Think before saying an "easy search" or "look in a Tm".

[kfrosty]

First I've been on chat rooms, forums etc since 1992. I've worked for Microsoft and presently a software developer. I've been in the MV hobby for a year now. In speaking with people, some get turned off from these sites because when they ask a question, they get chastised or ridiculed by something like "A simple search shows this" or the worst it's in a TM.

If a TM is the answer for everything, then why even have a forum?

I'm not sure how many forums I've ran, I quit because it's one of the worst forms of babysitting there is and I give mad props for the owners of this site for what they do.

Forums are for most a way to interact, associate with people with the same interest. Also, it's a way to find answers. All I do is solve problems and search 10 hours a day for a solutions and sometimes on this forum, using it's search I don't find what I'm looking for. Sometimes it's because I don't type in the correct terms, sometimes I did and for whatever reason what I'm looking for was buried.

I get we don't want 1,000 threads on how every single subject. However, when you post a "simple search", you're basically shaming somebody who may just not get involved in the site anymore.

First the TM and my biggest pet peeve, if you're a TM expert and a question that's asked is clear in a TM, post the number, link to it and page to find the answer. If you don't know, then just don't post. Anything else is a waste of time and just clutters up the thread. If somebody asks a duplicate question, pm them a link and ask them to delete thread. If somebody has posted, we really need a way to consolidate duplicate threads or something to that effect. But do not attack people for asking. Finally, if you don't want to put the effort in then just ignore and move on. Being offensive and shaming eventually will lead to more and more people leaving the site, giving bad opinions to others and eventually there will be no site. This is too good of a site with a lot of tremendous people on it for that to happen.

And don't even go the liberal route with me as I'm about as non PC as you can get. But there is a difference between not being PC and being a jacka$$.

This is an opinion and if anybody else tells me I can simply searched and found something I had wasted an hour searching on, I'm going to direct them too. Other than that I'm unsubscribing to this and not getting into any point/counter point conversations.

Thanks again to the owners of this site and what you go through on a daily basis to make this available to all of us.

 

[mkcoen]

The search function here isn't the greatest but there are far more people that jump on here for "a quick question" that don't bother doing any type of search whether on line or in the TM and just want someone to give them the answer. I'm all for helping folks out but, as you mention, it can be the "worst form of babysitting." If I turn someone off that's too lazy to search on their own first then I don't see it as a great loss to the site. Forcing someone to learn to use the TMs is doing them a greater service than just telling them what to do. If you have the TMs downloaded and don't have access to the internet and are in a pinch then you shouldn't be sitting along side the road pulling your hair out unable to figure things out on your own.

 

[patracy]

If you're not going to help someone else, there's no need to even comment. Help is something more than "read the TM's".