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Mind Reading and Cryptic Posts
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engrguy42:
Gyro,
It wasn't about you...you merely reminded me of something I see over and over. Honestly, one of the reasons why I might participate in tech forums for only a short time and then leave for months at a time is that, on both sides, I see question askers and responders doing stuff that ultimately makes, IMO, forum discussions often useless and frustrating.

Unclear questions, questioners who act entitled to perfect answers, self-centered responses that rarely attempt to address the asker's actual issue, people whose only interest is acting smarter than the other guy, irrational fanboys who couldn't make an objective analysis if their lives depended on it, incredibly fragile egos that resort to childish name calling if you dare disagree, people who don't even read prior posts...

The list of frustrations goes on and on.

Oh yeah... THAT's why I stopped coming here last summer.  |O
MK14:

--- Quote from: Terry Bites on January 10, 2021, 04:35:55 pm ---I'm seeing too many posts that expect the reader to know what random poster is on about. What gives?
No diagram, dimension or a context. Or is this even a question?
Its weird, like some people out here think we know what they've just been thinking (Medic!) or talking to their imaginary friend about. >:(

If its a sensitive secret project you hope will make you millions don't ask for free help!

--- End quote ---

I also can get a bit annoyed, if they go straight for their perceived SOLUTION to what they think is the problem. But if they really explained what they are trying to do, and why, potentially much more experienced (within electronics, especially) people on here, could tell them a better way of sorting it out. Which probably doesn't involve what they were on about in the first place.

E.g. They want a 44 V op-amp, when the real solution is to use a decent design that doesn't force the op-amp to go to the full supply rails and/or there is no need to use such high voltages, in the first place.

Or they want a >3 GHz microcontroller, because their embedded application is running too slow. But if they explained the reality, it is because it is written in Python (scripting/interpreted language) and/or poorly/inefficiently written code.

I.e. The so called ...  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XY_problem
floobydust:
Electrotanya has a five question basic EE test to become a member. I'd like to see something like that here to keep the boneheads out. If you don't know or learn Ohm's Law, then stick to a forum section for those posts by people outside the profession.

I notice the Arduino Forums are pretty snarky, they (veterans) flame posters that are vague or unorganized. I kind of like that, because people expect mind reading to solve their problem and it's so much energy to get them to post details, pictures etc. when they're being secretive or arrogant for some reason.
I see veterans get tired of all that and withdraw their energy and it's almost like a "pro" forum would be awesome, your creds needed to become a member. Not to be elitist, but a forum with better S/N ratio?

For repairs, titles including the make/model and clear pictures of the board are basics that should be enforced. So many threads are about unknown products and benefit no one else fixing one because a webcrawler has nothing to find.

Now there's AI Bots/shills posting as well, we're not really social media to manipulate people- but another source of bullshit threads.
Gregg:
Then there is one poster that can't see the forest for the "treez"  :palm:
Then he inhales too much magic smoke from some old opamps and changes his name in a not too well disguised attempt to cloak his identity  :-DD

OK, I'll let myself out now  :popcorn:
engrguy42:
As someone who's been involved in tech forums since the days of dial up modems running in the kBaud range, when bulletin boards were the thing, I can assure you there's no perfect tech forum. At the end of the day, it comes down to egos. And the "veterans" are often the ones with the most fragile and frustratingly annoying egos. Discussions are rarely, if ever, about actually helping people. They're more about acting smarter than the other guy, trying to prove they're right, and being fanboys for whatever shiny equipment they've decided they like. And most tech people are convinced they already know everything, so education isn't important.   

Nobody will ever admit it, but it's true.

And as was mentioned in the many "what's happened to Youtube" threads here, at the end of the day people aren't interested in learning and education, they're interested in entertainment and hobbies and playing with stuff.

So I suppose the best forums are those where the most popular threads are stuff like "post a cat picture" and "what cool equipment did you buy today for your bench?"

Oh wait....  :-DD

Maybe the real test for new members is "Do you own a cat? Do you have cool equipment you can show?" And, most importantly, "Do you promise to agree with the rest of us?"
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