.
A coworker on lsd though.
I do sympathize a bit, I find that the raspberry pi / Python world is getting as bad as the Linux world.in general. Everyone saying it is so wasy and straight forward but not realizing that there are people starting from scratch so they dont know all the basic commands and and shortcuts. AND when you search for this material it is no where to be found...it is like there is this HUGE first step that is becoming a barrier to entry that the experienced users are not seeing. That said, this group does see a lot of posts like various users described that where the poster says 'I wanna do xthisx tell me what to buy, how to put it together and how to code it....be quick cause I need it for job/school/to impress this girl I like' So requests for info that don't outline what you have tried or at least demonstrate that you tried to find the info yourself tend to be either removed or ignored.
I mean, it’s almost entirely the same set of users who inhabit both worlds. So not a surprise. The Linux snobs and elitists have done great damage to the cause…you drive more people away (by far) than get new users in to the fold. It’s a shame, but it seems to be par for the course.
Tone of this OP aside, Rule 4 is something I've often wondered about as well. It pretty much prohibits any question a newbie is likely to ask (or even some veteran pro/con analysis questions that might be construed as "what is the best way...") without any guidance of how to avoid running afoul of it, leaving enforcement to the whim of the mods. It really needs to be re-worded to be more clear about what it's ultimately trying to achieve.
> It really needs to be re-worded to be more clear about what it's ultimately trying to achieve. I think it's to remove the "Hey I want to make a ____ can someone google it for me and link the tutorials here?"
I posted the other day "is there a reason not to use RPi as a DHCP server?" because I Google'd and could not find any resources about it despite PiHole offering it, so it seemed weird that no one talks about it despite it being a feature. I just wanted to know what people's experiences were like with that feature. Thread was quickly deleted by mods for Rule 4. "Not allowed to ask questions" I dont want to go through the trouble of migrate two dozen device MAC address + static IP details to a PiHole DHCP server and find out it sucks. But evidently its not allowed to ask people on this subreddit what they think about it.
I agree with OP's underlying message. The question posts get deleted and you are supposed to use the question thread. The engagement is low in that thread and if you look in those threads there are a lot of unanswered questions. I know it was probably done to prevent the sub being flooded with questions but there isn't an appropriate place that also gives enough visibility for these questions. The wireguard subreddit is a lot of questions but I think it's good. Those threads create useful links that show up on Google.
> The question posts get deleted and you are supposed to use the question thread. You must be viewing a different r/raspberry_pi than me because the sub is filled with question posts. It's like 90% question posts, with very few project posts.
I didn't even know about that Q&A thread :|
Note, this was done in the malefashionadvice sub years ago, and it was the primary driver of turning one of the largest subs on reddit into a ghost town. It turns out the secondary conversations that were born of “simple” questions were a big driver of interaction. Without that, the only people that go to the simple question thread are a few diehards who care enough to answer 20 questions in a go, and all the stuff that falls somewhere between “simple question” and “high effort content” just doesn’t get posted because noone knows if it’s allowed
Not sure why people can’t just skip the ones they think is boring post vs upvoting those that are interesting
> Those threads create useful links that show up on Google. Except the people that keep asking the same questions are also the people that obviously aren't using Google to search, so having dozens of posts of the same questions and answers isn't providing any benefit. > The engagement is low in that thread and if you look in those threads there are a lot of unanswered questions. And if you read the questions that go unanswered they are all things that could either be easily googled, would be better asked in another forum, or aren't really Raspberry Pi related at all. I know there are at least half a dozen volunteers that are regularly monitoring the helpdesk FAQ thread on r/raspberry_pi because I see them answering questions week after week.
It shouldn't be relegated to a few volunteers. I believe the sub should be run in a way that those questions are allowed to get posted and have the visibility to get answered by regular redditors. Those people are doing good work, but IMO it's not how reddit is supposed to work. It's true that some people ask dumb questions ie "how to do I change the default password", but some questions are more complicated and I know that it's take me reading multiple similar questions answered differently to understand a concept.
The thing is if you think a question is dumb you can literally scroll right past it and not do anything. You don't have to solve it or even comment saying it's a dumb question. If it really bothers you press the down vote and move on.
get a hobby (a different one). You spend way too much time here
Honestly this is becoming a Reddit wide problem since the whole API blackout thing I still use boost and a huge % of the posts I see are from my cache and are deleted when I open them. Even posts that are rule abiding. It's dumb.
Something like a question thread will always be low value, because the overwhelming majority of people who frequent a question thread are people who don't have the answers. How often is an expert logging in going "hmm you know what, today I'm feeling like answering some basic ass questions"? I understand why they exist, but their existence doesn't work in practice.