Growing Tired of Downer Attitudes ...

[Liteskr42]

In reality This forums is actually quite civil. There are other forums for other things out there, I wont name them , where you get hit with violations and threats of being banned from the forum for posting in the "wrong" forum or asking a question that has already been asked. A particular knife forum comes to mind for me. I havnt been back there since .

I will say the search engine on CPF pulls in alot of extra stuff when you do a search and I believe it also pulls in all that personal info at the bottom of CPF members posts also which really buries the real info yu are seeking in a quagmire of useless junk. It can be very frustrating and requires a significant amount of time to pick thru it all with sometimes fruitless results. I have been there myself. I spend more time on here than I should and I know many others have little to no time to hang out here at all.

 

[dano]

It wouldnt be an issue if people posted in the correct forums (i.e. like this thread, which is in the incorrect forum), looked around and explored before posting, actually read the stickies before posting, etc. Quite a bit of the redundant questions come from people who never read or explored CPF, or bothered to find the answer on their own.

Newbie questions have always been encouraged. Having the LED F.L. Forum dominated by "Which P60drop in is best" type of redundant posts, as an example, is not.

 

[JB5]

Talking and asking questions is what forums are all about. If everytime a student asked the teacher a question and was told to just go look it up in the library then the world would be a very uneducated place. The majority of ppl need help to get answers and quite frankly, if you know the the answer then help a newb out, and then maybe explain to them that there is also a search function that alot of info can be found. Don't just shut them out and leave them on their own. And next time they will probably use it first.

This is the main reason I do not ask alot of questions here. I do use the search alot as I am researching kinda guy but, to someone who is not the cfp search is not that easy to use.

In my opinion either help them out or ignor the post all together.

 

[Pummy]

I will say the search engine on CPF pulls in alot of extra stuff when you do a search and I believe it also pulls in all that personal info at the bottom of CPF members posts also which really buries the real info yu are seeking in a quagmire of useless junk. It can be very frustrating and requires a significant amount of time to pick thru it all with sometimes fruitless results.

+1. This puts off a lot of people, even folks who are prepared to go through the results to try and find something useful.

 

[kccustom]

Maybe its just me but if you find this forum and do a search you will 99% of the time find satisfaction to your inquiry, but, I think people (like me) want to be part of the community so they post a commonly asked question just to be seen.
lovecpf

 

[Cosmo7809]

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/212701

 

[LeifUK]

It wouldnt be an issue if people posted in the correct forums (i.e. like this thread, which is in the incorrect forum), looked around and explored before posting, actually read the stickies before posting, etc. Quite a bit of the redundant questions come from people who never read or explored CPF, or bothered to find the answer on their own.

Newbie questions have always been encouraged. Having the LED F.L. Forum dominated by "Which P60drop in is best" type of redundant posts, as an example, is not.

:shakehead

You did read my post didn't you?

 

[Chroma]

I've only been here a short time as a member but have been lurking for a while, mostly reading the reviews.

Regarding noob questions. As somebody said, I think that if something is a repeat, why not just skip past the post if you're annoyed? People who speak of clutter and/or bandwidth are really just creating a reason to be annoyed. Does it really hurt your well-being if somebody asks what the best EDC carry light under 50 bucks is? Again, skip past it. I'm sure your eyes can't be that offended and if they are, yeesh.

It's not conductive to a "feel good" forum when you feel that every new post has to be prefaced with, "I did a thorough search and please forgive me if this has been discussed." Life shouldn't be that scary.

 

[SureAddicted]

It wouldnt be an issue if people posted in the correct forums (i.e. like this thread, which is in the incorrect forum), looked around and explored before posting, actually read the stickies before posting, etc. Quite a bit of the redundant questions come from people who never read or explored CPF, or bothered to find the answer on their own.

Newbie questions have always been encouraged. Having the LED F.L. Forum dominated by "Which P60drop in is best" type of redundant posts, as an example, is not.

I agree.
Budman231, your not exactly a newbie, you've been a member for over 4 years, I'd at least expect you to post this thread in the correct forum.

 

[Dougzilla]

Im not trying to rock the boat here cuz im new, but wheni found this website about a month ago, i was very excited to find other people with my flashlight interest. Before this place, i thought i was just crazy. LOL

60 seconds is what it takes my internet service to load one page. (satellite) then i have to read 10 pages for each post, just to realize im no closer to an answer...

one important thing ya'll arent considering is that new people like me, dont know what all the abbreviations you use, mean. For example, i have no idea what a TSA is. I would have to ask a real person. I also spent countless hours trying to figure out what a CR123 battery was. As soon as i asked it as a question, i got an answer. Here in fact, is my exact post.

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/256516

Notice how one guy in there had to mention the search feature, while 3 or 4 other gave me the info i needed immediately.

In the time it took you to write "try using the seach feature" you could have instead wrote the answer to my question. Am i wrong? :thinking:

 

[fisk-king]

I agree.
Budman231, your not exactly a newbie, you've been a member for over 4 years, I'd at least expect you to post this thread in the correct forum.

