A Thought on Asking Questions in Forums & Communities 🧵

[MazieBartell]

I've noticed in many communities and forums that a lot of people are eager to get answers to their questions, which is completely fair.

But here's a question for those people: do you try to search for the answers yourself first? Do you use tools like Google or ChatGPT before posting your question?

If yes, and you genuinely couldn’t find the answer, then it totally makes sense to bring your query to public platforms like forums or communities. That’s what they’re there for: to help each other.

But if you're skipping the self-search step entirely, consider giving it a try first. You might be surprised how quickly you find what you're looking for.

And if this came across as harsh to anyone, I sincerely apologize in advance. My intention is only to encourage self learning and efficient use of community support.

Thank you.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

If I recall correctly the Forum guidelines indicate that one should at least do a Forum search before posting a query … 

[D Fosse]

Not sure about the forum search, actually. The result is usually "I have the same problem" which turns out to be not the same problem at all, often drowning an entire thread in noise. A new thread is IMO always better.

And to be honest, most questions can be answered pretty quickly by more experienced users. Cleaner, and quicker. The exceptions are the real, actual application bugs, but those are relatively few and do in any case require a fresh new thread.

And let's not forget, there's a lot of bogus and misleading information out there on the internet. You can easily be led astray. I've seen entire youtube videos that are utter nonsense.

In short, I think people should just come straight here.

[davescm]

In addition to the comments above, an issue with AI based answers, including ChatGPT, is that they are often incorrect (I believe the term is hallucinatory). 
Dave