Well by now I figured that the "Does Anyone Help Anyone In Here???"
thread would be a done deal, I was wrong.  As the whole thing started
by events that happened in a Visual Basic Channel on IRC, and as
someone who spends a lot of time in #Visualbasic on EFNET, I am aware
of people like RippDogg.

Let me start by saying that there are plenty of knowledgeable people
that visit that channel.  The spectrum runs from independent
contractors and software manufacturers to 12 year olds who just got
the standard edition.  We do our best to help everyone that has a
question, but with the volume of people and questions, it is not
possible to be instantly available to everyone.  In addition, many who
are on the channel are working in the background, or are just not at
their PC when a question is asked.  To say that you are being ignored
is just paranoid, because that is not the case, unless you are being
obnoxious and\or rude.

Much of what is asked can be avoided by following a few simple
suggestions.  The first of which is Read The Manual.  It would be
impossible to keep track of how many questions are answered by simply
referring someone to online help.  Second, if you are new to VB you
need to get a book.  It is nearly impossible and improbable to
effectively tutor someone over the internet.  So as unappealing as is
sounds, GET ONE OR MORE BOOKS, learn from the ground up and most of
your question will be self answered.  Third, As e{*filter*}d as you are
about the innovative new operating system you have thought up, it
isn't realistic to think you can do it while on day 7 of learn VB in
21 days.  So please don't come in and take all the code you got from
the misc. samples and whatever  that you pasted into a project and ask
someone to tell you why it's not working.  Refer back to suggestion
two.  Lastly, if you somehow came up with a copy of VB through less
than legal means and you don't have the manuals or help file,
#Visualbasic is not the support channel for the pirated copies.  If
you don't have the files or manuals, there is nothing that can be done
for you until you get them, so I suggest buying them.

I am sure that there are other suggestions, but for the sake of
bandwidth I will leave those few.  If you have exhausted all your
avenues and really need help with something then by all means ask.
But try to make some kind of real effort to find it on your own.  You
might be surprised at what other goodies you find in the process of
researching your original question.  There are many sources of good
information out there, online help, the manuals and the KB to name a
few.

As for IRC, drop in on #VisualBasic on efnet.  There is usually some
good programming conversation going on, the big thing lately is
Internet apps, so if you have some knowledge you would like to pass on
or are just interested stop by and check it out.

(...)

----
Michel Marinier