Khan Academy Delivers 100,000 Lectures Daily 213
eldavojohn writes "Working from the comfort of his home, Salman Khan has made available more than 1,500 mini-lectures to educate the world. Subjects range from math and physics to finance, biology, and current economics. Kahn Academy amounts to little more than a YouTube channel and one very devoted man. He is trying to provide education in the way he wished he had been taught. With more than 100,000 video views a day, the man is making a difference for many students. In his FAQ he explains how he knows he is being effective. What will probably ensure his popularity (and provide a legacy surpassing that of most highly paid educators) is that everything is licensed under Creative Commons 3.0. He only needs his time, a $200 Camtasia Recorder, an $80 Wacom Bamboo Tablet, and a free copy of SmoothDraw3. While the lecturing may not be quite up to the Feynman level, it's a great augmenter for advanced learners, and a lifeline for those without much access to learning resources."
can't resist (Score:5, Funny)
KAHHHHHHN !!!!!1!
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Re:can't resist (Score:5, Funny)
Hey I used him to learn partial derivatives (Score:5, Interesting)
Tip for kdawson (Score:5, Funny)
Khan = Muslim
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Khan = Muslim
Or a genetically-engineered Indian [memory-alpha.org].
Re:Tip for kdawson (Score:5, Interesting)
Khan = Muslim
Or a genetically-engineered Indian [memory-alpha.org].
Or a Genghis.
Re:Tip for kdawson (Score:4, Funny)
Kan = Japanese
Can = beer coming right up
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The funny thing is 'kan' can mean in Japanese a can or tin as well, if it's written using the kanji U+7F36 [wiktionary.org]. Oddly enough it's not one of the many wasei-eigo [wikipedia.org] terms Japanese imported from English, as it's really one of the on-yomi (Chinese) readings of that kanji. The technical term for such a thing is a false cognate [wikipedia.org]. It's written '', just in case Slashdot ever stops being one of the last few sites to survive to the 21st century while remaining stubbornly ignorant of Unicode.
Re:Tip for kadwson (Score:3, Funny)
I, for one, I think that kadwson is doing a fine job with his spelling in these articles.
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Re:Tip for kdawson (Score:4, Interesting)
Kahn = Jewish
Khan = Muslim
Last I checked, "Muslim" was recognised as neither an ethnicity, nor a nationality. But don't get that in the way of trying to make life simple for yourself or others.
Salman Khan, IIRC, was born in New Awlins, and his parents are from some province in India. Someone else can add to that if they're so inclined.
Either way, he's an amazing guy. The word would be a better place if there more "Muslims" like him around. ;-)
Re:Tip for kdawson (Score:4, Informative)
TFA says:
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In his FAQ, Khan says about his religion, "If you believe in trying to make the best of the finite number of years we have on this planet (while not making it any worse for anyone else), think that pride and self-righteousness are the cause of most conflict and negativity, and are humbled by the vastness and mystery of the Universe, then I'm the same religion as you."
In other words, he's an atheist. ;)
Re:Tip for kdawson (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm a Baptist, and I share those beliefs. So do many atheists, Hindus, Muslims, and others.
Religion just isn't important when forming a viewpoint about someone, and only causes problems if one falls into the "pride and self-righteousness" category.
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what he said ^^
seriously people, most religious, god-believing individuals have these exact same notions and concepts like you atheists. please stop pretending to be enlightened elitist bastards.
I'm against it (Score:3, Insightful)
Of course I am also against state "license" of straight marriages as well. Unconstitutional crapola.
Why the two camps don't join together and demand the END of licenses to love and live with someone else is beyond me. They are both demanding to have LESS RIGHTS than what you are freely born with. Marriage is between you and partner(s) and your community and that should be it.
It's none of the government's business *at all* who you marry, and a violation of civil rights IMO-1st amendment, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th-
Re:Tip for kdawson (Score:4, Insightful)
In other words, he's an atheist. ;)
I don't see where he stated anything of the sort. Quite the contrary, I see the thoughtful musings of an agnostic in his statements. It may also be that he is a most devout Pastafarian, but recognizes that an inflexible adherence to any dogma, including the one that insists that there is no deity, is quite literally a fool's errand.
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In other words, he's an atheist. ;)
Or Bhuddist of Hindu. I'm not sure of the Hindu religion, but Bhuddists worship life, and that statement would fit their philosophy completely.
