Why do so many people not acknowledge help 27

[johnnymac43]

When a question is asked in a technical forum, the first reply is usually a useful piece of advice or a request for more details. In some tek-tips forums, the number of occasions when there is no response from the originator is substantial. In my view, a word of thanks or a simple answer to a question should be the 'normal' outcome.

I recently raised this topic in a technical forum. When it disappeared after a short time I was unsure whether it was because it was in the wrong place, or because the thread attracted some unexpected abuse:- (What is your problem?) (What are you complaining about?) (Why haven't you given more stars to us for our good advice to others?)

After some deliberation I have decided to try this forum in the hope of getting some serious discussion going.

Cheers

John

 

[dwarfthrower]

Probably related to the "Why do so many people ask the ame mundane uber-beginner-level questions?" threads.

Because they have learnt to see forums like TT not so much as a sounding board for people to exchange ideas, but as a free on-call programming tutor. To them TT is a piece of software, the responses generated by their queries no different to the search results produced by google.

If you feel you've been left hanging, try posting a followup to the thread "So, Did you ever get this to work for you?"... If that doesn't elicit a yes / no thankyou, then perhaps it's time TT had a 'ignore user' button.

 

[edfair]

Was probably considered off post for where it was.
This is an ongoing concern. Seems to be a combination of people expecting it to be a help desk at their disposal and the general lack of civility that the internet fosters.

At least it isn't like some other sites that follow up to get threads cleared where the helpers fight for points. Here the purpose sincerely seems to be a desire to help.

Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[guestgulkan]

I believe that people (I mean the entire human race) are by nature ungrateful SOBs.
The social graces and good manners - minding your 'please' and 'thank you' have to be taught - they do not come naturally.

Sometimes it seems that the more desperate a person is in need of help the less grateful/appreciative they are.

 

[EricDraven]

About a month ago, I posted a question in the Delphi forums which proved to be quite a brain teaser. In the end I came up with the solution myself after being pointed in the right direction by two other users. I thanked them for their help, gave them both a star and wrote the actual solution on the remote off chance that anybody except the three of us was interested. Turned out, somebody was very intersted and typed a follow up message thanking me for sharing the solution and wishing that more users did the same.

I try to add a little conclusion to all of my queries now, safe in the knowledge that at least some people appreciate it!

Although I do get annoyed when somebody new posts on the boards with a blatently rewritten college/homework assignment! Grrrrr




When your feeling down and your resistance is low, light another cigarette and let yourself go

 

[dwarfthrower]

>> a blatently rewritten college/homework assignment

Even more annoying when you did the exact same homework assignment a decade ago ;-)

 

[johnwm]

<Although I do get annoyed when somebody new posts on the boards with a blatently rewritten college/homework assignment!>

The rules are clear on this one - RedFlag it!

________________________________________________________________
If you want to get the best response to a question, please check out FAQ222-2244 first

'People who live in windowed environments shouldn't cast pointers.'

 

[sleipnir214]

When I first became a Tek-Tips member, I was really into collecting stars.

After a while, stars began to mean very little to me, so I was just looking for a little gratitude.

Now, I consider myself lucky if my answer evern gets a &quot;I'll try that&quot; response.


But the problem is self-correcting. I know I pay attention to who expresses gratitude for help, and the grateful people will get my help first.

If someone is sufficiently ungrateful, I'll jump-start them about it.

Keep in mind, too, that if you think a member is abusing the privileges provided by Tek-Tips, you can always report that person to management. Red-flag one of the ingrate's posts, and explain carefully in the comments section that you are asking that management take a look at the member's behavior and explain why.

Want the best answers? Ask the best questions:

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

TANSTAAFL!!

 

[greyted]

Sorry sleipnir214, could not resist that.

We had a thread on this subject months ago and IMHO it is worse now.
You are lucky to get any acknoledgement if you try to help some people, let alone thank-you.

A couple of days ago a thread on the PC Hardware forum started with a nasty swear word, the poster was promptly informed not to use bad language and he may then get some help.

Two or three members tried to help this guy who replied in what I can only describe as pure ignorance.
Fortunately it was red flagged.

When this issue was raised before, I posted then that Please and Thank-you cost nothing and what I find so sad is the lack of good manners and etiquette on the different fora.

Some discussions on the Tends and Ethics fora can get rather over-heated but I must say the members are still polite, most of the time.

Most of these bad mannered people are what I term OPW,
One Post Wonders.

End of rant.




Ted

&quot;The difference between a misfortune and a calamity is this: If Gladstone fell into the Thames, it would be a misfortune. But if someone dragged him out again, that would be a calamity.&quot;
Benjamin Disraeli.

