One thing that I wanted to point out that I have observed in reading through this thread is that many of the annoyances that are perceived by repetitive neebies, asking stupid questions, and being perceived as laziness - are based soley on the answerers level of expertise, and in the area/forum that the question is being asked.
I am going to pick on some people - I hope you don't mind - it isn't personal, nor are my comments directed to these people, nor am I responding to any of their posts in particular - but they are good illustrative purposes for my point - so thank you for volunteering.
Edfair:
I have seen you in the hardware forums - and have learned alot from many of your posts, and at the least - gained perspective on your thought process for a different methodology of how to solve a problem. But in the end, hardware is one of those topics that usually has a right or wrong answer. Either the PC boots or it doesn't. Either the problem is fixed or it isn't. So in the case of redundant answers, there is a correct answer, that a search would probably provide a useful result. So it is understandable that our perception in that forum is that the person may be lazy.
CajunCenturion:
I have seen you in one of the programming threads (I think Access or VBA - but can't be posistive) and you have probably helped me out of a few pickles directly - if you didn't then you still probably got a star for some wise words of wisdom that you imparted to me indirectly. In that forum, there are numerous answers to particular questions, and many "right" answers - and sometimes no "wrong" answers. As someone else had mentioned, sometimes results searched for in the search tool and FAQ's section may find the exact problem, or example of code, but be completely inapplicable - due to syntax, provisions for different results, etc. Often, the question needs to be reasked - with specifics given. In this case, redundancy will be required, until the people posing the questions have a mastery (or at least working knowledge) of the programming language. Since that represents an uneding suppliy of newbies, redundancy is required.
Someone else pointed out that we were all newbies at one time or another, and what is trivial, redundant and overasked to us, may be the first time someone else encountered these problems. Moreover, the person asking may not be aware of the FAQ's section, and may not know how to properly search for threads (case in point, I have been a member for a while - and never knew about red flags until reading this thread), and as newbies tend to think like... well... newbies, if they don't see the exact answer or phraseology of their questions, may not think to read the thread, or think that the answer applies to their case.
There is a reason that AOL is so popular..... and it isn't because it is the best... LOL
Everyone knows it sucks, except for the people that use it.
So just keep in mind, that what appears to be lazy, mindless, brain sucking, may in truth be shear ignorance. And this calls for patience and understanding as take the role of teacher. Not everyone has the same comprehension level, nor do all people read the same bit of information and understand it's meaning the same way. This in no way excuses the mases for being rude - that is just poor upbringing in a selfish, self-centered world. But it is a call to continue to do our best individually, to continue to make this the greatest tech forum on the web.
