Don't really know what to say anymore.

Originally Posted by newattitude

Easy problem solver: do not go into or respond to those threads. If they bother you why take the bait? Its simple to move on to another thread. And what good would it do to call them out by name? We are not a shaming forum.

I agree with this. Of course you get those tricky curve ones, where the title is inspecific, only stating that they are asking a question, I.e. "I have a question..." You get all excited that you may be able to share some of your hard earned knowledge and experience, so you view the thread, only to be filled with bitter disappointment upon discovering the poster fits this threads description. Right? Play the odds: If you come upon a thread where, while asking a question, the OP uses a low quality title like such will almost always fall into this catehory.

About me. I have no Avatar, a low post count, and lack a reputation amongst members. I'm a generic member, a face in the crowd, one among many. But unknown to anyone, I've spent days worth of hours researching and learning. Readings blogs like scrap metal forum and forums like this, and going through users history and watching every single YouTube upload by the dozen or so scrapper channels, many more than once. I have a folder, full of subfolders, in my bookmarks linking to information from these sources. I'm good at the Internet and know how to, and do, search before even entertaining the idea of posting a new thread. I lurked for way longer than I've been registered.

With all of this, I asked a question once or twice, one I was not able to sift through the inspecific search results to answer. One of the first replies was a senior member (high post count, by my definition) posting a link and, while respectfully, accusing me of being too lazy to search (in other words). How do they know this was the case? It certainly was not true. Maybe I just couldn't find the threa pertaining an answer to my very specific question, or I didn't know the proper name/term for something. I was disappointed someone would take the time to wag their e-finger in my e-face to tell me I'm wasting their time, WITHOUT even answering or posting a link to the answer.

I've moderated and administrated large population forums before (One was in the Net's Top 10 Largest - LivingWithStyle, if anyone knew it...) where our users and staff all felt the same, it is an annoyance similar to your email's inbox being full of spam, plus the personal reasons you posted which I do agree with. Our staff started to take the time and effort to send a warning PM to the user explaining this (we had an infraction system mod installed, these were worth 0 points just a warning). The forum, at a general glance, appeared to die. The same 8 trending threads on the top of the list stayed the same for over a week at a time, new posts, of any quality, became a scarcity, and it encouraged newer members to go back to lurking, or even leave. It was, in hindsight, one of the lesser good ideas we had and acted on.

If you're going to be one of those people who replies to those threads explaining to them the error of their ways, you need to at least include an answer or a link to the thread that was so obvious that there was no way they could have possibly made an attempt.



Bottom line, you don't know if they were too lazy to search, too ignorant of the subject to find the proper search results, or if they just plain suck at the internet. And if you do wag your finger, at least use it to point in the right direction when you're done. Otherwise you're just being the disrespectful one.