How Do I.......

[Renegade]

I'm talking about the way you communicate with good users. Just cause tmapm or bob have more lenient attitudes, you shouldn't be going around threatening to temp-ban them.

If the help I give inspires you to temporary ban me, so be it. And if that is the case, I have a feeling I'll be banned a lot. But I'll be worth it.

My problem was less that you actually helped him, but that you blatantly disregarded a direct administrative order I gave. Not even unintentionally. Directly. Knowing I had told you not to, even mocking me afterwards that you didn't feel threatened by me. And that just leaves one impression with me: You are a liability to the order of this forum. And I'll be damned if I let my own forums be taken over by random users just because you're not afraid to get banned.
I didn't ban you yet, 'cause it's the first time you stand out negatively, and I assume your general community reputation wouldn't be as good if you were a trouble maker. But rest assured, I won't let you undermine my authority. Accept the forum rules, or be banned. Your decision. For me it's just two clicks difference.

I'm still going to help whoever posts on these boards regardless of whether you want to or not.

That sentence just cracks me up

Would a better idea not be to impose some form of restriction on the n00bs themselves, rather than anyone who is willing to attempt helping them.

There actually is: The rules allow for any n00bish post to be deleted right away. I just opted to instead make known to him that the answer was obvious and the problem trivial. But he hasn't visited us since, and tmapm used the chance to start an insurrection or something.

While the 'problem' was clearly in front of the 'n00b's' eyes, I don't see how the solution was if the person was unfamiliar with FA2. While its fine to point someone to the online help, that won't be enough if they don't understand the help because of how its worded or the concepts are described. Just because its possible for you to learn from that kind of documentation, doesn't mean everyone can.

In all of this you are assuming the user actually (tried to) read the documentation - there is no indication of such an act in the original post. Hence my suggestion to [url=http://www.modenc.renegadeprojects.com/RTFM]RTFM[/url].
If he tried to read the manual and didn't get it, that's a whole different issue - if somebody wants to help himself, but can't, there's nothing wrong in helping him help himself. But the user in question showed no such aspirations - he just came here, posted his screenshot, and asked "how do i remove til errors?". No hello, no report what he did before, no indications what he tried yet, nothing. Experience in this very community has taught me there's a high probability this means either
1. This is "his" first attempt to solve this problem - outsourcing it to us, or
2. He just wrote one post and copied it over half the community, hoping to get help somewhere.
The problem is not helping users. If I didn't want users to get help, I wouldn't have this forum. The problem is helping users who use us as a hive mind so they don't have to do the thinking themselves. In the time it took the user to take a screenshot, save it, upload it, and post here, he probably could've found the solution by trial and error - much faster, had he decided to think. Instead, he came here. Which wouldn't have been the worst, had you helped me slowly guide him to finding the solution on his own, encouraging him to act more independently the next time he runs into a problem. But nooo, you guys rather push him right into the toolset, and he doesn't seem too interested in (or at least thankful for tmapm's) answers anyway.

I'm with tmapm on this one, he didn't spoon feed anyone with anything.

Funny thing is, you're actually kinda right there - 'cause he, too, failed to accurately pinpoint the actual "problem" asked about in the original post, and instead went with bobing's "how to complete the cliffs so you can use auto-levels" method. Nevertheless,
"how do i remove til errors?"
"Switch to framework mode (the fancy colored box.) You'll find you're missing a ramp. ie. 0025 (Slope Set Pieces.) [...]"
is "spoonfeeding". Maybe a tea spoon, but definately a spoon. And before you say "no, it isn't", realize this: He didn't just say "you're missing ramps". He even gave him the fucking tileset number. The only thing missing is a graphical step-by-step guide.