Don't really know what to say anymore.

Originally Posted by olddude

Im at my wits end here and, am really out of words. I don't come here as often as I used to as most of you can tell. There are several resins. but mostly I am too old and tired to answer the same ignorant questions over and over and over for those who discover this forum and are either too lazy or too dumb to learn to use it right.

I know this is going to p*ss some of you off but, guess what, I don,t give a da*n I'm too old and tired to give a s**t. The moderators may even delete this.

Every day we get new readers (or should I say askers) and that is great, however among those new readers is a number of people who quite obviously havent bothered to read one archive or old thread.

The masters of this forum have even made it simple by dividing the threads into categories, 41 of them, listed under the white banner in the upper left corner of the main page. on the right you will find the archives where every possible question concerning scrapping has been answered time after time from every conceivable angle.

I was too busy for years to keep an eye on my beloved country while the politicians, and lawyers stole it away. I wont let it happen again, to this forum, if I can help it by those too lazy to invest the smallest time and effort to learn any thing about their "professed" craft.

Just look at the last 15 posts at least 4 of them ask questions that are so elementary it is obvious no attempt was made to learn enough to even ask the simplest question about our chosen field. In those cases I have to ask my self a really fundamental question. If this person is not willing or, smart enough to put forth the minimal effort to find the answer to the simplest question why would I think they would put forth the effort, hard work and dedication it takes to be a scrapper of any kind.

Yes I know there are some out there we need to help but those are easily spotted, I'm not talking about them, I'm talking about those who have the ability to find the answers to the elementary questions but are just plain show disrespect to those who have literally shed their blood and starved at times to make things happen on their own through at leas a modicum of pretense of effort of their own.

So read the threads and questions and ask your self some questions.

Is this person serious about learning our craft ?

Have they made the simplest effort on their own ?

Does this person have the common sense to be a scrapper?

Remember every potential scrapper you train is taking from the whole.

Some (those who show the tiniest effort,) I for one will gladly share what little I have learned in my 70+ years. Those who want to be led to the pond and lay under the shade tree while I catch the fish to feed their families, I for one will no longer spoon feed them.

do I need to keep my copper and aluminum separate from steel? or can I just keep it all together and throw it in the shred pile?

now you see why they dive in dumpsters lol

Olddude all I can say is I agree with you. I hope you stay with us, I have always tried to do my "Homework" and I know you have as well. I'm guilty of asking some pretty stupid questions without thinking though and know I'm not lazy, just not always en-gauging the old brain! As many a teacher has told me, think before speaking. Doesn't always happen like that!

i think their attitude to/on the forum
is an indicator as to their attitude in general, in life- they are too lazy

but not to worry
scrapping is NOT an easy game
sooner or later they will realise they cant make it & drop off

i wish them all the best in their further business ventures- whatever they may be.

Why do you feel like you have to answer the same stupid questions over and over again?? I understand how you feel and agree with what you said but no one is making you answer questions that have already been answered many times before. This is a public forum and it's not much different than any other forums. There will always be someone asking the same question over and over and over again and it will never change. Olddude I hope you do hang around. You are a wealth of information and an asset to this forum. Next time you see someone questioning the difference between two circuit boards, just skip over it and move on to the next one. Don't let it upset you so much.

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.

Olddude, very well said.

These threads, the very one you created are also proliferate on the forum. I've only been on this forum for three or four months, however, one thing I have noticed is that for every four stupid questions, there's one of these threads complaining about them. We all know it's a problem and most of us effectively ignore them or if someone's feeling really generous they'll answer the question and tell them that next time they ought to search the archives. We don't need another thread about how stupid newcomers who refuse to use a search bar are. If you ignore them, they'll either learn or they'll leave. Either way is fine with me. I don't know how old you are, but, I'll tell you in my Father and Grandfather's generation they don't "Rant" every month about inevitable changes."

Originally Posted by SteelMill

These threads, the very one you created are also proliferate on the forum. I've only been on this forum for three or four months, however, one thing I have noticed is that for every four stupid questions, there's one of these threads complaining about them. We all know it's a problem and most of us effectively ignore them or if someone's feeling really generous they'll answer the question and tell them that next time they ought to search the archives. We don't need another thread about how stupid newcomers who refuse to use a search bar are. If you ignore them, they'll either learn or they'll leave. Either way is fine with me. I don't know how old you are, but, I'll tell you in my Father and Grandfather's generation they don't "Rant" every month about inevitable changes."

The rants are a lot more fun to read though

This is a problem across all of the internet. On the survivalist forum, every week or two someone asks "if you could only have 3 guns, which would you choose"(I asked once, before looking), on reddit.com there's a repost on the front page every day. It's called OC or Original Content, and it's rare on the internet nowadays. There are still important questions to be asked which might uncover answers new to all of us, you have to wade through the crap to get to the good stuff. This is true of any forum, I've been guilty of it. I find that I have very little reason to ever start a new post, but I still try to offer my knowledge to another person's posts. The point of all of this is that many people don't understand how forums work, google leads them here and they ask a question.

The best answer to these questions is to read the archives. We don't want to chase away new members who might have something to offer by being rude to them. The people who are in it for real will stick around and learn, and teach, the rest are just lazy and looking for an easy answer.

I think that it is reasonable to expect at least a rudimentary search before posting a question. This forum is wonderfully organized as to make this first step very simple. Hey, I was one of the folks who didn't know what a "gaylord" was at the start, but found out with ease. As for the posts themselves, I just say ignore 'em, refer 'em, or answer 'em however it suits you. I did one time post about how helpful the search function had been for me. Maybe an occasional 'success story" like that might be encouraging.