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A warning to all CG newbies.

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K u r a i:
I thought I would raise this subject because it needs addressing. It especially affects people new to CG who need help and venture on the Net thinking it is a place of freedom and expression.
This idea is far from the truth and new recruits should not feel upset or worthless when someone does not reply to their emails. It's a modern day curse. They do it because they know they can get
away with it.... and there usual excuse is that they are too busy to respond. Once a website or Blog igoes public they have a responsibility to treat all equally.

There are people out there that genuinely care about the craft of CG and are very supportive to new recruits. But I have only encountered a few. But, let me digress a moment....

You have all been to social gatherings and feel abit on edge standing there with your glass of something... when a stranger decides to talk to you... and then they ask the question you've dreaded " So... what do you do for a living".
Your response to this question will determine whether they look at their watch, look for an excuse to leave and snub you or take your business card because you may prove useful to them.
It is snobbery plain and simple. Snobbery is when someone makes a quick judgement about you and decides they know all about your character. It happens on the web too.

I am new to CG and in the last 6 months my enthusiasm has been tainted by Blogs that snub you. And when I say 'Blogs' I mean the well known Blogs created by the so called "elite" of CG.
My feelings run so deep about this that I am thinking of creating my own Blog Watch-Dog... naming and shaming the bad apples... and venerating the good Blogs that are friendly and show empathy for newbies or
people in general. It's just not right that people can get away with this bad behaviour.... and unfortunetly, it's a growing trend. This is the age of the 'Selfie" and 'it's all about me syndrome'.

In the last 6 months I have come to realise that most Blogs are not places to share ideas... they are Social Clubs for members only. The veneer you see on the outside is window dressing for what the ultimate
goal is.... to build a big fan base and then sell advertising space or CG products. If you ask advice on their personal forums I am sure you will get an answer because the last thing they want the public to know
is how shallow they really are. But, send them a private email and you will get no response.... unless it's concerning a product they are selling. I have had a few responses though words to the affect that they
are too busy working on a project with a tight deadline and cannot help.... which brings me to the point of asking...."Why create a Blog then?"

Sending them praise is not enough, they only listen to people they feel are on their level. Professional snobbery.

Now, you are probably thinking, hold on a minute, matey boy! That sounds abit harsh. And the moderators are probably thinking, lets delete this message cos we don't want to rock the boat.
So, I must add that this is based on my experience of CG Blogs. Other people could have experienced rainbows, dew-drops and fairies on CG Blogs. But I did not! Sorry.

My advice to newbies is.... stick to Software Forums (like this).... you are usually dealing with professionals who are trained to help you and you normally get a good response or
led in the right direction. Avoid Blogs if you don't want to become disappointed. Case closed. Though there are a few Blogs that have been superb and answered back with good info.
In fact, one of the good Blogs directed me to Corona and told me to try it out.

I have enclosed a quick article about: People who don't answer Emails. There is a growing army of people out there that are getting fed up.

Ondra:
Well, when I was starting with 3D graphics and did not know anything, I too was frustrated with people not responding to my emails asking for help... no wait, I was not, because I did not write any emails to anyone. It did not even came to my mind that I should just approach somebody I have never met, never talked to, nor have any other connection, and straight up ask him to give me some of his time and energy to answer my questions. I have instead searched all over the internet, read tutorials (there were no videotutorials when I was starting... I feel old ;)), etc. And I surrounded myself with people roughly on my level, and we tried to search for answers together. We helped each other, but there was nobody just giving, and nobody just feeding.

I could turn your argument and make a pointless shallow counter-argument about how todays generation/people is lazy and expects to be spoon-fed knowledge when we had to actively search for it. But I will say this: nobody is obliged to answer any of your questions. Just imagine going to a restaurant and saying "I am hungry. I won't buy your food, but I want your cook to stop cooking and show me how to make this dish". Or going to car repair shop and saying "my car is broken, but I wont pay you for repair, I instead want your mechanic to show me how to fix it for free, so one day I could open up my own show and steal your customers". This is in principle what you are asking for, even though you might not realize it.

Also, if you look at it from another perspective... there are few thousands of visitors on Corona website every day. Imagine if 1% of them would decide to ask me something via email. I would have gotten tens of emails every day I would have to answer, and I could not do anything else just so you would not attack me, call me names, or threaten to publicly call me out. I would get literally nothing from this, just wasted time, that I could have used to make money, relax, or spend it with my family. And answering the questions just gets extremely boring after a while. There are really only a few questions that get asked over and over again, since nobody is willing to invest any energy in searching for previous answers.

So yeah, I side with the "elite". My advice to you:
1) Only ask for advice if you would think it would be appropriate to do the same in person
2) Realize that there are thousands of people like you asking questions to just few bloggers. They are not being rude by not answering, they just cannot keep up.
3) Find people on roughly the same level as you, and make a "study group"
4) Invest the time in searching. Most questions were already answered hundreds of time.

K u r a i:

--- Quote from: Keymaster on 2014-09-11, 12:59:57 ---Well, when I was starting with 3D graphics and did not know anything, I too was frustrated with people not responding to my emails asking for help... no wait, I was not, because I did not write any emails to anyone. It did not even came to my mind that I should just approach somebody I have never met, never talked to, nor have any other connection, and straight up ask him to give me some of his time and energy to answer my questions. I have instead searched all over the internet, read tutorials (there were no videotutorials when I was starting... I feel old ;)), etc. And I surrounded myself with people roughly on my level, and we tried to search for answers together. We helped each other, but there was nobody just giving, and nobody just feeding.

I could turn your argument and make a pointless shallow counter-argument about how todays generation/people is lazy and expects to be spoon-fed knowledge when we had to actively search for it. But I will say this: nobody is obliged to answer any of your questions. Just imagine going to a restaurant and saying "I am hungry. I won't buy your food, but I want your cook to stop cooking and show me how to make this dish". Or going to car repair shop and saying "my car is broken, but I wont pay you for repair, I instead want your mechanic to show me how to fix it for free, so one day I could open up my own show and steal your customers". This is in principle what you are asking for, even though you might not realize it.

Also, if you look at it from another perspective... there are few thousands of visitors on Corona website every day. Imagine if 1% of them would decide to ask me something via email. I would have gotten tens of emails every day I would have to answer, and I could not do anything else just so you would not attack me, call me names, or threaten to publicly call me out. I would get literally nothing from this, just wasted time, that I could have used to make money, relax, or spend it with my family. And answering the questions just gets extremely boring after a while. There are really only a few questions that get asked over and over again, since nobody is willing to invest any energy in searching for previous answers.

So yeah, I side with the "elite". My advice to you:
1) Only ask for advice if you would think it would be appropriate to do the same in person
2) Realize that there are thousands of people like you asking questions to just few bloggers. They are not being rude by not answering, they just cannot keep up.
3) Find people on roughly the same level as you, and make a "study group"
4) Invest the time in searching. Most questions were already answered hundreds of time.

--- End quote ---

Hmmm. Good answer. And you underline what I mean't. You are alone. Don't expect any help from anyone. And when you have all the knowledge you need... don't share it.... why should you.
 
I have spent a part of my life as an art & design teacher and the student master relationship is no longer a part of todays generation. We are not simply talking about knowledge. All the knowledge you need is on YouTube.
I am talking about being inspired by someone's work. If I said to Einstein how did you create E=MC sq it would be impossible for me to understand his answer... but if he talked about his own struggles finding the answer
that would in turn give me inspiration. We are talking about humans here... not drones sat at computer terminals.

Also, not writing to people because you have never met them flies in the face of every act of creativity.... from books to film to art to music. People create to communicate. We carry each other along.

I don't think the advice you gave sounds right. Sounds abit mean spirited. Have you got a Blog too?
 

Ondra:

--- Quote from: K u r a i on 2014-09-11, 13:26:13 ---I don't think the advice you gave sounds right. Sounds abit mean spirited. Have you got a Blog too?

--- End quote ---

You are funny, I like you ;).


And I still give advice. But only when I feel like it - when I have the time and energy.

lacilaci:
I'm interrested.. why exactly do you think that Keymasters advice isn't good? Please, be specific.

BTW, here's how mean spirited(but still appropriate) response to your first post would look like: "Learn some respect kid"

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