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Why do we go out of our way to be unhelpful in forums?

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Renegade:
One thing I like is ANY answer is better than NO answer. Usually I just want a starting point, and not a complete answer. If I get that start, then I'm usually good to go.

mrainey:
I also tend to make a mountain out of a mole hill.
--- End quote ---

Agreed.  And many of us don't have the time to spend on molehills, especially when the subject is so often something along the lines of "Why does EVERYTHING SUCK?"   :)

IainB:
@superboyac: Your question is a loaded question - full of assumption - and thus may provoke a random/irrational response.

Trying to be rational: My experience of the DC forum is that most respondents/commenters seem to be pretty helpful  - or as helpful as they are able.

What you probably inevitably find in forums though is "forum fatigue" from responding to the same old questions or variations of the same, time and time again. Then the respondent probably tries to be as brief as possible. It could all seem rather dull and boring after several repetitions.
For example, I found this happening to me when I volunteered myself for ardvark, so I had "standard answers" at the ready for the repetitive questions. Realising that I was probably wasting my time, I eventually made a decision to stop making any response at all. The most productive and consistent thing to do for a repetitive process is to automate it. "Googling" a question would seem to do that quite well.

@mrainey:
"Why does EVERYTHING SUCK?"
--- End quote ---
At the risk of being repetitious, I thought it had been conclusively established a while back elsewhere in this forum -
e.g., https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=22523.msg202946#msg202946
- that the most effective method for improving the DC forum's feel-good factor and avoiding things sucking was to plaster animated pictures of Angelina Jolie in scant or zero attire all over the place.
 :P

superboyac:
@superboyac:[/b] Your question is a loaded question - full of assumption - and thus may provoke a random/irrational response.
-IainB (September 29, 2010, 10:16 AM)
--- End quote ---
I know.  I did it on purpose.  I like to provoke people occasionally...er...often.

As far as forum fatigue goes, that's also a gray area.  If it was easy to search for things and find the answer without having to find the needle int he haystack, then sure, I agree.  But it's not like that.  If it's not a forum you are registered, you will often have to first register to search.  That alone, makes me want to just come here and ask.  Also, even if the search is available, if its interface is klunky and the results are hard to sift through, same thing.  Just because you have the ability search doesn't mean it's helpful.

And you know what I'm realizing from all of this?  It's just me.  I shouldn't subject others to my moodiness about this stuff (especially lately).  Maybe I'm just over-sensitive to this subject.  So I shouldn't be a dick and be impatient right off the bat.  It's pretty bad! ;D Sometimes, I feel like I'm being impatient before anything even happens, because I'm just predicting what's coming in my head.  That's no good!

Anyway, you guys are the best.

Unrelated:
I just had a talk with one of my coworkers, who knows how to program.  Man, he has some really cool stuff going on.  I was talking to him about backing things up and file synchronizing and all that.  The guy has written his own program to backup his stuff.  It's amazing.  The database keeps track of the files, but it also knows if another person has that file, and if so, then it doesn't need to be backed up.  Just all sorts of cool stuff.

mouser:
Tell him to come by and participate in our NANY event!

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