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And why do they feel it's appropriate to ask for help there? This would be like going to a talk from a presidential candidate about fuel economy, and raising yo

And why do they feel it's appropriate to ask for help there? This would be like going to a talk from a presidential candidate about fuel economy, and raising your hand and saying "My car doesn't start, can you help me?"

Scoundreller 7y ago
Probably a relatively new internet user with little understanding of how the whole thing works. Just uses it to watch content. If “Facebook” is the internet to you, typing into the first comment box you find seems more reasonable than finding an FAQ. User seems to even have their spell-check in French mode - possibly not even using their own computer to ask the question.
- delcaran 7y ago
  [OT] Non-English speaker here. Is there any difference (in grammar and/or meaning) between "an FAQ" and "a FAQ"? I'm asking because it sounds good but it goes against the little English grammar I remember from school...
  - geofft 7y ago
    "a" vs. "an" is based on the first sound of the word, not the first letter. You would say "an honor" but "a hair" because, while they both start with the letter h, one has a silent h and the other doesn't. If you pronounce "FAQ" by spelling out the letters (and not like "fack"), it starts with "eff", so you should say "an FAQ." I think that's the pronunciation I usually hear.
    - isostatic 7y ago
      Compare: an SQL command a SQL command
      - geofft 7y ago
        I think I hear both "ess queue ell" and "sequel" for SQL frequently, but "eff ay queue" for FAQ way more than "fack."
        isostatic 7y ago
        I didn't encounter "sequel" until some years after I encountered "ess-queue-ell" - had no idea what the person was on about to start with. I guess it's one of those things that native English speakers don't even know they know. Like "Fewer tests means Less data", rather than "less tests means fewer data", or "six charming small new round green plastic tables" rather than "six plastic charming green round new small tables".
        geofft 7y ago
        Or that "the" is pronounced "thuh" before consonant sounds and "thee" before vowel sounds - same rules as "a"/"an" but no difference in spelling!
    - caf 7y ago
      In particular it's "a" if the following word starts with a non-vowel sound, and "an" for a vowel sound.
maccard 7y ago
Have you ever been to an open forum? This is exactly what it's like.
sowbug 7y ago
During a congressional hearing, a US Congress representative asked Sundar Pichai for tech support about his daughter's iPhone: https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/11/18136377/google-sundar-pichai-steve-king-hearing-granddaughter-iphone-android-notification https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/11/18136377/google-sundar-p...
- samsonradu 7y ago
  It was not an off-topic question, it was making a point about political ads and has nothing to do with the above.
aasasd 7y ago
Oh boy. I guess you haven't noticed but it's ubiquitous. Every communication channel for a popular program is filled with help requests and feature requests. It might've been alright back in the day when there were much fewer people on the web and apps like VLC were for enthusiasts. A bug tracker with feature requests for a popular app is like a gang rape these days. Hundreds upon hundreds of “Why is it still not fixed, it should take just ten minutes!!!” The weirdest thing is, trackers for things like Intellij Idea or Node.js are similarly filled with every problem, wish and opinion that users have—you'd think that programmers should know better but apparently not. “Tab to exit parentheses is essential for me, I'm not migrating from Eclipse until this is implemented!” I almost completely stopped posting issues without code when I saw the scale of this phenomenon.
- aloisdg 7y ago
  This is what I like with Stack Overflow. Most of this kind of posts are removed. Starting to contribute and following the review queues was mind opening. Also it helps me a lot to improve my own question.

Scoundreller 7y ago

Probably a relatively new internet user with little understanding of how the whole thing works. Just uses it to watch content. If “Facebook” is the internet to you, typing into the first comment box you find seems more reasonable than finding an FAQ. User seems to even have their spell-check in French mode - possibly not even using their own computer to ask the question.

delcaran 7y ago
[OT] Non-English speaker here. Is there any difference (in grammar and/or meaning) between "an FAQ" and "a FAQ"? I'm asking because it sounds good but it goes against the little English grammar I remember from school...
- geofft 7y ago
  "a" vs. "an" is based on the first sound of the word, not the first letter. You would say "an honor" but "a hair" because, while they both start with the letter h, one has a silent h and the other doesn't. If you pronounce "FAQ" by spelling out the letters (and not like "fack"), it starts with "eff", so you should say "an FAQ." I think that's the pronunciation I usually hear.
  - isostatic 7y ago
    Compare: an SQL command a SQL command
    - geofft 7y ago
      I think I hear both "ess queue ell" and "sequel" for SQL frequently, but "eff ay queue" for FAQ way more than "fack."
      - isostatic 7y ago
        I didn't encounter "sequel" until some years after I encountered "ess-queue-ell" - had no idea what the person was on about to start with. I guess it's one of those things that native English speakers don't even know they know. Like "Fewer tests means Less data", rather than "less tests means fewer data", or "six charming small new round green plastic tables" rather than "six plastic charming green round new small tables".
        geofft 7y ago
        Or that "the" is pronounced "thuh" before consonant sounds and "thee" before vowel sounds - same rules as "a"/"an" but no difference in spelling!
  - caf 7y ago
    In particular it's "a" if the following word starts with a non-vowel sound, and "an" for a vowel sound.

maccard 7y ago

Have you ever been to an open forum? This is exactly what it's like.

sowbug 7y ago

During a congressional hearing, a US Congress representative asked Sundar Pichai for tech support about his daughter's iPhone: https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/11/18136377/google-sundar-pichai-steve-king-hearing-granddaughter-iphone-android-notification https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/11/18136377/google-sundar-p...

samsonradu 7y ago
It was not an off-topic question, it was making a point about political ads and has nothing to do with the above.

aasasd 7y ago

Oh boy. I guess you haven't noticed but it's ubiquitous. Every communication channel for a popular program is filled with help requests and feature requests. It might've been alright back in the day when there were much fewer people on the web and apps like VLC were for enthusiasts. A bug tracker with feature requests for a popular app is like a gang rape these days. Hundreds upon hundreds of “Why is it still not fixed, it should take just ten minutes!!!” The weirdest thing is, trackers for things like Intellij Idea or Node.js are similarly filled with every problem, wish and opinion that users have—you'd think that programmers should know better but apparently not. “Tab to exit parentheses is essential for me, I'm not migrating from Eclipse until this is implemented!” I almost completely stopped posting issues without code when I saw the scale of this phenomenon.

aloisdg 7y ago
This is what I like with Stack Overflow. Most of this kind of posts are removed. Starting to contribute and following the review queues was mind opening. Also it helps me a lot to improve my own question.