"Use the search feature"

Hello all,i have bit of a discussion that is not just GWGURU forum related but general forum attitude i have seen.

ok i have been surfing forums for about 3 years. Some forums have been small with less than 100 people max to guild wars guru prolly largest i been on .and it seems like the attitudes i find fall along that split also
on the smaller forums people actually prefered to leave old post dead and for people if they have a question to just ask it.one reason is maybe over the time between the old post and the new one changes may have taken place that made the old ideas obsolete.

when a new person joins a forum and ask a question and the next person comes along and just post use the search, to me that persons attitude is detrimental to a good forum when it comes to forum population expansion. what [use the search]say to me is, we are leet your just a noob and we don't have time to deal with thinking up answers to your questions so just use the search to see if it was asked before.

the search does not always works as it should 2 people may ask the same question but worded differently and if u did a search u might not get a found item in search because your search words based on how you would word it might not be in the older post so the search does not find it.

I feel the whole [use the search] is arrogant and in my opinion is just someone spamming a thread. if you don't have something useful to say besides [use the search] i feel the question should just be passed up when you read it.

so what is your opinion if you have one

Then why do mods say it all the time as they close threads...

And it's not that people are being mean or elitist. Answering the same question everyday is pointless.

It follow the "give a man a fish" principle. If they know where to look, they won't inundate the Q&A section with, pardon the word, dumb questions.

This has already been discussed , see Indes Announcement at the top of the Q & A Section.

The simple fact is that people who do not use the search function before asking a question are lazy. There is no good reason not to use it. It avoids having multiple threads with the same topic which only ends up clogging the forums.

A lot of people seem to turn up to this and other forums asking questions which they could answer themselves if they were prepared to put a little work into it. If in doubt check the two wikis, or use the search function, don't just create a new topic.

One of the standard retorts I get when I tell someone to use "search" or the wikis etc, is that "You were once a n00b too". I certainly was a n00b, probably still am, but I did not go around asking the stupidest questions and clogging up forums with useless threads, simply because I was prepared to do a little work and find the answers myself.

At the end of the day I feel that it is more rewarding to go out and find answers to your questions rather than take the easy option.

Quote:

yeah i agree. like with some things its probably easier to write the answer than it is to write "use the search"

Searching for threads should be the first thing anybody does when they consider opening a thread. The same thread being opened by several people increases server load and causes clutter - this makes more work for the mods, and the bigger the forum the more important this becomes. It also takes fewer clicks to search for an existing thread than it does to open a new thread and wait for responses.

Why more people don't follow sensible posting guidelines is beyond me sometimes...

Most of the time it is faster to just do a search in google and get a link to any source that can give you the answer. Rather than to try and post a new thread and hope that someone answers it for you with a reply other than use the search. If the way you worded it doesnt find it try to refine what you type. Use fewer words and see if you get anything. If you get to many to look through maybe add a few words.

Most of the information is out there already and really easy to find.

for one. wrong place to post this.

This is more of a "discussion" type of thread. This should be in Riverside.

and the whole "use the search" thing. If you have a problem with people saying that, then you shouldn't be on forums in general. There are thousands of threads/posts on Guru. Having the same thing asked about Ursan or FoW over and over is highly annoying to older members.

Like I said. got a problem with it? then don't be on the forums because it is everywhere.

most questions that come up are asked about 5 times per week. these are the threads people are told to use search on. they should find a thread only a few weeks old. if its a question that hasnt been answered a billion times no poster with half a brain would suggest search.

Yep (Hi Boss ) you're right. There are a few people that believe that the world should run as they think and ruin the nice ambiance of a forum. It's worse than "elitism", as they ruin everyone's experience, the newbies (not noobs) first!

Who cares if the question has been asked a billion times? There will always be new people who don't check the thousands of already asked questions in Q&A. And pointing to the right direction with a nice word is the best gesture, it's the seed of nice behaviour that will hopefully be spread in the community, making it healthy and alive.

/signed

Further thoughts: it's a bit like saying that school is a bit more than just learning, it's about having help and learning together. People could tell you that, as long as you know how to read, you just need to read the books and use the knowledge. But learning requires pedagogy and being patient with people with questions is part of that.

A teacher could not start his lecture by saying "Ok, I hope you all read the notes from last 10 years of lectures I gave and read the coursebook" ...

Well, I think that practical reasons would come to mind first. It's usually faster to use search/a wiki or just find out yourself than to post. Some people have issues with not knowing how to use search or don't bother to find where to start the search in, but you can't do too much there. It's standard that people will be too confused/lazy to do stuff on their own, but helping people out isn't that big of a deal, assuming they don't have a monstrous ego and aren't spammy.

Edit: Exactly what Ku Ku said. If you're going to bother to post, at least link to the relevant info.

I feel its polite to answer someones question, if it is one that has been asked alot i will link them to somewhere useful - its quicker than them reading the forum posts if its a wiki link or gives them an instant range of opinions and answers (if its a forum topic link) so while "use the search" isnt useful, "Perhaps you should try searching the forum a bit more, lots of people have asked this - like here (link)" is.

I have made a similar thread in the past with title "/WIKI is your friend"

I think we just have to accept the fact that there's a lot of people who have been around for long time already and they don't have the patience to answer simple questions anymore. They are too bored that they find it more amusing to say, "use the search button" or "wiki is your friend" than just ignoring questions they find too simple to answer.

But there are still others who answer questions politely.

Quote: