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I am not sure it is true that comp.lang.lisp barely tolerates newbies. I have posted there on several occasions and when I say something wrong, I am politely c

I am not sure it is true that comp.lang.lisp barely tolerates newbies. I have posted there on several occasions and when I say something wrong, I am politely corrected. I have seen a lot of less experienced programmers come there, ask an obviously beginner question, and get helpful answers. Reading through the past few days of posts, I can see a few beginner questions which all received helpful answers. The problem in comp.lang.lisp is the number of trolls -- in other words, the universal problem on Usenet. People come in trying to prove that some other language is superior, or asking questions like "If Lisp is so great why is nobody using it?"

LanceH 13y ago
It has been absolutely years, but I recall they didn't like homework problems. This made it really difficult to ask newb questions.
- serf 13y ago
  homework problems are different than newbie problems.. a homework problem is a problem you're charged with solving so as to reinforce elements and critical thinking from the chapter or segment of teaching that you experienced before the problem. Very few homework problems are given that cannot be solved by the user, if they paid attention to the work. There is a very thin line between someone trying to crowd-source their homework to a programming forum, and actually asking for help. This can usually be determined by how the question is asked. Example: "How do I write this..?" is not as respectable a question as "I am writing this, i'm this far and I ran into this problem, can anyone help me to understand my problem?" a newbie problem is a problem generated through normal use of a language to achieve a goal, in which the language user ( the newbie ) lacks the personal experience to conquer some goal post standing between him and his reason for writing what he/she's writing. Example : "I'm coming from such and such a language where we can do this... ... will this ... work the same in CL?" or "This piece of code behaves in this way ... can anyone help me work through as to why it does this?" The problem (that people have) with the lisp community is that they tend to be highly sensitive in regards to hand-holding, and can usually sniff out homework problems with relative ease.

LanceH 13y ago

It has been absolutely years, but I recall they didn't like homework problems. This made it really difficult to ask newb questions.

serf 13y ago
homework problems are different than newbie problems.. a homework problem is a problem you're charged with solving so as to reinforce elements and critical thinking from the chapter or segment of teaching that you experienced before the problem. Very few homework problems are given that cannot be solved by the user, if they paid attention to the work. There is a very thin line between someone trying to crowd-source their homework to a programming forum, and actually asking for help. This can usually be determined by how the question is asked. Example: "How do I write this..?" is not as respectable a question as "I am writing this, i'm this far and I ran into this problem, can anyone help me to understand my problem?" a newbie problem is a problem generated through normal use of a language to achieve a goal, in which the language user ( the newbie ) lacks the personal experience to conquer some goal post standing between him and his reason for writing what he/she's writing. Example : "I'm coming from such and such a language where we can do this... ... will this ... work the same in CL?" or "This piece of code behaves in this way ... can anyone help me work through as to why it does this?" The problem (that people have) with the lisp community is that they tend to be highly sensitive in regards to hand-holding, and can usually sniff out homework problems with relative ease.