Asking Questions on a Technical Forum

Absinthe

Well-Known Member
If you have been on the internet long enough you will find most technical forums will have the following standard respondents to your questions. This is not specific to knife makers, but perhaps they pertain. :)

1. Nike... Just do it.
This is common in many verticals. Many very skilled and talented people are quite excellent at accomplishing a task, at their level it is intuitive and you would better learn by watching them because they do it without even thinking. It is not as easy for these folks to actually explain what they are doing. They just know how to do it.

2. I paid my dues!
I found this much more often in the earlier days of the internet. You find where people feel it was difficult for them to learn all they know, and you should expect a lifetime of trial & error to get to their skill level. They are neither interested in explaining anything, and many times they may also fall into the first category, where their explanation, may or may not make sense to anyone who doesn't already know how to do that task.

3. RTFM!
Again, in the earlier days of the internet this was about the best answer you could get to any technical question. There was lots of documentation out there, written in very difficult language and if you hadn't taken the time to read, follow and understand that then you didn't deserve to know how to do it. If you were asking any kind of technical question, you had better listed all the documents you already queried, and be prepared to contribute a written document to answer your question, after you received a response. This is how many FAQs got written. But it was a harsh environment to learn in.

4. Technical and Safety police
These folks were quite annoying to get any response from. It would seem like you never got an actual answer to your question, but had you posted a picture, they would hone in on some pet inaccuracy, or lack of safety gear/guard. For instance when looking for a technique for adjusting the parallel between your saw blade and your fence, you might get a diatribe on not having all your safety guards in place in the photo. Or even better, seeing the safety glasses laying on the saw table itself, assume you weren't wearing them and you get a diatribe on that. With nary a word on what you asked in the first place.

5. The quality snobs.
These go in both directions. To one side, there is the guy who poops all over someone because they are trying to use a CNC to high end brand instead of using some multi-century old hand tool. An example might be if one asked about using Shaper Origin for doing knife shields, they would get more of a blast on why they should simply do it with a razor blade and a shop modified chisel, or even just use the Dremel tool. On the other end, someone having a problem using the razor blade inlay process might get someone giving them an answer about how they need to go buy a Gorton 3L or whatever the current hot 100 year old Pantograph Mill might be.

6. Junk Concerns
This happens in the musical instrument verticals a lot. Someone might post a First Act guitar that has a screwed up nut or bridge or even a crack in the top of broken neck. Asking how to do the repair, or replace a specific part, one might get focused on how the particular instrument is "junk" and should merely be thrown out and replaced with a new one because those are only "$XYZ.00" brand spanking new! There is no concern for the motivation of the repairer. Even though, it is possible that he is trying to learn the repair technique that he may apply to his $2000 Taylor by practicing on a similar issue on his $15 First act. I have seen this in some of the knife areas. Someone will suggest, that they buy some cheap Chinese versions of patterns they like and take them apart to learn how to make their patterns. So when they do so, and can't quite figure how to do the angle or spring shape and they ask about that with a photo of their $3 Chinese trapper, rather than a technical answer one has to weed through 17 responses of how low the quality of the Chinese and Pakistani knives are.

7. I have to answer every question
These folks have to reply to every question answered regardless of whether they know the answer, or not. I've never quite understood the thought process involved, but as the OP it usually leaves me with a funny look on my face wondering how their peach preserve recipe has anything to do with how to cut a double lap joint in sugar maple. :)

8. METOO!!
This person doesn't know the answer but has the same question and is so thrilled you asked, or doesn't know how to use the follow feature of the forum to follow a post without adding another response. I seem to remember a weird thread on a question in an instrument forum, I think it was about sizing of a sound hole or something, that ended up being a question, then 3 pages of responses that were each nothing more than "Me too!"

9. That was asked before!
There are a couple variations. One is the irritated person either not wanting to see such questions simply saying it was asked before. His idea of being helpful is to say "You should learn to use the search feature." The other variant will usually post a link or give some reasonable search value to use like if you use our search with "jimbo729: chicken bone bridge" you should get to the right thread...

10. The expert teacher
This is the guy you hope answers all your questions. He comes back with clear, concise, accurate responses. They are timely, and many have references to other documentation, books, publications, or even Youtube or other Websites. If only he lived next door, you could come over to his shop/studio or he would come to yours and lickety-split your problem would be solved. I have even met some who will use DUO or FaceTime and show you an answer. Close to this, there is a fellow on one of the CAD forums that will go and make GIF animations of his solution then post response to go along with it guiding you step by step through the answer. They do eventually get tired or retyping the same old response to the same question asked over and over again and tend to become #9....

The two I left out because I like the number 10 for lists:
11. Everything is on YouTube
Present day version of the RTFM guy. Any reference to going and looking on YouTube for all but the most basic questions without a "search for this" or "XYZ User" is close to useless advice. But, you will find it is his response to just about every post.

12. Guild's for everything
This tends to come up in trades a lot. This guy's answer is usually something along the lines of "Find a master technician, and volunteer to work for him for free in your copious time off as an unpaid apprentice." Then you will know how to do XYZ.
 
We are very fortunate on this forum in that we have several of #10 types here that do a GREAT job of patiently explaining our questions.
Obviously it would be a gross generalization to say that all forums are the same with equal ratios and such. You should see the humorous response I got to this on a similar forum. :)
 
You should see the humorous response I got to this on a similar forum. :)

There might be some legitimacy to that.

It is a LONG post (which I did read) to really not have much of a point. Which is fine if you just wanted to type your observations.

There could be a lot unpacked from your post if one wanted to.
 
There might be some legitimacy to that.

It is a LONG post (which I did read) to really not have much of a point. Which is fine if you just wanted to type your observations.

There could be a lot unpacked from your post if one wanted to.
It was a list. It started out as an explanation to someone who basically gave up on a particular forum because of the responses they got. I felt someone else might enjoy it. If not, no biggie.
 
It was a list. It started out as an explanation to someone who basically gave up on a particular forum because of the responses they got. I felt someone else might enjoy it. If not, no biggie.
Some of your list very well may be true. And at the same time, possibly warranted AT TIMES.

Your list is from the perspective of the asker. The perspective of the answerer may be different.

Probably a case by case basis is the right approach. Sometimes the asker, or the way they ask, warrants a certain type of response.
 
Some of your list very well may be true. And at the same time, possibly warranted AT TIMES.

Your list is from the perspective of the asker. The perspective of the answerer may be different.

Probably a case by case basis is the right approach. Sometimes the asker, or the way they ask, warrants a certain type of response.
Perhaps it might be interesting to write a similar list from the perspective of any one of those respondents. I am sure that each finds an annoyance in many of the people that come demanding all sorts of things. I have seen someone try such a thing in one of the programming forums. I don't think it was quite as all encompassing. But I think it was from a more college perspective, and most of the questioners were simply trying to get someone else to do their homework for them. :)

I would welcome such a response. It would certainly be better than 3 pages of tldr; and soft porn... :)

In any event. I hope someone got something out of it, and perhaps stayed with a web forum at least one day longer. I am not sure how much longer they will last in favor of such things as Facebook groups and the ilk.
 
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