All posts tagged with "WTFery"
Useless tutorials
One of the questions I am asked most is "will you write a tutorial on how to install PHPAskIt?". My answer to this is always no because people need to learn to read. Included in the PHPAskIt zip file is a file called readme.txt. Now I don't know about you, but when I'm unsure of how to install something, the first thing I do is to look at the readme file (if there is one). When a file is called "READ ME" it usually signifies that it should be read, no?
So why am I bombarded time and time again with this question when I clearly explain how to install the script in the readme file? That, I cannot tell you. But what I do know is the internet population appears to be getting stupider. People use known insecure scripts such as Wak's Ask&Answer and CuteNews because "nothing's ever happened to me" and "I like that script"; people take images they have absolutely no permission to use (and they know this) and make website layouts out of them; and as Jem regularly points out with her Pants Awards, there is no shortage of people giving out stupid advice in the form of tutorials.
I came across a site the other day which combined the aforementioned issues. The site owner had been asked "please can you write a tutorial on how to install and use PHPAskIt" and had done just that. They wrote exactly what I wrote in the readme file, just worded slightly differently. I'd link the tutorial but the site's gone on hiatus (how convenient). What was the point of that? So imagine my delight when I found yet another one of these tutorials. I kid you not, this one is even worse than the other one, and assumes the visitor can't read or something (um, redundant much?).
The tutorial basically follows this format:
- Download the script!
- Upload everything then go to install.php! Yay! Done!
- It will say delete so and so files, delete these files: import directory, upgrade.php, install.php
PLEASE LINK ME IF YOU USED THIS TUT!1!!
"So and so files"?! So basically you're assuming your visitor hasn't read what's on their screen (it tells them which files to delete) or that the message is too confusing (um, you just wrote it out again, word for word. The point?) or something and that your tutorial is the answer to all that? Get over yourself.
Oh yes, and while I'm in a rant mood... I've noticed someone is commenting around the place using my URL. This person appears to go by the name of "Nancy" and uses my site (or the link to PHPAskIt) as their URL. Thanks for the extra hits and everything, "Nancy", but this site actually belongs to me and I'd appreciate it if you could stop doing that.
If you came here from one of "Nancy"'s comments, sorry to disappoint and all, but my name's Amelie and I've never heard of anyone called Nancy.
Pssst: If you have received a comment from "Nancy" using my details, please contact me as I'd love to see who on earth is doing this. :)
I mean, really.
Ok, here's a hypothetical situation. Let's say you're waiting at a very busy roundabout waiting to turn when suddenly your phone rings. Bearing in mind that answering your phone while driving is illegal where you are (UK), do you:
- Answer it anyway and keep driving like everyone else seems to do. So what if it's illegal? You are teh 1337 dr1v3r and you will ttly not crash. Srsly.
- Leave the phone til you get to somewhere you can stop then call the person back
- Stop exactly where you are, turn your engine off, flash your hazards and answer the call
Guess which one I encountered yesterday morning, which added an extra 20 minutes to my journey. Oh yes, it's C. Some woman decided she would stop exactly where she was in the middle of the road, right next to the roundabout, so neither could anyone see what was coming nor could they get past. She just sat there and talked away for a good half an hour or so while people beeped at her and tried to squeeze round her. But nooo, we all had to wait til her oh-so-important call had finished. Sure enough, as soon as she had finished, she drove off again, completely erasing any illusions anyone might have had about her having broken down.
I mean, seriously. What about that phone call was so important that she had to stop there for 20 minutes and block everyone else off?! URGH. Some people really need a good slap. I was hoping someone would have called the police or something but then I'm not sure they would have been able to get through the blocked up traffic even if they had been called, grrr.
In other news, it appears to be Christmas next week. ... I want the person who let that happen to explain exactly what they have done with all my time.
That is not a space.
Look what I spotted while out shopping today:
(Excuse the quality, it was getting dark and my phone couldn't quite cope with that :P )
In case you can't tell, the guy is parked in the middle of the road, NEXT to the parking spaces. Although there's no one moving in that picture, that road leads to the car park exit and a lot of people use it - this guy was blocking off one side of this road and causing a lot of problems.
...so I submitted him to youparklikeanasshole.com. Hahaha :P
This whole situation was not made much better by the fact that the other side of the road was slightly taken up by another badly-parked idiot (also submitted to YPLAA.com, go me!).
Seriously, can people not park these days? Even I can park better than that and I freely admit to not being able to park!