this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2026
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I asked a question on a forum about why a command wasn't working. They said I didn't have an interpreter installed on my computer and were making fun of me. I showed them that I had one installed and that wasn't the problem, but they continued to talk sarcastically to me without explaining anything. Only one of them suggested the cause of the problem, and he was right, so I thanked him. Then another guy said that if I couldn't figure it out myself, I should do something else and that he was tired of people like me. After that, I deleted my question, and now I'm not sure. And I don't think I want to ask for help ever again

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[–] brandocorp@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 5 days ago

I'm sorry this happened to you. Just know that there are assholes everywhere, and they often tend to be the most vocal, especially when they can hide behind anonymity. Try not to let them discourage you.

[–] presoak@lazysoci.al 5 points 6 days ago

It's a certain kind of people. In a word, they are focused.

Within the circle of their focus they are gentle, deep, subtle and wise. Without, clumsy, crude and violent.

The realm of good manners is in that outside part.

[–] atro_city@fedia.io -3 points 6 days ago

Ah, you ran into neckbeards. This is a typical interaction with them. They are afraid because they are finally in a position of power digitally whereas in real life, nobody cares about them. Honestly, ask LLMs https://chat.mistral.ai/ or something else.

I have Linux but am a casual user and my experience with Linux users has been nothing short of terrible. Before LLMs, I had to either find the answer on some *overflow website, the ubuntu forums, or just give up and move on. Now, LLMs help me out more than humans ever did. LLMs don't tell you you're stupid, they don't ridicule your question, they don't ridicule you. Of course they can be dangerous if they give you bad commands, but so can humans.

If you must talk to humans online to get help, what I've seen work is to tell them they are wrong and that your solution works 100%. Some neckbeard will show up, call you stupid, and give the solution. And if that doesn't work, just ridicule them and say it didn't work, which means your solution is the right one. It'll make them try to prove you wrong even harder 🤷

[–] IWW4@lemmy.zip 150 points 1 week ago (9 children)

The short answer is the people you interacted with are assholes. The stereotype of IT people is that they don’t know how to play with others. Just because it is a Stereotype doesn’t mean it is not earned.

[–] jimmy90@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

exactly - coders are some of the ~~weirdest~~ most diverse assholes i've ever worked with

[–] IWW4@lemmy.zip 1 points 6 days ago
[–] Strider@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

I am careful with conclusions like that. We only know one side of the story. There can be a lot wrong on both sides.

Ymmv

[–] early_riser@lemmy.world 32 points 1 week ago

Am IT guy can confirm. We tend to be misanthropic loners. Bad “bedside manner” is an industry-wide problem. That’s why the A+ certification has a section on customer service skills.

[–] Goldholz@lemmy.blahaj.zone 28 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Every stereotype stems from a bit of truth

[–] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 6 days ago

And everything has an exception.

I mean if we're throwing around one liners here.

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[–] gustofwind@lemmy.world 58 points 1 week ago

Why do you think they went into a profession where they communicate primarily with a machine?

[–] Object@sh.itjust.works 46 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Yeah, it's common, especially in programming. It's true that searching on Google usually solves the problem, but the biggest issue is that it's hard to know the exact word you need to use. They know the word so it's trivial for them, but that's not the case with others, and they're proud that they're out of touch with people.

[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 6 days ago

This is one reason it could have been better for OP to not have deleted their question, as there are likely many people who would think to word their question the way OP did but don't know the more technically correct way to word it.

[–] early_riser@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

It’s true that searching on Google usually solves the problem, but the biggest issue is that it’s hard to know the exact word you need to use.

I tell people 90% of IT (and development I assume) is knowing what questions to ask, where to ask those questions, and how to interpret the answers. It's like the search for the ultimate question in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

As for Google, I think it's getting less useful, so the days of saying "just google it" are gone.

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[–] in_my_honest_opinion@piefed.social 27 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I just created an account to tell you, if you would like, I would be super happy to either answer that question you had, or if I don't know the answer show you how I research problems related to programming or archotecture or algo or whatever needs done to finish a project. I've been in IT for 20 years now. What you experienced is the very thing I've dedicated my career to correcting.

Fuck rude gatekeeping assholes, knowledge is for everyone.

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[–] kbal@fedia.io 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Some of them are probably insecure about their own limitations and find pleasure in mocking someone who knows a little less than they do. On the other hand there may also be, among the crowd, those who genuinely found your mistake to be an unusually funny one.

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[–] MotoAsh@piefed.social 20 points 1 week ago

Report the rude assholes. Genuinely not knowing something while genuinely asking for knowledge should never be shat on.

[–] cRazi_man@europe.pub 20 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Frankly, this has been quite a significant barrier to my Linux adoption previously. Its really unfortunate that people are like this. I wish there were set tags or communities for noob problems so people could post questions safely. Anyone who doesn't want to engage with noobs can then stay away.

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