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Naming and Shaming Bad Forums with Bad Ethics

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J-Mac:
A good example of the correct way to imply RTFM is Kinook's Ultra Recall forum. On a few occasions - and on many others for other users - I have gotten a reply to my question from the developer that consisted of a link to the Online Help page that contains an answer. In all cases I have searched through the UR Help file but it is an extremely extensive file that, while containing a vast amount of knowledge, is more of a great read for programming types and kind of hard to understand by mere mortals! (I occasionally read the UR manual when I am having difficulty falling asleep!  ;D )

Thanks!

Jim

TucknDar:
Makes me remember the ruckus caused by the developer of an early version of the blackbox shell for windows. He was so tired of "noobs" asking the same questions over and over, that he changed the shell executable so that it needed the parameter "-rtfm" to run :D Obviously caused a bunch of complaints that the shell wouldn't start. To be fair to the developer, the information about the rtfm parameter was rather publicly available IIRC, and as such it proved his point that many people don't actually read the manual (or a simple README in this case).

Even though I agree that answers such as "Google it" or "RTFM" are useless and rude, sometimes I can see why people using these replies may be annoyed. I'm frequenting the XDA forums (phone OS/software development), more specifically this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=829734 and the same questions are asked over and over and over again. The forum has a rather simple, yet sufficient "Search this thread" function, which is apparently not used much.

Just as "RTFM-repliers" are rude, when people don't first search for answers to their questions, I think that may be considered rude as well, as these people obviously expect others to provide information that they themselves might have found with just a little effort. But when a search didn't help, obviously one wants a more helpful reply than "Google it" or "RTFM"...

40hz:
Even though I agree that answers such as "Google it" or "RTFM" are useless and rude, sometimes I can see why people using these replies may be annoyed. I'm frequenting the XDA forums (phone OS/software development), more specifically this thread: http://forum.xda-develope...m/showthread.php?t=829734 and the same questions are asked over and over and over again. The forum has a rather simple, yet sufficient "Search this thread" function, which is apparently not used much.
--- End quote ---

I deal with a similiar problem on a forum I'm a moderator for.

From my experience, that sort of behavior seems largely confined to first time visitors. And the last thing I ever want to do (no matter how frustrated I get) is come down like a ton of bricks on some first-timer who is merely trying to get a question answered.

So rather than bang my head against the wall, I went and stored a bunch of canned FAQ-type responses in a clipping utility. Now, whenever I get a repeat question, I'll just paste a repeat answer and call it a day. I do, however, also include boilerplate that politely points out the same information is available elswhere along with the link to it.

So far, I've only had few cases where the same person continuously neglected to first look at the FAQ section after that. But rather than be rude to these people (who are obviously brain-damaged and deserving of pity) I just paste them additional canned responses - and hope for the best.
 
8)

J-Mac:
I will usually try to answer any question which I am equipped to answer. The only exception, the kinds of questions that bug me are when someone just purchased/obtained a program and very obviously hasn’t even tried to use it yet. E.g., "I just downloaded and installed this. How do I use it?". Grrr...  >:(  Especially when the title of the thread they started is something similar to "HEEEELLLLLLLLPPPPP!!!! plz!!?"

Jim

40hz:
^For people like that, I'll just post them a link to the Getting Started section of the user manual or wiki.

Not everybody is as easygoing however.

My good and utterly charming friend Gwyneth (Gwen7 btw. Hi Gwen!) deals with it on her forum by "bopping" such messages. Bopping consists of locking the post and tossing it over to the Disallowed Posts & Questions section of her site. When you go there, there's a nice little pop-up that answers the question "Why did my post end up here?"

Things that will get you "bopped" are clearly spelled out in the forum rules section - which you supposedly read because you needed to agree to it before you were allowed to post.

Some things on the bop list (besides the usual obscene/illegal/etc. stuff) include:

Crying Wolf - saying things like ***EMERGENCY*** in the headline when it's something that clearly isn't.

Excessive Noise - entering headlines that include things like HEEELLLLPPP!!!  and WTF????

Plus one that cracks me up:

Anatomy Lesson - referring to an entire individual (or group) as any specific part, or parts, of the human anatomy.

----

Makes me wonder what would happen if I said: Boy are these people ever a complete bunch of lungs!

Hmmm...gonna have to try it.  ;D

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