Help Please.

[Ldub]

Please, consider this next time you're about to rag on a newbie about not using the site search...

How else they gonna learn?..

Like anyone is just sitting there & BAMMO...hey, I think I should use the search function...

That's how I learned... Never really dawned on me, till someone made mention of it...

It didn't cause me any undue mental anguish, & somehow I was able to stay out of therapy.

AFAIK, it's a normal part of learning the ins & outs of any endeavor. If someone tells you a better/easier way to do something, don't get all butt chapped about it, take the lesson & be glad someone was thoughty enough to help you find a better way.

[mdwyer]

AFAIK, it's a normal part of learning the ins & outs of any endeavor. If someone tells you a better/easier way to do something, don't get all butt chapped about it, take the lesson & be glad someone was thoughty enough to help you find a better way.

Personally, I think it is a ... well, I'm not allowed to use any of the words I'd like to use, here... I think "Did you try search?" is rude. The site search is often terrible (through no fault of anyone, by the way) and isn't often helpful in finding what you want. It is pretty useful if you already know what you're looking for, but newbies don't yet know what they don't know.

But I think that's okay. If the site was supposed to store facts, it would be a wiki. It isn't. It is a forum. People talk in forums. People do, occasionally, get stabbed by their friends in forums, I admit, but that was a long time ago.

So, if I could make a suggestion, next time a newbie asks a question that we ALL know the answer to, even if it has been answered dozens of times before, how about we just answer it? Answer it with a link to the relavent message thread, sure. But at least start a conversation in a way that doesn't make us all look like ... ah, what's a word I can use?