'Smart' Responses

LaHaine

Sometimes stupid questions are how people learn.

I really dont get this. If its a stupid question in your opinion, then don't bother answering.

kevpants

If you want intelligent well laid out advice in the right tone ask the fecking question in the format in which you would like to be responded. Maybe mention you've done some research and would like first hand opinions from people with experience. Bring up things you've read and ask opinions on that.

If someone posts

What's the best way to lose weight

or

How do I make my belly smaller?

It's the equivalent of going to the Motors forum and asking

What's the best car?

or the Running forum and asking

How often should I run to get good?

Maybe it's the millenial generation who aren't used to communicating in any fashion whereby enough information would be relayed to need 2 fecking paragraphs.

It's SOOOOOO frustrating to be willing to give advice but knowing you'll need to ask 10 questions and tease basic information out of the person in order to try and formulate an answer.

If they were asking their doctor for advice surely they'd outline the complaint in full detail. Put some effort into asking for help and show the people who you are asking to take time to help you some respect.

cc87

I blame google! Type in anything and get thousands of answers, bound to find one you agree with

Mellor

Worksforyou wrote: »

It's simple really, if you don't like answering beginners questions then don't answer beginners questions. Leave it to someone who does want to answer.

LaHaine wrote: »

I really dont get this. If its a stupid question in your opinion, then don't bother answering.

It would be a lot easier if people could just ignore the posts and leave somebody see to catch it, except life isn't that convent. Most of the time, people who go through these threads regurgitating something they read, don't really know what they are talking about. And end up posting nonsense.

So the short answers aren't there just to be smart, they are there to counter the misinformation

Femme_Fatale

thegreatiam wrote: »

Stupid questions result in smart answers.

Ask better quality questions to get better quality answers

Explain how the question being referred to is a stupid question. Is it just that "stupid questions" are ones asked by those inferior plebs who aren't as knowledgeable as you?

Blacktie.

Femme_Fatale wrote: »

Explain how the question being referred to is a stupid question.

Read Kevpants post above. It explains it pretty well.

Brian?

thegreatiam wrote: »

Stupid questions result in smart answers.

Ask better quality questions to get better quality answers

How about ignoring any question that you think is stupid. Or even better, tell the poster their question is difficult to answer because it's do vague. Call me crazy but I think we can all be polite and it won't kill us.

God help some of you if this is your attitude out in the real world.

Penny Tration

thegreatiam wrote: »

Stupid questions result in smart answers.

Ask better quality questions to get better quality answers

What defines stupid?

Another poster said asking something like 'how do I make my stomach smaller?' is a stupid question.

If it's stupid to you, don't reply. Why the need to reply with a smart arse comment?

Or, if you hate that a lot of new users ask a vague question, ask them some questions back.

'how do I get a smaller stomach? '

' Well, what do you weigh, what height are you, and tell us about your diet and exercise regime? '

And go from there.

Sometimes people post vague questions simply because they do not know what to ask.

I hurt my back a long time ago, and it still flares up regularly. If I were a complete noob, I'd ask

' What exercises will help with a sore back? '

Because I'm not a noob, I'd be inclined to ask for ideas for exercises (weighted and non weighted)that i could to to work on my core.

But if I asked the first question, what's the problem with asking me what is wrong with it, and what am I looking to achieve? It ends up being one extra post before you can go showing your experise. Big deal.

If you can't say anything nice or helpful, why bother posting?

I would like to add, though, that I find (I lurk a lot) the majority of regs in here to be very helpful.

Worksforyou

It seems some here have the attitude that it's their right to smack down other people if they think the question is silly. This is their forum and newbies need to be thought who has the guns around here!
I have received great help in the thread I started recently and I received the smart arse answers in the same thread. Maybe my questions were stupid (probably were) but how come some people could give me really helpful advice while others were anything but helpful? Both groups were reading the same questions.

Blacktie.

Worksforyou wrote: »

It seems some here have the attitude that it's their right to smack down other people if they think the question is silly. This is their forum and newbies need to be thought who has the guns around here!
I have received great help in the thread I started recently and I received the smart arse answers in the same thread. Maybe my questions were stupid (probably were) but how come some people could give me really helpful advice while others were anything but helpful? Both groups were reading the same questions.

The same reason as real life. People are different.

Worksforyou

Blacktie. wrote: »

The same reason as real life. People are different.

They could have given the same helpful advice i got off others but they choose not to. That would be okay if it was just isolated to one or two threads but if you've ever searched old threads here you'll find the same smart arse attitude in many threads and usually from people with more than 1,000 posts, sometimes far more.

