Dear 8052 Members and those "Passing-By",

I have been using 8052.com as a resource for 5 months now. Although I have
not worked on any projects in the past few months I have continued to check
for new posts in this forum almost daily. I enjoy hearing about all of your
projects, technical problems, solutions to those problems, and I also enjoy
the often humorous commentary which is sometimes hidden deep within posts
(i.e. pictures of spoons, "sarcastic" flow-charts, students getting caught
cheating by their professors, etc ...).

There are as many unique personalities as there are posters to this site,
and I've learned a lot about the different types of people that exist in the
field of micro-processor R&D. Some obviously have a lot of empathy for
those "starting out", and others tend to forget those days when "Ohm's Law"
was a struggle to learn. Many different people ...

I've noticed recently a shift in the tone of many discussions in the forum
and would like to give my "two-cents" worth on how I think things can get
better. My hope is that I don't offend anyone here.

1) Many questions have been asked on this site without any effort on the
part of the questioner. These are the types of questions which almost
always end up in negative comments ("RTFM" comes to mind). Easy solution to
this one -- simply don't respond. Some on this site seem very concerned
about the "time wasted" in having to decipher whether 'u' means "you" or
"micro", and yet I rarely hear a complaint regarding the sometimes
overwhelming number of "bantering back-and-forth" sessions which take place.
If there exists a big fat "0" under the "Replies" column, it'll speak far
louder to the "stupid nature" of the question than 69 responses of disgust.
At times, Silence speaks louder than words ... ha! Sorry for the preaching
tone of that last comment!

2) A lot of visitors come through here to check out the site. Most have
good questions to ask. Sometimes these people, however, don't know the
etiquette associated with 8052.com. Some of these people may have also
never been to a professional site before. One of the biggest complaints I
see on this site are regarding the use of typing shortcuts (btw, u, etc
...). I can see how this policy could be confusing to a newcomer since the
abbreviation for microcontroller (uC), for example, is accepted and used
abundantly. Some form of consistency must be implemented, or a list of
"accepted abreviations" should be produced to make it fair to punish those
for commiting this horrible heinous offence. :) sorry ... a little bit of
sarcasm there :). The only reason I can see for not using "well-known"
typing short-cuts is because these short-cuts are not always "well-known" in
other languages! I don't accept the reasoning that the shortcuts cause the
average reader to waste time. After all, I've read some posts that were
just BARELY understandable after 5 passes due to a noble attempt by the
poster to translate a problem into a foreign language (English!)!

Anyways, I've DEFINITELY wasted a lot of people's time in this post. These
are a few of my thoughts. I'll stop now!!!

Take care all, and have a Merry Christmas / Happy Hanukah / Happy New Year / Joyous
Wednesday!!!

Jonathan Aoki