Just need to get this off my chest

I just need to vent. And this seems to be as good a place as any.

<rant on>
I belong to a few different forums on various subjects, and a particular type of behavior seems to crop up regularly. I usually just have to close the thread when I see it. Otherwise, I am likely to draw myself into a lengthy back and forth with the person; something that isn't useful to either of us.

The behavior I'm talking about usually exhibits itself in one of 2 ways:

Example 1:
At the end of a multi-page (often 50 or more) thread, someone posts "I know the answer is probably here, but I don't want to read 50 pages of posts to find it. So <insert previously answered question here>?"

Example 2:
A person posts a brand-new thread, writing, "I know that the answer is likely in the forum somewhere, but I don't have time to search for it. So <insert question>?"

Really? If you can't be bothered to do some basic investigation on your own, then why should the rest of us do it for you? If you can't be bothered to read through some other potentially useful information in order to find the answer to your question, why should we be bothered to spoon feed you? Is your time somehow more valuable than mine just because you say so?

I know we all have (me included) posted a question on a topic that has been discussed before. It's inevitable on a board that has been around as long as HBT has. Sometimes I miss a post. Sometimes I just fail at search terms. But I never just post and say, "Hey, I'm lazy. Do work for me." With that kind of attitude, it surprises me that these people bother to brew their own at all. Just pop down to the corner store and buy yourself a six pack.

In most cases, if you see me post a question on these forums, you can be sure that I have tried searching for the answer several different ways. I'll even point it out if I have found information that might apply to what I am asking, but either doesn't quite fit my situation or is confusing to me. Heck. I'm the king of resurrecting old threads because I found them through my searches and still have questions about the topic.

But you'll never catch me saying, "Hey, just shove knowledge in my head and don't make me work for it." For me, these forums are about learning. Learning is a 2 part process. Those who possess information should share it. And those who need information should actively seek it.

</rant off>

So, if you had done a search you would have found more than several threads already addressing this issue...............:cross:

I would say that if somebody is posting at the tail of a long thread that actually contains their answer then that's a bit of the weak sauce...

However, if somebody posts a new thread, I suppose it's nice to give the benefit of the doubt that they made some effort to find the answer. If it becomes a very common thing, I'd suggest that person needs help learning how to more effectively search the forum.

Generally speaking though, one would like to think the forum is full of helpful people who would be happy to point folks in the right direction.

duboman said:

So, if you had done a search you would have found more than several threads already addressing this issue...............:cross:

Click to expand...

duboman said:

So, if you had done a search you would have found more than several threads already addressing this issue...............:cross:

Click to expand...

And if he had he would have found that this forum is more of an ongoing conversation, not strictly a research tool.

I've been guilty of this..... but when the search function does not yield the appropriate answer and a thread is 150+ pages (on a mobil device) and I've read 50 of them...... well too bad, sometimes questions must be asked. Choose to ignore if you can't bear it, let a more helpful person jump in or link them to a sticky.

I too am a member of quite a few highly active forums with some being EXTREMELY adversarial and down right bitchy. I have yet to see that here. Heck if anything the exact opposite! All the idiotic questions I've asked have been answered and I'm a better person now for it. Anyway my thanks go out to the benevolent posters for helping the asshats.

i have found that you can type almost any question about basic and most advanced brewing into google and get an EXACT post about your question that already exists. But I've also been guilty of posting the old 'Is my beer infected ?!?!?!?!?! thread

Yes, the search function on this sites Android app is utter garbage. No wonder people post questions that have been answered as million times over. Please sort it chaps.

BadMrFrosty said:

Yes, the search function on this sites Android app is utter garbage. No wonder people post questions that have been answered as million times over. Please sort it chaps.

Click to expand...

You can always go to hbt on your phone via browser and search there...thats what I do.

As far as people not searching first, I usually answer their question and helpfully point out that the search bar is very useful.

Were you looking for this thread? https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/threads-you-tired-seeing-427743/

butterpants said:

I too am a member of quite a few highly active forums with some being EXTREMELY adversarial and down right bitchy. I have yet to see that here. Heck if anything the exact opposite! All the idiotic questions I've asked have been answered and I'm a better person now for it. Anyway my thanks go out to the benevolent posters for helping the asshats.

Click to expand...

I agree. I've seen other forums where, if you ask a previously asked (and answered) question, no less than 10 other people will immediately jump down your throat for being too stupid and/or lazy to use the search function. Here, at least someone will usually give a brief answer to your question before guiding you towards a prior thread with more detailed info. That's one of the things I really appreciate about the crowd here.

TheMan said:

You can always go to hbt on your phone via browser and search there...thats what I do.

As far as people not searching first, I usually answer their question and helpfully point out that the search bar is very useful.

Click to expand...

Very true however every time a page loads it prompts me to use the native Android app! Oh the irony!

duboman said:

So, if you had done a search you would have found more than several threads already addressing this issue...............:cross:

Click to expand...

Well dayum! Somebody got told.

If you think about it, in the time it took you to form your post and write it, you could have answered a dozen of those enquiries.

I find that people like to attack one one of two ways:

1.) Tell you this topic has already been posted about.

2.) Tell you this is an old topic, why are you reviving an old thread.


To appease. You simply should learn time travel to go back in time and post accordingly.



It takes all night to read a 50 page thread.

BadMrFrosty said:

Very true however every time a page loads it prompts me to use the native Android app! Oh the irony!

Click to expand...

I had the same issue on my android tablet, but in some of the internet browsers you can change a setting that will allow you to only load the native web site. which will get rid of that prompt.

Underwear is not returnable. You know why.

I get a little tired of the "this was covered in a previous thread" linking back to a 3 year old thread.

I do homebrewtalk "subject" searches on google, works pretty well to answer my question most of the time.

But isn't some of the purpose of this group to encourage brewers, especially newer ones, to have a positive attitude about the hobby.

I think the vast majority of the people on this thread take a positive approach, you'll always get some hyper negative nannies.

But I don't see how an answer of "if you'd only read page 187 of Ray Daniels book How to Brew, you wouldn't be asking this" is particularly helpful.

If someone's dumb question or dumb answer annoys you, you can always move on.

Tl;dr

OP is eerily quiet..... maybe he is looking up the meaning of SWMBO

McCuckerson said:

OP is eerily quiet..... maybe he is looking up the meaning of SWMBO

Click to expand...

One shot, one kill, for Duboman

Nicely done,