Blacktie.

Worksforyou wrote: »

They could have given the same helpful advice i got off others but they choose not to. That would be okay if it was just isolated to one or two threads but if you've ever searched old threads here you'll find the same smart arse attitude in many threads and usually from people with more than 1,000 posts, sometimes far more.

There's probably a few reasons. The I'm better than you and need to point it out reason. Not very common I don't think. Then the your question is incredibly vague and I'm not going to give an in depth answer without more information so I'll ask a question. Then the I won't bother asking for more information cause it should have been provided I'm just going to give you a direct "smart" answer.

I think the main reason is the same stuff is coming up over and over in these forums. If people read the stickies 90% of their questions would be answered. And if not do a quick search on the forum. The answers to a lot of these kinds of questions are easily obtainable but the poster just wants others to do the work for them. And the people with higher post counts get this way more than the casual viewers (I'm assuming anyway).

I know my grammar sucks!

Oryx

Worksforyou wrote: »

They could have given the same helpful advice i got off others but they choose not to. That would be okay if it was just isolated to one or two threads but if you've ever searched old threads here you'll find the same smart arse attitude in many threads and usually from people with more than 1,000 posts, sometimes far more.

There will always be noise along with the signal. That is life. This place isnt 'work' for those who post here and should not be held to strict standards which stifle relaxed and chatty input. It is only when the noise is seen to drown out the signal that I see fit to act. This has to be taken case by case. If we impose hard rules on what goes here we will kill the forum.

Blacktie.

Oryx wrote: »

There will always be noise along with the signal. That is life. This place isnt 'work' for those who post here and should not be held to strict standards which stifle relaxed and chatty input. It is only when the noise is seen to drown out the signal that I see fit to act. This has to be taken case by case. If we impose hard rules on what goes here we will kill the forum.

This! Happened to the poker forum unfortunately.

Worksforyou

Right, well I'll leave my complaining there (I know I said that pages ago), I know it's not work for people here but that's why I wonder why they waste their time. Anyway, that's it, full stop on my comments on this topic. For real this time. There's far more good, helpful posters than the opposite on this forum so it aint all bad.

thegreatiam

Femme_Fatale wrote: »

Explain how the question being referred to is a stupid question. Is it just that "stupid questions" are ones asked by those inferior plebs who aren't as knowledgeable as you?

Brian? wrote: »

How about ignoring any question that you think is stupid. Or even better, tell the poster their question is difficult to answer because it's do vague. Call me crazy but I think we can all be polite and it won't kill us.

God help some of you if this is your attitude out in the real world.

To me it's a matter of respect. If they don't have the decency to phrase a respectable question they get a smart answer. As in the you'll get better at running 3.5k, it's right and fulfills all the requirements of the question as written. If the asker wanted more then they can easily give more. If you want the location of a gym near you then provide, at the very least your location. Budget and expectations too would be pertinent. Don't be shocked when the answers are equally vague.

It's not asking much to read back your question and ask it in a way that shows a bit of effort has been made.

As mentioned, people don't comment on forums because it is their job they do it because it interests them, part of that interest is being engaged. If new users are simply going to try and treat the forum as a service to answer their banal questions then they shouldn't be shocked when the real person who answers does so with the same level of respect.

And yes I do do this in real life. In fact I'm a he'll of a lot more tolerant on forums than I am in real life. If you act like a lazy idiot around me in person then ill usually call you up on in it and I have no qualms about embarrassing or insulting you in person. There are people both in this forum and the poker forum over the road who know me well enough to attest to that, so I have no problem making that claim.

In my top 5 of things that piss me off the most are willful ignorance and laziness. So if someone is so belligerent they cannot take 2 minutes to phrase the question in a way that it can be answered to their expectations instead forcing us to draw it out in dribs and drabs over 14 posts back and forth then imho they deserve to be given smart answers. If you want straight forward and succinct answers then ask straight forward and succinct questions, we are not Google and we are not here to do your leg work. If you ask vague and open ended questions then expect similar answers. Failing that, read the stickies.

Tldr what kevpants said.

Oryx

With respect to all who have posted here, I think anything that needed to be said, has been at this stage. Ive taken on boards the criticisms of us as mods, and I hope the more caustic posters, having seen how they can be misinterpreted, might pause before submitting a more cutting remark in future. Lets just see.

Macho backslapping man hugs all around.

/thread*

*pm me if you have a problem with this.

Brian?

I like the closure but felt it was missing this