@pH: And you don't need to benefit all of mankind either to do a good job at what you do. Please understand pH, I wasn't trying to discredit your site, or say that is is purposeless. I did not mean to propose a challenge of any sort. I was more just interested in the sort of responses I would receive... And they proved to be interesting responses.
BTW, I like the points you made in the last post, both "(1)" and "(b)" that is.
Kidding again of course.
IMHO as I can't speak for all of staff, OCF isn't serving any purpose higher than that of the mission statement I posted earlier which Joe, Ed, and Skip wrote. We help those who come to us, regardless of what their intentions are, we help them come to a much better understanding of PC's. Members can come to us with hardly "0 clue" and we will be patient and helpful enough that if they stick around, and if they aren't completely ignorant, they can't help but learn stuff from us. I think the advancement of members at our site is painfully evident with many members who have joined, and they would tell you the same... Especially those of us on staff, we stick around because we realize how selfless the people before us were, and how much we learned from them. We stay to pass that on as best we can.
What we give members is something they can go out and apply in the real world. Many other members work on relatives and families computers and apply what they have learned there. Their understanding can stop there, or it can go further. How much is learned is largely up to the member... I might not have the job I have if it weren't for OCF. But I joined their site, and was so impressed with how helpful everyone was willing to be, it motivated me to learn more so that I could do the same for others.
I think that is the true glory of OCF, the way members are encouraged and inspired by the length we are willing to go to help a person we don't know.
@AngryAlpaca: I'm not implying, I'm flat out telling you... Don't kid yourself about this forum interaction as being part of the professional world. What we do at these sites are largely jokes to many knowledgeable professionals in the IT industry. We may have some professionals in attendance, but that does not make these interactions "professional". To tell them this is anything more than hobby would get you laughed at.