General > General Technical Chat
Genuine question- is Please and Thankyou a cultural thing on the EEVBlog forum ?
Fraser:
It has occurred to me, after considering the helpful responses to my question, that I may simply be unfamiliar with on-line technical forums and how they work these days. I am from a pre-Internet generation and so only joined limited numbers of forums, most being on Yahoo Groups and, of course, the EEVBlog forum :-+ I am a social ‘animal’ and used to having conversations with people. Hence why I write as I would speak. This can make for long posts though :palm:
It occurs to me that technical forums can be hybrids in terms of social interaction. Some areas of forums have more social interaction than others and it would appear that there is a demand for communications and data efficiency in some forum areas that preclude social ‘niceties’. In those areas it is all about the efficiency with which information can be exchanged and they are almost a ‘cold’ environment where “Please” and “Thankyou” are just a waste of ASCII characters that reduce the ‘Signal to Noise Ratio’ of the thread. That is a very foreign environment for me as a social animal used to having friendly conversations with interlocutors. If my career is anything to go by, I was a very effective communicator who got the desired results and made many good friends in my work.
So, this thread has been both interesting and informative. Yes I am saddened at the desire for ‘cold’ sharing of knowledge in the most efficient, highest S/N ratio manner, but now I understand that attitude, I can decide how much, or little, of myself I want to give to a forum :-+ Science and technical matters can be a naturally terse environment so no wonder these forums reflect this.
A previous poster used the term ‘social lubrication’ and I guess that is what pleasantries are. They make the other party feel happy and that is good. I shall continue to be cordial in my communications on this forum as that is ‘just me’. :)
Fraser
MK14:
--- Quote from: Fraser on March 21, 2021, 10:44:37 am ---almost a ‘cold’ environment where “Please” and “Thankyou” are just a waste of ASCII characters
--- End quote ---
Things can and do get complicated (internet). Imagine if EEVblog/Dave, makes a really good video, and it has 1,000,000 views/viewers, who all happen to really, really like it. The youtube comments section, would look a right mess, if it was filled with the text "Great Video, Many Thanks a million times !!!!!", via a million different users. It would mean that to find a real comment/question on there, would mean reading through a million "Thanks you's", and could take an impractically long period of time to read through all those comments.
I.e. In such circumstances, it is probably best to not just say "Thank you".
But in a completely custom (one off) forum thread, asking a potentially difficult question, and needing a custom, non-standard, complicated answer. With just one or a few replies. It makes much more sense for the OP to thank people who have responded, and maybe further explain what the problem really was.
Also, I think the $64,000,000 question, is ?
How long/difficult was it for the person/people who reply, to generate the answer. Sometimes it takes less than 10 seconds, but other times it can take more than 30 minutes.
Forums (internet), spans a huge range of countries, cultures, races, education background, rich/poor, old/young, impatient/patient, hobbyist/professional, etc etc. So I suppose it should not be too surprising, to find a big disparity between those who are polite (and potentially thank people), and those who are not.
tszaboo:
--- Quote from: Fraser on March 21, 2021, 10:44:37 am ---It has occurred to me, after considering the helpful responses to my question, that I may simply be unfamiliar with on-line technical forums and how they work these days. I am from a pre-Internet generation and so only joined limited numbers of forums, most being on Yahoo Groups and, of course, the EEVBlog forum :-+ I am a social ‘animal’ and used to having conversations with people. Hence why I write as I would speak. This can make for long posts though :palm:
It occurs to me that technical forums can be hybrids in terms of social interaction. Some areas of forums have more social interaction than others and it would appear that there is a demand for communications and data efficiency in some forum areas that preclude social ‘niceties’. In those areas it is all about the efficiency with which information can be exchanged and they are almost a ‘cold’ environment where “Please” and “Thankyou” are just a waste of ASCII characters that reduce the ‘Signal to Noise Ratio’ of the thread. That is a very foreign environment for me as a social animal used to having friendly conversations with interlocutors. If my career is anything to go by, I was a very effective communicator who got the desired results and made many good friends in my work.
So, this thread has been both interesting and informative. Yes I am saddened at the desire for ‘cold’ sharing of knowledge in the most efficient, highest S/N ratio manner, but now I understand that attitude, I can decide how much, or little, of myself I want to give to a forum :-+ Science and technical matters can be a naturally terse environment so no wonder these forums reflect this.
A previous poster used the term ‘social lubrication’ and I guess that is what pleasantries are. They make the other party feel happy and that is good. I shall continue to be cordial in my communications on this forum as that is ‘just me’. :)
Fraser
--- End quote ---
Signing your post definitely signals to me that you are treating the forum differently than what it is.
On the other hand, this isn't reddit.
I think, if one has nothing else to say, just a thank you, then there is a perfectly usable button on it.
Unless they opened the thread, because they should signal others that the issue is solved. I think OPs should have the option to close threads if their question is answered, in questions related topics.
It infuriates me when I spend 10 minutes looking up something typing an answer, that will be never be read. It's a waste of time.
But if someone invested their time into answering a question, especially in PMs they should thank them.
And I stopped answering trivial or very easy questions. There are thousands of people on this forum, some of these questions eventually gets 10 perfectly good answers from hobbyists or youngsters. Leave them a little success.
Zero999:
There's the thanks button, but I always prefer it if someone bothers to write personalised feedback to a post, rather than just clicking it.
The thanks button is better than nothing, but it's a little over used. There's also someone who seems to use it to troll, by making silly posts, then thanking the responses, even if they're calling him an idiot. Some people also like to collect thanked posts, so it also gives people an incentive to reply to his dumb posts, because they know they'll collect more. :palm:
MK14:
--- Quote from: Zero999 on March 21, 2021, 12:01:56 pm ---There's the thanks button, but I always prefer it if someone bothers to write personalised feedback to a post, rather than just clicking it.
--- End quote ---
I don't think the "Thank you" button, in practice, is just used to mean "Thanks". It seems to be able to have other uses as well (opinions can vary).
Such as "I Agree" with your post/opinion, and 'thanks' for pointing it out.
E.g. You can't use that small signal 100mA transistor, to control that 10 Amp output.
The few or more 'thanks' such a post, MIGHT collect, especially from more experienced forum users. Helps to strengthen the correctness of that post, and hopefully make the beginner more likely to understand and agree with it. Rather than pollute the thread with lots of, +1's and/or :-+ :-+, like posts, which perhaps make more clutter, rather than make the thread clearer and easier to understand.
Also, it is a quick way of accepting someones reply to one of your posts.
E.g. 1 + 1 = 7
"Another poster" .. You meant "1 + 1 = 2" ?
So thanking that post, means you agree you made a mistake, and thanks them for pointing it out, without disrupting the threads flow too much.
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