General > General Technical Chat
Designated "Expert" Forum Users?
thinkfat:
Google is of course a good source of information. If you're able to "drink from the hose", that is. It's like the "all-seeing, all-knowing trash heap". It gives a lot of answers. Are those good answers? Who knows. Which is why people come here in the hope of getting a "good" answer.
A "good" answer is not necessarily an expert answer. A good answer is one that puts them on the right track.
nctnico:
--- Quote from: thinkfat on February 19, 2022, 09:23:56 pm ---Google is of course a good source of information. If you're able to "drink from the hose", that is. It's like the "all-seeing, all-knowing trash heap". It gives a lot of answers. Are those good answers? Who knows. Which is why people come here in the hope of getting a "good" answer.
A "good" answer is not necessarily an expert answer. A good answer is one that puts them on the right track.
--- End quote ---
Agreed. Even if the answer is just a link to an article with good content. Internet is filled with garbage and sifting through it to find the good stuff is a skill in itself.
MK14:
--- Quote from: thinkfat on February 19, 2022, 09:23:56 pm ---Google is of course a good source of information. If you're able to "drink from the hose", that is. It's like the "all-seeing, all-knowing trash heap". It gives a lot of answers. Are those good answers? Who knows. Which is why people come here in the hope of getting a "good" answer.
A "good" answer is not necessarily an expert answer. A good answer is one that puts them on the right track.
--- End quote ---
The problem, if you're a total beginner in a subject area. Is that you don't know the terms to put into Google, in the first place.
E.g. Things I sometimes see on here, but example is made up, rather than an actual poster.
They want a device to make voltages bigger. They don't know that it would be called an amplifier, op-amps are commonly used to make them, and they can be made (with significant difficulty), via discrete transistors.
But A true beginner, might be so vague with their terms, it could confuse google and/or they wouldn't know which answers are correct. E.g. A device which makes small electricity into bigger electricity, suitable for driving a sound making device.
I just tried it, and Google came up with:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amplifier
But there are many cases where Google just can't help.
E.g. You want a particular clip type, for fixing a pair of transistors together, and don't know what it is called. But have seen it in some radios. Also why do they clip transistors together like that ?
A beginner might ask. A more experienced person expert might say it is because the old Germanium Transistors, changed their characteristics a lot with temperature, so the clip is to help stabilize the circuit.
rstofer:
--- Quote from: thinkfat on February 19, 2022, 09:23:56 pm ---Google is of course a good source of information. If you're able to "drink from the hose", that is. It's like the "all-seeing, all-knowing trash heap". It gives a lot of answers. Are those good answers? Who knows. Which is why people come here in the hope of getting a "good" answer.
A "good" answer is not necessarily an expert answer. A good answer is one that puts them on the right track.
--- End quote ---
OP questions are more interesting if there is some display of effort before posting. "Here's what I did, here's what I got and here's what I want" shows effort. A simple "Here's what I want" may not be as interesting. If questions aren't interesting, there may not be as many replies. Perhaps questions get more interesting as the replies pile in.
Apparently, the OP should be able to filter the replies and reject all that aren't from experts. As I understand it, that is the objective. But, hell, if all my effort is going to be ignored, why bother replying at all? Let the experts do the work! Who's the expert for driveway alarms?
rstofer:
--- Quote from: MK14 on February 19, 2022, 09:50:45 pm ---But there are many cases where Google just can't help.
--- End quote ---
There's nothing wrong with admitting your Google Foo failed. It happens all the time. One missing term and all you get is nonsense. For the amplifier, including "signal" in the query helps focus the replies. But it still shows effort! "I searched for <some query> and didn't get the results I want. I want to increase the signal voltage of a <some input device> to <some output>." It shows effort! At least the question is coherent.
On the list of things, poorly framed questions is pretty far down. You're right, absolute beginners won't have any idea about how to frame a question. And that's OK but that's why we need multiple replies to help the process along. One expert answer might just blow the poster away. Another beginner (or near beginner) may provide just the response the OP needs. "I was working on that very thing last week. Have you tried ...".
It seems to me that what we have is working in the vast majority of cases. Replies are plentiful, adequate and, most important, respectful. It's working well, let's not break it.
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