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Agnostic - a person who holds that the existence of the ultimate cause, as god, and the essential nature of things are unknown and unknowable, or that human knowledge is limited to experience.
Pride - a high or inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, condu
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Khan is likely to be ignoring the inherent conflicts in his religion with the many other religions (which the collective members various religions do when they lack the power to eradicate other religions) or he may be a deist who believes god exists and sort of rolls his own religion based on a foundation of some other religion (perhaps islam) where he picks the parts he likes and ignores the parts he doesn't like. By the adherents of the religion, he's a heretic and viewed as going to hell (or not going t
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On a slightly different note, I find it a little sad that slashdot contributors are able to correctly spell Nordic/Germanic names with umlauts and complex non-English vowels (immediate example: Piratbyrån), but screw up the spelling of a name as simple as Khan.
To be fair, we all (at least us geeks) tend to pay special attention to spelling when we see a non-English symbol in a name. Nonetheless, please do ask yourself if you are unconsciously trying to be Euro-centric. It helps to become more aware of
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On a slightly different note, I find it a little sad that slashdot contributors are able to correctly spell Nordic/Germanic names with umlauts and complex non-English vowels (immediate example: Piratbyrån), but screw up the spelling of a name as simple as Khan
We don't spell words like Piratbyrån, we copy and paste them. But we don't do that with a simple, short name, because anyone can get Kahn right. Er Kon. Er...
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Fair enough. I mentioned this in my previous post as well. It goes the other way around too, I've seen too many Asians unable to properly pronounce a common American name. I meant my earlier comment to be constructive - wasn't implying anything.
Just that Khan is probably as easy to spell as John. You hardly ever see anyone misspelling it Jhon (which is actually how it is pronounced!).
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I find it amusing that they can spell such names but have loost the ability to spell loose.
Bangladesh is a country (Score:2)
Kahn = Jewish
Khan = Muslim
Last I checked, "Muslim" was recognised as neither an ethnicity, nor a nationality. But don't get that in the way of trying to make life simple for yourself or others.
Salman Khan, IIRC, was born in New Awlins, and his parents are from some province in India. Someone else can add to that if they're so inclined.
Either way, he's an amazing guy. The word would be a better place if there more "Muslims" like him around. ;-)
His mother is from the Indian state of West Bengal, his father is from Bangladesh, which is a country [wikipedia.org]
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What are recognized ethnicities, and who recognizes them ?
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Actually Salman Khan is as typical a muslim name from the Indian sub-continent as it gets.
Not saying what this particular individual practices/believes. I would love to see more Muslim doing the kind of work he is, once in a while rest of us Muslims don't have to bury our head in the sand when a news story hits the media about some insane F&$*$ blowing himself up.
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And Judaism is a religion, as long as we're being pedantic.
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No, but his descendants that conquered Persia then were instrumental in spreading the religion, especially into India and further east into Asia.
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Caan = Rollerball / Dragons' Den.
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You did notice that John Paul Stevens was on the same side as Roberts in the decision.
I do wonder how an attorney can defend a client accused of being a terrorist without running afoul of this ruling.
'Feynman' level? (Score:4, Insightful)
When people stumble out of his lectures looking like they've been hit by a bus, then he'll have reached the 'Feynman' level. Right now IMHO he's already doing a better job of addressing normal students.
Re:'Feynman' level? (Score:5, Interesting)
I have viewed some of the videos at Kahn Academy and it is nice to see worked out examples as this is the best way to teach. Simply stating the relationships doesn't ever seem to help me.
Like programming, I have to write something before I really understand what it means. if("Khan"=="Kahn"){P=NP;kdawson=editor}
Re:'Feynman' level? (Score:4, Insightful)
A testimonial from the Khan academy home page. "My eldest kid is dancing around in my room here because she is so excited that she finally found someone that teaches like this."
I've listened to both Khan and Feynman and I found Khan way better.
Everything Old is New again (Score:5, Insightful)
I think this is a very interesting way of bringing and old, maybe ancient, method of teaching back to the fore again.
If I recall correctly, Socrates taught by answering questions and encouraging new ones, not just spouting knowledge according to a set curricula, like we do today.
If used well, this strikes me as having a real impact for learning, and teaching, in a more natural way. I for one would love to see more of this kind of thing going on and being acknowledged as a legitimate and effective way to teach and learn.
