Chill about the search feature

[StreetMage]

I haven't seen much of this here, but when I do see it it's really abrasive to read. I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about.

Somebody posts a topic. Let's say it has something to do with having small hands, where to learn the pass, overcoming nerves/shakiness, etc. Now, rather than receiving an answer to his question, the thread poster sees about five responses that look something like this:

You son of a mother-clucking, rock-eating, used-car-selling, one-eyed parrot-biter! How dare you bring this up? How DARE you?! There are a million and a half topics on this already, and if I see one more, I'm going to eat a bunch of arsenic and just die in my own puke. You bloody moron! If you ever, EVER fail to use the search feature again, I'm going to sneak into your house, cut your heart out of your chest, eat it, dismember you, splatter your blood all over everything, and leave you like that for whoever to find.

SEARCH FEATURE!!!!

Obviously this is a slight exaggeration, but you guys get the point. One of the things about E that makes me want to claw out my own prostate is the tendency of its users to beat each other over the head with the search feature. First of all, I don't really think anybody but mods have the right to jump on somebody about an unsearched topic. That's just me. Second of all, just commanding somebody to use the search feature and not answering his question is a rude waste of space in a thread you basically didn't contribute anything to. If you're going to post in a thread, please contribute to the topic, and if you really feel the need to bring up the search feature, link to a few topics that answer the person's question and say, "Here are a few topics that came up with the search feature. I think some of them might answer your question. You might try searching your topic next time to see if there are already threads on it."

I realize it seems like I post alot about how others should post, but you have to understand that I came here for a handful of reasons, and one of those reasons was to get away from some of the detritus I encountered on the E forums. I'm just doing my best to make sure some of the same problems don't creep in here.

 

[Dave Wiltrout]

I agree it shouldn't be as harsh, but I also feel that a topic should be searched thoroughly before posting because alot of the times the subject is already being discussed in another thread and the answers are right there for the taken.

Yes, we are here to help others, but why should we have to take time out of our lives to answer a question when a 20 second search would have given them their answers and sometimes more? I think alot of people these days are just getting lazy and want everything spoon fed to them.

Now I understand if something is hard to come by or the keyword may be a little common, but things like shaky, sweaty hands have been discussed to death and back more times than I care for. Now why should I have to sit down and retype the same thing I typed yesterday regarding the same topic? Did I not help other members and offer my advice already? I don't think that is fair to ones that really offered a good advice to just have to repeat themselves because someones is just being too lazy.

That's my two cents.

-Dave T. Wiltrout-

 

[y2john]

I definitely agree that it's unfair to jump down peoples throats etc when they are just enquiring... lets say they did search but didn't see what they were after even thought the topic is out there somewhere, why have a go when you could spend that time helping etc.
I barely looked at ellusionists forums, but I did see stupid unhelpful responses to a lot of threads.
This is a new place and we should strive to be helpful and friendly to the others as we're all here for the love of this art.

 

[StreetMage]

I agree it shouldn't be as harsh, but I also feel that a topic should be searched thoroughly before posting because alot of the times the subject is already being discussed in another thread and the answers are right there for the taken.

Yes, we are here to help others, but why should we have to take time out of our lives to answer a question when a 20 second search would have given them their answers and sometimes more? I think alot of people these days are just getting lazy and want everything spoon fed to them.

Now I understand if something is hard to come by or the keyword may be a little common, but things like shaky, sweaty hands have been discussed to death and back more times than I care for. Now why should I have to sit down and retype the same thing I typed yesterday regarding the same topic? Did I not help other members and offer my advice already? I don't think that is fair to ones that really offered a good advice to just have to repeat themselves because someones is just being too lazy.

That's my two cents.

-Dave T. Wiltrout-

In the case that you just typed a response yesterday, it takes about 20 seconds to simply link the person to your topic and say, "Here's what others have said on this. Try searching next time." Like I said, mentioning that the person should check out the search feature is one thing, but just telling them to search the topic without helping them out is a waste of space in their thread, and it's rude.

And I don't think asking a question when you don't know something is lazy. It's just a basic human impulse. I'm knowledgeable on a variety of subjects, and I do well in my classes, so I get asked a lot of questions by a lot of people. These people don't go to the library first and research the topic, they just come ask me. As a result, I end up repeating answers to questions for a lot of people. When I've been asked the same question in math for the third time by the third different person, I don't command him to go read his mathbook, I just try to explain to him how to find the answer to the problem, just like I did with the other two people that asked. If you don't feel like doing this for others, you simply don't have to post in their threads. You can link them to stuff you've already said, or you can just say to yourself, "Well, that person's out of luck for not using the search feature and finding my awesome exposition on this subject."

My whole point is, if you're going to take the time to post in a person's topic, make sure you're actually helping him out and not just getting in his face about the search feature. Otherwise, you're just wasting space in somebody else's topic, which, as I've said before, is just rude.

 

[y2john]

In the case that you just typed a response yesterday, it takes about 20 seconds to simply link the person to your topic and say, "Here's what others have said on this. Try searching next time." Like I said, mentioning that the person should check out the search feature is one thing, but just telling them to search the topic without helping them out is a waste of space in their thread, and it's rude.

And I don't think asking a question when you don't know something is lazy. It's just a basic human impulse. I'm knowledgeable on a variety of subjects, and I do well in my classes, so I get asked a lot of questions by a lot of people. These people don't go to the library first and research the topic, they just come ask me. As a result, I end up repeating answers to questions for a lot of people. When I've been asked the same question in math for the third time by the third different person, I don't command him to go read his mathbook, I just try to explain to him how to find the answer to the problem, just like I did with the other two people that asked. If you don't feel like doing this for others, you simply don't have to post in their threads. You can link them to stuff you've already said, or you can just say to yourself, "Well, that person's out of luck for not using the search feature and finding my awesome exposition on this subject."

My whole point is, if you're going to take the time to post in a person's topic, make sure you're actually helping him out and not just getting in his face about the search feature. Otherwise, you're just wasting space in somebody else's topic, which, as I've said before, is just rude.

Well said and I fully agree

 

[Avancer]

Lol, I think that's the best exageration ever, you get my medal

Topicwise, I agree that people shouldn't jump all over each other about using the search button, but it is pretty handy if you ask me and helps save you from "flaming" treatment.

 

[StreetMage]

Lol, I think that's the best exageration ever, you get my medal

Topicwise, I agree that people shouldn't jump all over each other about using the search button, but it is pretty handy if you ask me and helps save you from "flaming" treatment.

The thing is, in a community geared toward helping each other and furthering our art, "flaming" just should not exist, as it has no place here. While I haven't seen that much search-related flaming here, I have seen a good bit of juvenile/flaming type posting in general, and this sort of upsets me. We really need to concentrate on being courteous to each other and not let this forum end up like so many others. You don't see much flaming on E, period. I'd hate for it to creep in here. The fact that the mods here seem to be a little more forgiving and relucant to close things than mods elsewhere doesn't mean we need to get carried away.

 

[Avancer]

As much as I agree that flaming shouldn't exist, it does and no matter what people do, there'll always be some, but like you said, it's our job to keep it to a minimum and the moderators to take care of the stuff that we can't touch up on...