 

[sleipnir214]

greyted:
If you see a member that appears to be leeching off his fellow members, let Tek-Tips management know about him.

Allowing such a member to continue his actions unchecked doesn't serve anyone.

Want the best answers? Ask the best questions:

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

TANSTAAFL!!

 

[greyted]

sleipnir214,
You are indeed correct, I should have informed them.

What fascinated me so was to see how helpful some of the Tek-Tips members were in trying to help this person.
To be honest with you, when I returned to that thread a few minutes later it had been red flagged.

edfair,
Your help desk comments are spot on: some posts do read like that. It is a shame that one can't educate people to be civil and good mannered.
We can but try our best.



Ted

&quot;The difference between a misfortune and a calamity is this: If Gladstone fell into the Thames, it would be a misfortune. But if someone dragged him out again, that would be a calamity.&quot;
Benjamin Disraeli.

 

[dwarfthrower]

>> Most of these bad mannered people are what I term OPW,
One Post Wonders.

I like to call 'em seagulls - they fly in, make a lot of noise and crap all over everything.

 

[Win98User]

dwarfthrower
I would suggest that a lot of these so called one post wonders are actually the same &quot;group&quot; of people who are posting, getting booted, rejoining, posting, getting booted...or individuals who just like &quot;joining&quot; multiple times....

Or so it has seemed to me in the past.

Regards.
p.s. Did someone give sleipnir214 a star because they have a sense of humour?

sleipnir214 writes;
When I first became a Tek-Tips member, I was really into collecting stars.

After a while, stars began to mean very little to me, so I was just looking for a little gratitude.

Now, I consider myself lucky if my answer evern gets a &quot;I'll try that&quot; response.

 

[CCLINT]

>p.s. Did someone give sleipnir214 a star because they have a sense of humour


I believe it was greyted, who said:
>Sorry sleipnir214, could not resist that.<

 

[EricDraven]

When I first became a Tek Tips member, I really, really wanted to pickup about 100 stars!


When your feeling down and your resistance is low, light another cigarette and let yourself go

 

[Win98User]

CCLINT
Every once in a while even the obvious needs explaining to some people, it was just a little too subtle for me Thanks.

Regards.

 

[SF18C]

This thread actually made me go back and look at my past thread. For the most part I did thank those that helped and actually posted a thanks to one of the ones that &quot;got away.&quot;

SF18C
CCNA, MCSE, A+, N+ & HPCC

&quot;Tis better to die on your feet than live on your knees!&quot;

 

[edemiere]

I think that some people take this place as a 'drive-by' helpdesk. Come here, post your question, get a solution, fix your problem and then move along with your life giving little to no consideration to those that helped you.

I think its a symptom of a very self-indulged, self-serving society that we are living in. I am by no means endorsing such behavior because I too have not received feedback from many people in my short tenure here.

In fact, I found my way to tek-tips quite on accident. I was looking for information on google.com regarding the Nortel Contivity Client software and google of course had a link to a thread that was dedicated to that client. I read all 100+ posts, though I never got the answer I needed, I still keep up with that thread and post solutions that I have learned in my 6 months of dealing with it.

After that day I decided to just check out tek-tips.com without a threadname to see what the site was all about and to see if there was anything else I could glean from the site and of course, add value back at the same time from my vast experiences.

For the most part I have enjoyed participating in the forums and helping others. I have always enjoyed helping others because customer service is my specialty. I guess to a large extent I have gotten somewhat numb to those that show no gratitude for reasons stated above.

Truly depressing if you think about it, so I tend not to give it much thought.

My 2 cents on the matter...

Cheers!

 

[edfair]

If you find someone posting an obvious helpdesk incident RF it. Identify it as such.
As a matter of course I RF the helpdesk, begining user, student homework, and leech posts. And identify them to management as such. But they keep coming. Or returning.

Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[EdwardMartinIII]

Thanks for offering a good meaty thinking topic. I haven't considered the aspects of gifting in a while.

When someone asks for a solution to a technical question, I help as best I can, and count it as personal enrichment. In the JavaScript forum, every piece of code I post goes into my own personal library, too, and I chalk it up to having learned something else new (because I often learn more by helping someone else out than I do by solving my own problems).

I don't expect anything out of it.

Answers are gifts and I consider mine sans strings. If I don't want to offer an answer to someone, I simply won't.

In fact, I should be grateful to them for asking the question and giving me an opportunity to think about it.

Hm, I will more formally adopt that attitude. I think it's a heckuva lot healthier, anyway.

Cheers,


Edward

&quot;Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!&quot; -- inventor of the cat door