Re: Getting help on #lwjgl

[erlend_sh]

Regarding captcha. I dont see any reason to change it. It is a basic java issue, and it keeps a shitload of non-java, non-lwjgl - and more importantly - complete newbies and a shitload of minecraft support seeking people off the forum.

This attitude scares me. If a lot of people who come here asking questions are way out of their league, this is because your website (front page, forum & wiki) doesn't clearly communicate to new users what the basic requirements for working with LWJGL are. Naturally we face this exact same problem in the jMonkeyEngine community, and it's a constant struggle, but we acknowledge it, we keep working on it and we most certainly don't ignore it.

I'm glad I registered before that new CAPTCHA was introduced, because that would have been a pain. It wouldn't take me more than a nudge at one of my fellow jMonkeys, but the message is clear: Programmers only. I'm not a programmer, but I dare say I've made significant contributions to the jMonkeyEngine project. And we have composers and artists sharing their work on the forum, joining up with developers. And this is the way it should be, because game development is about more disciplines than just programming.

LWJGL is a game development project. That means it is inevitably going to attract a much wider variety of people than the capable programmer you're targeting. There's nothing wrong with your target, but the ones that don't fit should be pointed in the right direction. Please don't alienate your users.

[Matzon]

I realise that the question can come off as elitist - and that's certainly not the intent.
However, at some point, you just get too many "problems with minecraft", "noclassedeferror" etc etc.

LWJGL is NOT an entry point java game library.

It might be easy to use it, but the whole concept of O-AL/GL/CL is advanced, and if you cannot do general java development, you should NOT be using LWJGL yet.
Furthermore, unlike JME, the LWJGL library is not meant to be used by non-programmers, which is why a general java programmer question as captcha works so very well.

I can look into another question, but the beauty of it, is that a) it's LWJGL specific and b) it's basic java knowledge and most importantly c) it doesn't not make sense to ask about it on other forums: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_package_class_name_that_Display_inherits_from

So if someone can come up with a less tricky question, I'd be happy to replace the current one.

If we want to ditch the captcha entirely, then we'd need a lot of active moderators ...

[princec]

I think just a captcha that was non-elitist would be acceptable; really we should only be turning away bots, not actual people. If people turn up here expecting us to fix Minecraft then we can at least politely tell them where they might go instead and they'll go away and never bother us again, unless of course they are inspired by Minecraft into a world of game development and we end up grooming the next Carmack. If you see what I mean.

Cas

[Garmine]

Hi!

I've just registered, and I agree with the reg question. This is one of the most basic java things (it's in almost every Java tutorial!), if someone doesn't know it then he/she doesn't know Java.
However, it does require a bit of thinking. We should remove the "traditional" captcha instead. After I figured out the answer (after 2 tries) I had to retype it twice because of the ordinary captcha

[princec]

IMHO that really is abusing the purpose of a captcha. They're to determine if you're human, not informed, or even clever.

Cas

[delt0r]

I was under the impression that we are trying to exclude a lot of humans.. namely ones paid to register and spam spam spam. I thought both here and jgo have had real problems with that.

[kappa]

@EmoMog unfortunate to see that your initial experience with #lwjgl wasn't good but do give it some time, personally I've idled there for a number of years and found it an extremely helpful resource at times as you can get help from some of the most intelligent, experienced and bright Java game developers out there. However as mentioned above being the internet you've gotta deal with all types of ppl.

Anyway I hope you'll have better luck on the LWJGL forums with any problems you may run into.

[CaleyM]

TBH, I would have answered the captcha question had I been ATK.  I guess MatthiasM is not an Apple fan.  He's updated TWL straight away when I've had problems.