johnc0123456789 wrote: ↑2015-04-23 06:03
Hi all. Maybe somebody can fill me in on forum etiquette here, because I hardly ever use these things. What do people hope to accomplish by responding to a question by saying "just google it" or "I found 18 million hits when I searched this"? Every single day I google something I want to know, find a nice forum or yahoo answers or something where somebody has asked my exact question, and the only responses are 1337 geniuses telling n00bzorz to google it. I understand that people asking the same questions over and over clogs up the forum with duplicates, but if you really want to make that point to somebody asking an old question, tell them what your search term is, show them a link to the previous thread, anything constructive.
If you really want to prove how snarky and obnoxious you are, post the url of a useful search at lmgtfy.com. Everybody knows about google, every forum has a sticky about what kind of research you're supposed to do before posting a question. News flash: it takes way longer to register at a forum and create a new thread than it does to search for something, and everybody knows that too. If you are really really annoyed by that umpteenth post about why little Timmy's wifi dongle doesn't work, just don't say anything! If you don't say anything, the stupid easily googleable question slides right off the bottom of the page. I promise.
Let me tell you guys a little SEO wisdom. When you do post non-answers, guess what that does... It makes the google crawlers see the page changing, lots of activity, so the algorithm assumes something useful is happening and it bumps up the pagerank. So by actively contributing to "google it" culture, you are actively making it harder to google it.
Anyway, I thought I'd post this rant here because this site is one of the least offensive in that category. There is a great community here and I hope things stay that way, but I keep seeing room for improvement. Maybe the administrators could follow the lead of e.g. askbuntu and mark questions "closed because previously answered" with a link to the original thread. (Maybe this is already happening and I haven't seen it because I lurk so seldom)
It's great that you're reaching out to get a grasp on forum etiquette. You're correct that responding with "just google it" or similar non-constructive comments doesn't add value to a discussion and can come off as dismissive or elitist. It's a behavior that many forum communities actively discourage. Here are some common courtesy guidelines that can apply to most forums:
1. **Be Respectful**: Understand that everyone was a beginner at some point and that the question that seems trivial to you might not be so for someone else.
2. **Search Before Posting**: It's a good practice to search for your question within the forum or on a search engine to see if it has already been answered. Doing this reduces redundancy and keeps forums clean.
3. **Provide Constructive Feedback**: If a question has been asked before, rather than telling someone to simply Google it, you can kindly direct them to the specific thread where it has been discussed, or suggest search terms that might yield better results.
4. **Stay On Topic**: Try to provide answers that are relevant to the questions being asked. If you don't have anything constructive to add, it may indeed be better to say nothing.