Morgano opened this issue on Jul 21, 2007 ยท 85 posts
kalon posted Sun, 22 July 2007 at 6:58 AM
Well it's six on one hand, half a dozen on the other. Yes, we're all new at some point. Yes, we should answer questions when we know the answer and true, no one should be afraid to post....
On the other hand, people posting to the forum have some responsibilities as well. But people want a quick easy answer. Rather than searching the Poser PDF for, for instance, "Add Runtime" and getting three hits, with the answer on the third selection. That takes a small amount of effort. More effort, apparently than asking. There have been times when the last time the question was asked hasn't even fallen off the first page yet.
So, the new poster is not willing to read the manual, is not willing to read the fora (except for their question) and is not willing to search the fora. In that case, I don't think it's inappropriate to politely direct them back to the resources available for them.
Successful forum are like delicate ecosystems, with a great mix of different levels of technical expertise. But if a forum becomes overrun with people asking the same simple question over and over again, and these posters are enabled by getting detailed responses over and over again, the more advanced users will become frustrated and bored and move on to different forums. That would, in the end, destroy the delicate balance that makes this an interesting forum because mid-level users come here to learn from the more advanced users not just help beginners.
Just my two cents...