Responding to specific questions

[Tony F Dordogne]

And some people who do post either original questions - or comments rather that questions - should remember the old Oscar Wilde quote about it being better to keep your mouth closed and letting somebody think you're a fool that to open it and prove to them that you are.

To me when 'regulars' pose questions and then forget, that's life.  It's the new posters with long and complex questions who then don't get back that sort of flumox me - why bother in the first place?

Edit:  PS, nobody who has contributed to this thread, he quickly adds, comes under either of the categories described by dear Oscar.

[Richard T]

What gets me is those who post simple questions which could easily be resolved by a quick google.

On another forum recently a poster asked "Can pets be taken on Ryanair" - without so much as a please or a question mark - and blow me, the first response was "I searched 'Travel questions' on the ryanair

site, and found this about guide dogs. It does also say that other

animals are not permitted on flights. Hope this answers the question"

The poster who asked the question has a history of posing one line questions and has never yet posted a "thank you" to any of them.

Richard T

[Maricopa]

[quote user="Richard T"]What gets me is those who post simple questions which could easily be resolved by a quick google.

The poster who asked the question has a history of posing one line questions and has never yet posted a "thank you" to any of them.

[/quote]

Richard T, I couldn't agree more with your first point, it must take longer to post the question and wait for replies than to post exactly the same question in google, with instant replies.

As regards your second point, why does anyone bother posting replies anymore?[Www]

M

[Jackie]

It could be that they are trying to be helpful and know that for every person posting a question there are several readers who also want the question answered. Or, being unkind, they are on an ego trip and like seeing themselves in print! This, of course, applies not to anyone here................................J 

[YCCMB]

Oddly, and I didn't bother mentioning it at the time, but in the recent past on here I've given specific answers to specific questions and there's been no sign of the OP even bothering to read the answer, let alone offer any acknowledgement of having done so. Do I think it's rude? Yes, I think it's B*** rude. If you can be bothered to log on and post a question, at least bother to acknowledge the responses, even if it's to say something other than "thank you". Most people, myself included, don't answer questions for any particular kudos, but because they know, or can easily find the answer.

What really gets my back up, and it has happened to me once in the not-too-distant past, is when someone asks a question, receives an answer, and then posts a request for supplementary help or information and actually says "..because I'm too busy to find out ..." as if other people are sitting at their computers just waiting for them to hand out the next task. And I wholeheartedly agree with RichardT that it would appear many people are too busy to Google anything....a fairly quick way to get most information, IMO. And don't get me started about doing a forum search......

[mint]

Betty, Betty, this is so unlike you!

You've always answered fully or been the first to say you didn't know.

I guess it's mostly "new people" who flit in and out and are not really part of the forum.

I, too, have been pee'd off when I have spent time finding an answer and have got no response.  Then, I think, oh well, up yours.  I hope you live in interesting times!

On the other hand, I have done very little to help someone and forgotten all about it until they invite me and the OH and dog for a meal and are really grateful and it's been wonderful meeting them!

You win some and you lose some, as they say....

[YCCMB]

[quote user="sweet 17"]

Betty, Betty, this is so unlike you!

[/quote]

No, I am indeed a miserable old bat with a crinkly face, a headscarf and a bad attitude.[:D]

I don't mind asnwering questions. I know, for example, that sometimes people would need to Google something in French, and may not have the words they need to generate a meaningful search. It's fun for me, challenges my knowledge of French a bit, and often teaches me something I wouldn't have known, whilst helping another person. A win-win, you might say. And I don't expect "thanks", so much as a simple acknowledgement that it's been of use (or not) to the OP. We all get an enormous amount (as well as  the obvious, occasional full-on fist-fight[:D]) from participating in forums, and it's clear that new people can't always "give back" from the word go. All the more important, then, that until people are in a position to reciprocate in kind for the help they receive, they give a small nod to people who do try to help them.

[Babbles]

Google is OK, but I think its good to hear about people who have been in a similar situation and share anecdotes, or it could be that some people a really bad at searching google, you know the info there but just can't get to it [8-)]but I do agree that people could thank you if you've helped or even just update on how things have gone.

[Maricopa]

[quote user="You can call me Betty"]...............no sign of the OP even bothering to read the answer, let alone offer any acknowledgement of having done so. Do I think it's rude? Yes, I think it's B*** rude. If you can be bothered to log on and post a question, at least bother to acknowledge the responses, even if it's to say something other than "thank you". [/quote]

That was exactly my point, well said[:D]

[The Riff-Raff Element]

[quote user="Miss Babs"]Google is OK, but I think its good to hear about people who have been in a similar situation and share anecdotes, or it could be that some people a really bad at searching google, you know the info there but just can't get to it [8-)]but I do agree that people could thank you if you've helped or even just update on how things have gone.[/quote]

Good point. Also it is a pretty poor outlook for the future of human intercourse (do try not to snigger at the back) and the continued health & happiness of internet forums if our online relationships deteriorate to talking solely to a bloody search engine.

Plus, some of the results they turn up are complete rot.

Asking people is much more...human.

But I agree: not at least saying thankyou is jolly rude and no incentive to those trying to help. Neither is the rapidity with which some people seem to get shirty if they don't get exactly the answer they want.

[woolybanana]

Nice one Jon. How is the Lower Vendée, the part that is full of mossies, likely to be submerged soon and full of empty houses???[6]

(This is a test to see if I get a reply!)

