Don't really know what to say anymore. - Page 3

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 Junkie 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.

My Father raised me to believe that respecting your elders was bull. He always taught me that my respect was valuable enough to be earned not given. If you don't do the same you're selling yourself short. As human beings we owe other humans a common courtesy. It doesn't matter if they're old or young, black or white, we owe them decency until they give us a reason not to. I'm not saying Olddude is because I love his content and he's a phenomenal asset to this forum, but my father always told me that old and young alike have the same chances of being an a******. If he can call out people who ask questions that clutter the forums because they A) didn't search or B) couldn't find it (which is very possible given the forums search bar), then I feel that we as a whole should be able to call him out for cluttering the forum with this kind of post. Lord knows we have enough of them.

Originally Posted by olddude

The value of this thread is to, hopefully, embarrass some to do some study to prevent them from hurting them selves or worse. some one else.

Some times a little reality or, if you prefer "tough love' is required to wake some folks up. just my .02

Olddude,

I'd like to personally thank you or starting this thread and also for stating the value of it. There is nothing worse than un-educated scrappers that make a bad name for the guys and gals that go about it in a responsible and legal manner.

I'm going to take this time to mention the 2 topics that annoy me the most:

First - CRTs - How many times are we going to see threads asking where to properly get rid of CRT glass? How many times are we going to see threads about people stripping the goodies from these and then leaving crap fro someone else to deal with? It pisses me off every time I go to my primary yard. One block away, there are countless broken CRTs with the yokes and degaussing cables missing. If you can't handle these properly, leave them to someone who can.

Second - Refrigerants - It really annoys me when people post that they "SCORED" with ACs or refrigerators, etc and then later in the thread, you find out that either they realized that they don't know how to properly handle the refrigerant or worse yet, let it fly. When you point them in the right direction or tell them the laws pertaining to this, all of a sudden, there story changes. Oh, I accidentally dropped it and the line broke or oh, I misspoke and didn't cut the line. Bull S**t. Then to add to it, you get some one that says Do we have to make all these threads about the proper way to recover refrigerant?

Olddude, I've learned a lot from you, both in my time as a lurker and as a contributing member. I hope you stick around and provide insight on the posts that are not these basic repeats from people too lazy to learn the trade. I fully understand you're position and like you, I am starting to ignore these posts.

OldDude, once again, thank you for the thread and all that you have contributed and hopefully continue to contribute to this forum. You are an inspiration to many of us here.

After all we have this...
Scrap Metal Questions and Answers
(109 Viewing)
Ask questions about scrap metal, scrapping, or questionable items here. Scrap Metal Questions and Answers.

That is how I found this place...

Originally Posted by olddude

GREAT IDEA!!!!!!!!!! Talk about being stupid. In all my rants I never thought of this. whish I could do this: thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks.
good on you !

Your very welcome. I just thought of it myself. If I had thought of it before I would have done it to someone with one post who asks "how do i tell ferrous from non ferrous?". Your an inspiration to new folks and us who have been here for a few years, hate to see you get frustrated (and I know how you feel, reading some of the posts).