Quote:
Originally Posted by dk_netsvil
Responders should be clear and patient, which I think most of the active posters are. I think responders, philanthropists that they are, are making an offer of advice or a solution to someone's problem. I think a responder needs to do some quick fact-checking prior to making a suggestion. I know there have been a few times that I posted something off-the-cuff and shortly realized my post was going to be completely useless for one reason or another and immediately I edited my post to contain something more relevant.
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...which gets to the heart of what
ai-danno is pointing out.
While I agree with
anomie that teaching is a laudable goal, posters come here for insight, context, & experience. Fundamentally, can a poster walk away after reading a response & either solve the problem
(ideally) or have more information which can help them find the answer themselves? Sure, no one can know the exact answer to every question posed, but there is a difference between:
"Here are the underlying issues & here are links to the documentation which explain it further..."
...as compared to:
"Well, you might find something in the documentation somewhere..."
As
dk_netsvil clearly puts it, does any response we add to a thread provide any more clarity, focus, & direction, or is it simply noise?
I don't always live up to this myself, but it's a question we need to continually ask ourselves if we want this site to be truly useful & grow. We might see our own perspectives mature in the process.