>Yes, it was Walter M's response...my quoting could use some work... *smile*
>
>I know what you are saying, and I always thank whomever replies to my questions, even if the posts don't happen to help my cause.
>
>But in keeping with the "they aren't paid..." theme...if they aren't paid in the first place, how do they have time to give me an answer that isn't really even an answer to my question? I have had occasions where the thread ends up going several messages before the people helping me finally deem my methodology as acceptable, or at least necessary in the given situation, and then finally give me the answer they could have just given in the first place. That ends up taking even more unpaid time than just a simple answer from the start would have.

I just really can't see your point of view here. You are getting free advice. Most of it is outstanding, IMO. Sometimes, it takes a while to get that outstanding advice.

If you are having a bad day and just need to rant, that's fine. But to complain that you don't get the answer you want right away... well, that's hard to support.

>But they may have help to offer. Or someone else might. I don't appreciate the wasted bandwidth of a post that says something is bad when a few posts down someone tells me how to do what I need. Why waste the thread's time?

It does not waste my time. Although their posts may not directly answer your question, I read them and it makes me think about scrollable forms. The only posts I have found that are a waste of time are my own on my political rants. < g >

>Well, scrollable forms became more doable upon the release of VFP 6, which was some time ago (more than six months). You are probably right, it probably doesn't happen as much as my moaning would have you believe, but it has happened several times, and scrollable forms are just one of the recurring items that stands out. Don't get me wrong, the number if genuinely helpful posts far outweighs the type of thing I am complaining about, but I still wanted to make my point.
>
>Me too! If you give me a concrete example of why it sucked, like "try this code", then your advice is outstanding! But I have seen plenty of anecdotal comments made without any hard proof. Not to pick on JVP, but his offhand comments on how VFP's remote data access (using views) is "lousy" sparked quote a thread, and rightly so. If he had stated in his same post a test he had done with SQL Server that showed the lousiness he referred to, I am certain that John Ryan would not have been so dogged in his resistance to the "lousy" comment.

Yes, exactly. It was not as if a high priest were proclaiming something from the mountain top and it went unchallenged. It was challenged, and I greatly benefitted from it. So, I think this notion of VFP high priests is bunk. There are people here who are respected, but they are not followed blindly, as some have suggested.

>And for me, more often than not I come up with a goofy-ass way of doing something (sometimes it turns out to be standard, most times not) and it works great! Have I been bitten in the ass, sure! Was it the best thing to ever happen to me? You bet! I have learned far more from being bitten than from my successes...

I can watch someone hit their thumb with a hammer, hear them scream, and know it is not something I want to do.

>The problem with the phrase "non-standard" is that I don't know to whom one is referring when the word is used. "Non-standard" according to Microsoft? God? My dog Skippy? The "industry"? Where are these standards? There's no Rosetta Stone of database programming out there as far as I know...

Actually, there is. It is in Ed Rauh's basement. < g >

>I could, but that would be worse. Like I said, I don't doubt the expertise I get here, I was merely voicing an opinion to be heard and perhaps have folks work on some of their wording and assumptions when they answer questions. Is there nothing about the UT you would like to see changed?
>
>Let's go further with that analogy...let's say you get invited over for a free dinner...and it turns out to be an Amway party...do you suck it up and smile and thank the host graciously for all they have done (and all the crap they tried to sell you)? After all, it was free! If such a thing wouldn't bother you, then great -- we have different personalities when it comes to things like this I guess.

It is a long stretch to go from the great advice offered here to Amway. But, to continue with the analogy, if I keep going back for dinner, as you keep coming back here, who is to blame? < g >

>I know the UT is free, and as I have stated, I appreciate it and I do thank anyone who has ever posted a response to my message. I was merely pointing out something that bothers me, and it meshed perfectly with a point that Mister Meester was making.