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A new (?) ruse in this Forum?


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Of course you don't need search - just click the thread on top of the M9 forum....:rolleyes:

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-m9-forum/130720-m9-faqs-frequently-asked-questions-answers.html#post1382788

 

Maybe it's an idea to put these FAQ-threads at the head of ''New Posts" too

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Imagine you are in a strange town and you need help to find the nearest chemist so you go to the tourist information centre. An apparantly smart chap is standing behind a counter. He looks like he is bound to have the answer you require and this inspires you to summon up courage and ask. You overcome your nervousness and say 'excuse me sir, where is the nearest chemist?'. Imagine now just how small and insignificant you feel when he curtly replies 'there are leaflets over there on the shelf, look it up for yourself and stop wasting my time. You're the fourth person to ask that question today and I have far better things to do than answer it again.'

This analogy might apply if the forum had personnel employed for answering people’s questions. As far as I know it has not. When asking a question, more often than not requiring a fairly complex answer, you are relying on the goodwill of other members. Maybe it’s a good idea to show a bit of goodwill first?

 

In fact this “Forgive me if this has previously been covered” phrase, implying that the thread opener has considered that the same question might have been answered before but chose not to care, is mildly insulting.

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Well, I often think: Oh no, 256 times this question has been answered before, why doesn't he search first...?

 

On the other hand, it is sometimes difficult to find postings with relevance to your question when you are not familiar with this forum. You often just don't know in which context you should search. Headings for threads don't reveal their context in many cases. Same topics very often in completely different subfora. Cluewords for your question many times give too many results if you don't use the right combinations etc.

 

So if it is a question I have had myself once before, and accidentially I know where to find answers I try to give a link. That's some sort of gratitude towards those who have given valuable answers already and it might help to look upon the Forum not just as a ressource to profit from but as a network which can only live as long as many contribute in their individual ways.

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Imagine you are in a strange town and you need help to find the nearest chemist

so you go to the tourist information centre. An apparantly smart chap is standing

behind a counter. He looks like he is bound to have the answer you require and this

inspires you to summon up courage and ask. You overcome your nervousness and

say 'excuse me sir, where is the nearest chemist?'. Imagine now just how small and

insignificant you feel when he curtly replies 'there are leaflets over there on the shelf,

look it up for yourself and stop wasting my time. You're the fourth person to ask that

question today and I have far better things to do than answer it again.'

 

This analogy would be valid if the Leica forum is a tourist information centre, but it obviously isn't. It is a discussion forum for those who are interested in Leica cameras, more like a club or gathering of friends and associates.

 

No one here is directly appointed to be the guide for all and sundry passersby, and how a person feels at being dismissed for asking inane questions would have been avoided if they had done their homework first.

 

Some people on this forum act as if they are information guides and are very generous with their time and advice, but not everyone here behaves or thinks in the same manner. The behaviour of some does not constitute the nature of the whole.

 

Personally, I'm happy to chip in if I think I can share experiences that are pertinent to considered discussions. I'm also happy to let the self-appointed tour guides, who are, in a sense, the ambassadors of Leica, generously give their advice.

 

Most people on the forum actually do their homework first before asking questions, which makes it all the more obvious when some hapless daftie walks in and mistakes a country club for a tourist information centre.

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If nothing else it tells you something about the poster, i.e. that he can't be bothered to do even the simplest research him/her self.

If they started off 'I've done a search and it has answered some of my queries but are there any more up to date experiences.... ' or similar I would be more impressed.

 

I wonder why even such mild expressions of opinion as this seem to get such an ill mannered response from some people, surely you are allowed to have an opinion about how the forum runs without being a moderator? Even if you disagree you can do it politely. :confused:

 

 

Gerry

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... the OP just does not wish to take the trouble …

 

Incrowd forum language and incrowd shortcuts and abbreviations should be avoided also. What is an OP for God's sake

 

BTW I did research before I asked, it's not in the WIKI's

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...and daft abbreviations: "cron", "rit", "lux". It's not cool to write like a 17 year old when you are the wrong side of 40. Oh, and while I have the floor anyone who asks about a "lensE" deserves to be boiled in whale snot. Finally, soup is both a form of food, and a noun. Anyone found "souping" their "negs" should be served the resultant dish on a platter.