[tegwini]

Hi WooleyB

What's this about mossies in the Vendée ?

Just curious ...

Regards

Tegwini

[Chrisdubna]

What really pisses me off is when someone posts asking for something to be brought from or taken to the UK, or a lift to or from some port or airport.  A friend who lives near me and also myself go back to the UK quite often so we used to volunteer to provide this sort of service.  Usually there is no response.  Though once I got a response from a guy who must have thought that Nottingham is somewhere near Newcastle.  He expected me to pick it up from Newcastle and as a freebie.

The other day on another forum I responded to a small ad and two weeks later am waiting for a reply.

Rude is what I call it.

CHRIS

[Maricopa]

[quote user="Jackie"]

 This is sometimes in error as an earlier poster making a correction will register as if they were the last poster when they were not thus masking the fact that there has been another reply.

Another issue is that to often folk start a heated discussion between themselves often going off topic and ignoring the original question put. [/quote]

A couple of reasonable points Jackie, but not relevant to the kind of thing we are talking about.  See these threads (among many) for examples. 

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1398365/ShowPost.aspx

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1397843/ShowPost.aspx

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1378493/ShowPost.aspx

They all involve me and others responding, they are not meant as a name and shame, merely to illustrate the point. 

PS: If the Mods would like to delete them from this post, feel free.[:D]

[Patf]

Does anyone remember the person who used to constantly post questions, quite complicated ones. We thought that he/she was doing a paid service , giving advice to expats, and getting her info. on here. Can't remember the name (best not to mention it.)

To be fair, she did say thankyou now and again.

I apologise to anyone who has answered my questions, and not been ackowledged.

[Jackie]

Point taken but I don't underestimate the virtual reality effect. The box in the corner (TV) has images of people who are not real are they? I think our conscious mind knows that some are and some are not but we are isolated from them therefore are they real to us? Likewise text on the computer screen, so lacking in aspects of human contact, not really real then! I think it does take some effort to remind ourselves that it was placed there by real people....................................J  

 

http://www.scienceclarified.com/scitech/Virtual-Reality/Which-World-Is-Real-The-Future-of-Virtual-Reality.html

[Cat]

I see what you mean Maricopa. 

If I were wearing my benefit-of-the-doubt hat, I might wonder if those involved had not visited the forum since asking the question (perhaps because they asked the same question in other places, and were given the answer elsewhere).  

That would be one way of looking at it, there are of course others.

[5-element]

[quote user="The Riff-Raff Element"]
Good point. Also it is a pretty poor outlook for the future of human intercourse (do try not to snigger at the back) and the continued health & happiness of internet forums if our online relationships deteriorate to talking solely to a bloody search engine.

Plus, some of the results they turn up are complete rot.

Asking people is much more...human.

[/quote]

Here is an unsollicited response from one Element to another: Thank you for your post, Jon, I liked it.[:)]

[Weedon]

What gets my goat is some ar** who comes in on a subject 5 pages in who goes off on a tangent demonstrating clearly they have not bothered to read all the other pages.

No mossies here in Mayenne.

[5-element]

Just in case you might have meant me, Weedon, I did follow the 5 pages as they were written from the first posting, and refrained from contributing  -  I did not feel I had anything remotely interesting to add. It was all being said for me. Until I saw the post by  The Riff-Raff Element, which did strike a chord.

[Weedon]

[quote user="5-element"]Just in case you might have meant me, Weedon, I did follow the 5 pages as they were written from the first posting, and refrained from contributing  -  I did not feel I had anything remotely interesting to add. It was all being said for me. Until I saw the post by  The Riff-Raff Element, which did strike a chord.[/quote]

Actually 5 el, it wasn't aimed at you, it wasn't even aimed at Teg (at the top), whom I thought afterwards might have thought it had been. It was simply a light-hearted self-deprecating post.  I made the contribution after reading through a few of the posts which then left me thinking that perhaps I have been guilty in the past of not patting enough backs and not using Google enough.  Stuck up here in the top floor of my tower, where my PC sits, I don't get much in the way of human contact so like to think the forum is where you, sort of, make contact with cheerful helpful souls that have more warmth than Google or Jeeves.

[YCCMB]

A small point of clarification, in case everyone thinks I was advocating that no (quote) "human intercourse" should ever take place on here. I wasn't. I was pointing out that there are times - many times - where questions are asked on here that can easily be answered by using a search engine or, heaven forbid, the forum's own search facility. A cursory scan of a lot of the questions asked on here shows that the OP is, often, referred to another web page, which would probably come up as soon as the relevant words are typed into a search. I wasn't suggesting this should replace anything, or that this is preferable in every case. Anyway, as you were. I'm off to be a miserable old bat..................

[mint]

"Jeeves" had a lot of warmth.  He loved his master Bertie and looked after his every need!

I used to love Jeeves when I was a child and a book featuring Jeeves always made me laugh.  Sorry, have I now gone off on "a tangent" as some others on here have been accused of doing?[8-)]

[woolybanana]

"Tangential differentiation" is a much overrated concept IMNVHO. Far too open to subjective redefinition.

[The Riff-Raff Element]

[quote user="woolybanana"]

Nice one Jon. How is the Lower Vendée, the part that is full of mossies, likely to be submerged soon and full of empty houses???[6]

(This is a test to see if I get a reply!)

[/quote]

In order to avoid going all tangential, please check for a PM/