I wish him and the viewers all the best.
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If I recall correctly, Socrates taught by answering questions and encouraging new ones, ...
By modern standards he would most likely have been labeled a troll. After all, aren't trolls using a form of Socratic irony to spur debate?
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If I recall correctly, Socrates taught by answering questions and encouraging new ones, ...
By modern standards he would most likely have been labeled a troll. After all, aren't trolls using a form of Socratic irony to spur debate?
They modded him troll at the time too. Unfortunately at the time the penalty was death...
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If I recall correctly, Socrates taught by answering questions and encouraging new ones, not just spouting knowledge according to a set curricula, like we do today.
Socrates was unusual then and now in that he tought by asking questions encourage his students to think for themselves and discover answers on their own.
While what Khan is doing is great and praisworthy, it is not the Socratic method.
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Would you be happy with a doctor working on you, that never asked about spleens 'cus they are boring... when operating on your spleen.
When you complete a course, you are supose to have some minimum level of "competence" in the subject. Not just know more than before.
Re:Everything Old is New again -- But why? (Score:3, Interesting)
When I read stories like this though, I'm forced to ask the question: Why lectures?
For me, studying from hypertext is infinitely more effective. I can pause whenever I like, check additional sources, cross-reference, backtrack, etc.
Personally, I think the hypertext is the greatest educational medium ever created. Universities clearly prefer lectures for a variety of (I would say) self-interested reasons. But unless you simply learn 'better' from spoken dialogue -- which is fine -- I think lectures are a v
Re: Lectures + Web (Score:3, Interesting)
It's a question in educational design.
Lectures are just "Auditory Articles". The start of any educational module is a "TFA". Let's just presume the minimum = 1 sentence. If it's really hard (like an equation) the instructor should stop and either explain, or "wait for next week after it gels". (In really scary cases it "never gels" and then you just say "I'm not good at that". In "rolling thunder" topics like History, no one sentence is earth shattering, but reading something like Thorstein Veblen in the
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If I recall correctly, Socrates taught by answering questions and encouraging new ones, not just spouting knowledge according to a set curricula, like we do today.
Yes, but that worked on a one to one basis. If you apply that to a roomfull of students you'll facepalm yourself with the stupidity of most questions and just waste your time.
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Socrates didn't have standardized tests or "no child left behind," and he produced Aristotle. We have had to poach talent since the end of the cold war, and in fact, we probably only one that because we swiped all the smart Nazis before the Russians could get them. I mean, look at Khan himself. Here's the child of a single-parent immigrant who has multiple BS degrees in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Mathematics from MIT, then masters in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, and a Ha
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wait... Plato taught Aristotle, not Socrates... see, my mind is leaking out my ear. At least I remembered.
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I was between jobs and attened a community college for a year. For the most part, what a waste of time. I found any "Dummies" or "Learn xxxx in 24 hours" or "Learn xxx in 30 days" book better than the textbooks the college used. It seems like they had a plan
1. Collect a tuition
2. Sell you a "text book"
3. The textbook is a bit of reading, then homework and a test.
4. The instructor was there to a) Repeat in Class what was in the book b) answer questions for the slower students about homework assignments c) gr
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10 weeks to learn how to install Windows Vista and set up printers and file sharing.
*Weeks* ?
I've never installed Vista, much less set up printers and file sharing, having never used Windows as a server (more of a Unix guy) but I'm fairly sure it wouldn't take me 10 weeks.
I'm pretty confident most casual users could do it in a couple hours by poking around a bit.
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Eventually it boils down to knowing how other (expert) people figure things out... once you know enough to do that any class will be pointless besides any philosophical aspect people can argue about. Still everything is set up so that it is usually in your advantage in the long run to pay for that piece of paper. Think about societies perspective, there is a reason for it whether right or wrong.
Re:Everything Old is New again (Score:5, Interesting)
I tried to do what Socrates would do as a teaching fellow. A student complained in the course evaluation that I should not ask questions before they learn about the subject. I also took a top-down approach, reviewing course material in a way hoping that if a student is interested or needed to know more, he would ask questions to clarify. Several students commented that I glossed over detail and that I was too vague. A number of students thought I was boring. I tried to explore related knowledge that they wouldn't find on textbook, and a few students said that I digressed, and I went off tangent.