 

Rant ends ;)

 

Regards,

 

Bill

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Imagine if your child comes to you asking a question that is easily found with a google search. Would you as a father/mother bark at your child asking him/her to go google for the answer since the answer can be easily found? Please be more encouraging and show them more love. If you want everyone to be close to each other.

 

If you are annoyed then do not answer them. Just like if you dislike homeless people in the streets you just ignore them right? You do not go about removing them from the streets.

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Imagine if your child comes to you asking a question that is easily found with a google search. Would you as a father/mother bark at your child asking him/her to go google for the answer since the answer can be easily found? Please be more encouraging and show them more love. If you want everyone to be close to each other.

 

If you are annoyed then do not answer them. Just like if you dislike homeless people in the streets you just ignore them right? You do not go about removing them from the streets.

 

Child analogy: The people who come here are most likely adults, not children. (And any child worth their salt these days can run rings around most adults with Google searches.) We are not the 'parents' of lazy twits who can't be bothered to search the archives, nor should anyone here be expected to be take up that role.

 

And if we were such parents, we would most likely teach them how to search Google for the answers. After all, the search capabilities of Google can quite outweigh the given knowledge of most parents. :D

 

As for the homeless people analogy: that's a rather slick way of likening lazy forum twits with homeless people, don't you think? ;) "Hey man, got a spare IIIf?" sniffs the lazy twit, a shabby Domke hanging from his side. "Times' been tough since they closed the factory. You know, the one in Saarland? Hey, lemme ask you, I'm gettin' a M6, but I don't know what TTL stands for. And you do think I should get black or chrome? Sorry if this has been asked before."

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OP - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

:D

 

What sake does God drink?

 

OP, - yes. Have very mixed feelings for exactly those letters.

 

Messed around in the archives and found some thirty years old photos of it, which for me will always be the OP, the very abbreviation in capital letters.

 

I see that Wikipedia also puts this variant at the top.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

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Being on a forum does not mean that the poster is computer savvy necessarily. They may have stumbled in here after doing a google search on Leica, never having been on a forum before. Being a novice should not be treated as a bad thing. Calling them lazy forum twits is assuming far too much. They may not know as much about the use of a forum as you but do not treat them as if that makes them an inferior to you. They may have a more fulfilling life ;) that has kept them away from such places. The search function may not be something they are familiar with. It's obvious to you because you know it is there, they may not.

 

Elitists have a bad name for similar behaviour as is shown to some people asking questions on this (and other) forums. Assuming someone is lazy because they can't match your knowledge is rather ridiculous. You have no idea what else they do or how much effort they put into it.

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Granted, it is not automatic that someone who is on a forum is computer savvy. And yet, one might wonder how they managed to get on to a forum in the first place, with an application procedure that is fairly complex to someone with no internet knowledge.

 

You can't just post here after stumbling in from a Google search, you have to apply, wait for a confirmation email, confirm, set up profile, and then start posting. Being able to do this does presuppose at least a modicum of internet understanding. And the fact that they are here, reading the posts, and participating shows basic knowledge of how things work. Exploratory clicking of links and reading headings reveals more.

 

This forum isn't Yahoo Answers. And a brief glance through Yahoo Answers shows that when someone asks a question, most of the time a yahoo does answer, somewhere along the way.

 

Many, many times I have seen people pop on to a forum (not necessarily this one) and say things like:

 

'Sorry if this has been covered before, but ...'

'I tried to search but there are just too many messages ...'

 

or just the plain, unadorned, 'give me, tell me, show me'.

 

That's a lazy forum twit, and that was the topic that the OP (observation post!) brought up. Not everyone who chimes in with an unresearched question is that kind of person, but quite a number of them are, and there are usually telltale signs that show it.

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