+1
sort of like this one


https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/212701

 

[vali]

Id rather ask a question and get an answer immediately, instead of wasting hours and hours skimming thru a bunch of confusing posts. Thats the whole reason i join forums, to talk to actual real people....not google.

The problem arises when someone create a thread asking the same thing that 2 other ones in the same index page. It is not rare either to see someone asking something answered just a few post ago in the very same thread.

Then there are people who complain for not being answered in a matter of a few hours... I have to say that "hey, why nobody answered me?" a couple of hours after opening the thread just irritates me as much as topics like "I need help".

Its not about being a noob or elite, but about being lazy enough not to read, thinking "I deserve being asked" and mixing a forum with a chat.

That being said, I am not the kind of guy who uses the "ask google" answer.

 

[SureAddicted]

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/212701

:thinking:
What exactly does that link have anything to do with my post?

 

[Launch Mini]

I think we have all been guilty of this.
If you removed all the duplicate questions/threads etc, there would be a ton of them gone.
I see the same thing on other forums I visit.

 

[rje58]

Maybe it's because very few people read the "Administrative->Questions/Problems/Suggestions" forum, except for the Moderators.

I guess that over-emphasizing the rules and comments such as your "I'd at least expect...", can't be considered 'whining', which is also against the rules, eh?

I agree.
Budman231, your not exactly a newbie, you've been a member for over 4 years, I'd at least expect you to post this thread in the correct forum.

 

[SureAddicted]

Maybe it's because very few people read the "Administrative->Questions/Problems/Suggestions" forum, except for the Moderators.

I guess that over-emphasizing the rules and comments such as your "I'd at least expect...", can't be considered 'whining', which is also against the rules, eh?

Whining?
I maybe could of worded it a bit better, replacing the "I'd" with "Your" and "expect" with "expected".

 

[recDNA]

I have been bitting my lip for a while now ...

It seems that many times someone puts up a post and the instant implication is either "Hey there is already a thread here dummy" or "Stop bothering us with this old news" or "Do a search before asking us this question".

The nature of a forum like this is to share news/discoveries, ask questions, and share in the excitement of the flashlight hobby. It is impossible to search through the thousands of threads that exist here before sharing in some excitment with fellow enthusiasts.

In life there are people who would just rather ask than do the research. This is true at work, and in every aspect of life. That's why the rest of us are here. We are here to help provide answers and perform research because we are good at it, we like it and have the knowleged. Use this gift for good.

I know most people are cool with duplicate topic threads / old news. I have noticed a growing number of "downers" here lately and to those I say give people a break. Nothing stinks more than a newb or old poster getting post-slapped for sharing some excitment with the community even if it's not "new".

I would guess that most all topics that can be talked about already have at some point by now. Take mom's advice, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all ...

I couldn't agree more! If your only contribution to a question is, "The answer is already here - try searching" then just don't answer and allow someone to who would like to. I think posting a link is great but just telling the person to go search is obnoxious IMO.

I have never once had an advanced search work for any issue I've tried to search. The ordinary search option may find 100's of threads or none - both are equally useless. Too much info is as bad as too little.

When you've read a thread and know the title or exact nature of it it is easy to find it in a search. If you are guessing at key words good luck - you'll need it.

YAAAAYYY for your great thread idea and super post!

 

[Vesper]

I don't see the downer attitudes. I suppose if you're overly sensitive you might, but this forum is very polite for the most part.

Most duplicate dead horse posts still get answered even while some also simultaneously prod towards the search function. It's a good balance. I'd be lost without the Google search on this site. It should definitely be ppl's first stop and it should continue to be brought up.

:tired:

 

[StandardBattery]

This is exactly what happens when people see the slap-posts. There are always going to be experts, but I would argue that CPF is where those experts got much of their knowledge. Let's encourage posts no matter how insignificant/old they may seem.

Just don't read posts if it isn't of interest. Plain and simple.

We owe it to the community as a whole, to encourage new/less skilled folks. To attract the next gen CPFers. The more comfortable people feel asking questions and sharing news, the better the community will be.

:twothumbs

+1 Now you're smoking. (check the battery :green

It's a question of culture (for lack of a better word) on the forum. As other have pointed out this is the CPF forum, not Google.com. Search is great once you know enough to search.

In addition, as other have mentioned people putting the lights they own in their sig line can render searches for more historical info very ineffective and a time consuming. I know a thing or two about search, and even google, a very good general purpose engine, is often snookered by various aspects of CPF and forums in general.

Of course, there is no black and white, and the extreme case is bad. However that's why there is software and mods and tools to deal with this. Gentle reminders, pointers to well communicated posts, the 'best-of-cpf' type lists. etc.

Above all, give the newcomer a break.

lovecpf and we all want it to be efficient, but we need to think about how to achieve that. The old ways don't always work, with the new tasks.

 

[bansuri]

I recently joined the mydellmini forums and noticed that the "search it, noob!" behavior is prohibited.
I like!
Also, the mods do a great job of merging threads on cpf whenever possible so that keeps the redundancy down.