On the positive side, one student did comment that he found my method of teaching intellectually challenging, and that he learned a lot, which he described as a strength.
Socrates would not have wanted to teach students who only want to be spoon fed, who do not want to learn, who only want to get good grades, and eventually their diploma, so they could work for an industry that they're just in it for the money. Students nowadays feel entitled. Entitled to be knowledgeable without making the effort to learn. Entitled to get good grades without learning anything. Entitled to get diploma without passing courses. Entitled to get a job. Entitled to get high salary. Entitled to get their material satisfaction. And finally, entitled to blame everyone else including their college professor if they don't get what they want.
Gee I wonder who could've posted this one (Score:3, Interesting)
Original article: 70k views per day
Original Slashdot submission: 70k views per day
Front page post after editing: Over 100k views per day
Stay classy, kdawson.
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I wish... (Score:5, Informative)
I had knowledge of this site sooner. My Linear Algebra professor was horrible at giving lectures.(I wasn't the only one who thought so) After reviewing some of the linear material, Khans videos are helpful even after several weeks of summer. In fact the videos on the Gram-Schmidt helped explain what I completely missed the first time.
I congratulate you Khan for your hard work to help educate the people of the world. I know it will serve me well in the upcoming year.
Re:I wish... (Score:4, Funny)
Does he tech Klingon? (Score:4, Funny)
Does he tech Klingon?
Re:Does he tech Klingon? (Score:5, Funny)
No, but he do tech English.
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My hovercraft is full of eels!
Spell it correctly. Its Khan. (Score:5, Informative)
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not kahn.
Somehow, they managed to spell it right in the link url but wrong in the text, every single time. Amazing.
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It's KHAAAAAAAAN!
Web programmers, You can help! (Score:5, Informative)
Slashdot QC Fail, but Thanks Anway (Score:3, Informative)
Would have been nice if they had spelled the name right. My GOD, KDawson didn't even have to do anything like actually verify or read the site to review, he could have just looked at the two links in the damn summary.
Still, I had heard inklings of something like this somewhere before, but never hunted it down. Thanks for providing it. As someone that came to a mind-boggling late interest in actually learning any real math, I may have found a place to spend some serious time.
Thanks so much to Mr. Khan - a noble and important effort to drag those of us in dark ignorance into some level of glimmer.
Khaaaaaaaaaan!!!!!! (Score:5, Funny)
From Youtube's heart I vlog at thee.
Instructional Design (Score:5, Informative)
In addition to the things listed above, he obviously has a pretty good grasp of instructional design principles.
I watched a couple videos, and has either studied it or learned from trial and error somewhere along the line.
Let us not forget this important glue that holds together solid instruction of any kind.
Re:Instructional Design (Score:5, Informative)
> and has either studied it or learned from trial and error somewhere along the line.
It is explained in the FAQ which is linked from the slashdot summary that he uses the youtube time profile of the videos to refine the process.
Also doing an Masters in EE/CS will usually get you a fair amount of time in front of a class doing the problem solving sessions if not actually lecturing for the undergrads. That is a lot of practical trial and error in the teaching process.
It's kinda sad... (Score:5, Insightful)
That the first thing I thought when I read he licenses it all under Creative Commons was "Bet ASCAP would be pissed about that".
But this is a wonderful thing he's doing, kudos to him and I wish him luck. Will have to check out some of his lectures sometime.
Re:It's kinda sad... (Score:4, Funny)
That the first thing I thought when I read he licenses it all under Creative Commons was "Bet ASCAP would be pissed about that".
Am I the only who reads that acronym as Ass-Cap?
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Actually, I usually insert an R into that. I'll leave it to you to figure out where.
What is ASCAPR? [bash.org] :P
On a serious note, Khan Academy is wonderful. I only wish the content could be organized in a prerequisite manner across different topics (e.g. basic algebra before calculus, etc.). I guess I'll check the issue tracker, and maybe even send a patch or two :)
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You're not. What with ASSCRAP and SCROTUS I sometimes wonder if I should be reading /. at work...
PoV of Maths Faculty (Score:3, Interesting)
I work at a University, teaching Maths across many levels.
Khan's screencasts are nice - patient demos of how to do standard calculations. They are fairly traditional in some ways - 21st century chalk+talk.
