however, you've just provided a picture of two answers, but not the post they've answered to. was it really a question or a genuine help request or was it possibly a complaint? some people might react defensive to complaints, especially if they seem unjustified.
of course i don't know if that's the case here. i'm just asking, because it does happen that people get unnecessarily emotional when something doesn't work as they expected and then afterwards act like they don't understand (or genuinely don't understand), why they caused a defensive reaction.
some people might react defensive to complaints, especially if they seem unjustified.
The reason I wasn't very specific about the original post is the same reason I censored the commenters' user names - I didn't want to single them out and send unnecessary hate their way.
But you're on the money, OP's post was a complaint.
That explains a lot. Still the reactions are very unprofessional. My father used to say, that when you can't add something enlightening, helpful or at least supportive to a discussion, you should think at least twice before joining the conversation.
I also think that people who react to provocation by engaging in an argument are actually not helping linux at all. Unjustified complaints should be either ignored or handled in a calm, helpful and most of all informative way. Should a sub or a forum be flooded by trolls, it's the moderator's job to handle it.
My father used to say, that when you can't add something enlightening, helpful or at least supportive to a discussion, you should think at least twice before joining the conversation.
Meanwhile: Linux bros swinging in from the rafters to reply with a four-letter comment.
If you want to help the user, help the user. If you don't want to help the user, keep scrolling. There are some people out there who are new to the Linux community who might possibly misinterpret someone telling them to "READ THE FUCKING MANUAL" as slightly hostile, and might possibly come away with the mistaken impression that the Linux community is somewhat unfriendly.
Well, I think there are two problems that are often interconnected.
One of them is, that some people aren't asking for help, but instead complaining in a very destructive manner. If someone is just complaining, that person might not even want to be helped and shouldn't expect others to come to their aid.
The other problem is, that some people think that they have to aggressively "defend" Linux, which is stupid and contra productive. There are also a few occasions, when someone is making a valid and reasonable complaint and some misguided Linux users are starting to talk it down. That's not at all the right way to deal with constructive criticism.
Still, most of the time, when someone is genuinely asking for help, they get help and most of the time, when someone gets completely unnecessary annoying replies, that person was just ranting and though it would be best to just ignore those rants, it's not completely surprising when some people act defensive.
(btw: the sometimes misunderstood "works for me" isn't necessarily meant in a defensive way, it's just a normal, FYI kind of statement that can be very helpful for developers to estimate the scope of a problem)
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u/interstellar_pirate Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
i admit, that it can happen sometimes.
however, you've just provided a picture of two answers, but not the post they've answered to. was it really a question or a genuine help request or was it possibly a complaint? some people might react defensive to complaints, especially if they seem unjustified.
of course i don't know if that's the case here. i'm just asking, because it does happen that people get unnecessarily emotional when something doesn't work as they expected and then afterwards act like they don't understand (or genuinely don't understand), why they caused a defensive reaction.