They are mostly useful for the "what to do" as even these contain enough of the "why" to put it in context.
They complement what we do in formal classes, so we are happy to informally refer students on to them.
Thank you! (Score:4, Informative)
FAQ - How can you help? (Score:4, Informative)
==============
How can I/you help?
The biggest thing is getting the word out. The students who use the site seem to really get excited by how quickly and deeply they can learn from it. Right now (5/2010), there are about 200,000 students using the site per month; no reason why it shouldn't be 20 million!
If you like to code or work on user interface design, you might be able to help on the Khan Academy applications which we are doing as an open source project [google.com]
This should be the way of the future... (Score:2, Interesting)
Teaching in the future, will be more tailored to the individual, learning what he needs to forgetting about what he does not....
What I also see happening in the near future with this sort of teaching is that you will end up with many people overlapping knowledge..and collaborating more, if I know about general physics but buddy beside me knows more, for my present day problem I will consult with him, and he will have his use, where as the rest will be what I learned from this style course, unless I want to
sounds like Amazon.com "super-reviewers" (Score:2)
Re:s/Kahn/Khan (Score:4, Funny)
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I wonder what sed would do in that situation.
1) Nothing?
2) You'd get an error message?
3) Something really bad and unexpected (but that with hindsight makes sense, if you really think about it) would happen?
I think 2 is unlikely, and I'm not going to risk it.
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$ sed s/khan/kahn tmp.txt
sed: -e expression #1, char 11: unterminated `s' command
I'm not sure exactly what you expected could go horribly wrong just using sed! (Not that this should be a general rule for trying out different commands)
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I'm not sure exactly what you expected could go horribly wrong just using sed!
My friend, you have no idea:)
For example: script to replace bad words such as: s/gay/homosexual/
Result: http://revealingerrors.com/tyson_homosexual [revealingerrors.com]
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It would be number two. GNU sed will actually tell you that you didn't terminate your 's' command correctly. Older seds will just say something like "garbled command".
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You forgot your trailing slash. And you want us to think you actually use sed. Come on.
Congratulations, you just pointed out a syntax error in pseudocode.
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If one extra character changes it from pseudocode to real code, why not include that one extra character?
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If one extra character changes it from pseudocode to real code, why not include that one extra character?
Because he's not writing to a computer program? Clearly his communication was successful to its intended audience. I know some of us interact with computers all day, but there is no reason to start acting like one when talking to other humans. Except for the fun of it. :-)
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* YMMV. This post is not intended to ignite the flamefest known as the vi-emacs schism.
Which is small comfort, as I think you and I both know the road to schismatic flamefests is paved with good intentions.
Re:Youtube? (Score:5, Insightful)
Is it possible to ask that just a bit nicely???
Is there a place where I can get the videos without a flash wrapper? It would be really appreciated? If not, would someone be willing to set it up so that this Kahn guy doesn't have to spend his time doing it? If not, does someone have 20TB or so of space and a really big connection so I can set up torrents for this.
I mean the guy's obviously put quite a bit of effort into this.. the effort to write a bit more tha.... oh get off my lawn :-)
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ClickToFlash (if you're using Safari Mac) (Score:3, Informative)
If you're using Safari on a Mac, install ClickToFlash [clicktoflash.com], which in addition to letting you leave Flash off until you absolutely need it, shows YouTube video with an H.264 wrapper.
Re:Youtube? (Score:5, Insightful)
Torrents would be good if you were in a place where youtube was blocked ... like about 1/4 of the world's internet users.
Re:Youtube? (Score:4, Informative)
Pirate Bay Link [thepiratebay.org]
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Why is parent modded offtopic?
- someone posts videos of free content on youtube
- youtube is not a very free place
- someone else requests the videos be delivered in a less restricted manner
Sounds topical to me.
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Why is parent modded offtopic?
Probably because everything you said had to be gleaned by implication -- the poster just made a request without any background for it. People misheard it as rude and demanding apparently.
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This is a geek site with attention to detail.
Well, you got the first part of that statement right...
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Wouldn't it go against the non-profit ethos to advocate a for-profit dev platform?
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No. That tidal wave will never stop rolling in, bringing in wave after wave of new responses to three-year-old posts, all saying "I am having this problem too, please email me at isuckdonkeys@aol.com with solution."
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Sorry, the echo tag doesn't seem to be working.