Non researched posts and getting work done

HI All,

I've been using this forum for a while now, i started asking questions, now i just go on to answer posts.

I am becomming increasingly annoyed with non-researched posts and people trying to get their work done. There are posts for say "Searching a folder for files" which are posted about 10 posts above another post on the same thread, so they dont google, the dont search the forum just post.

Here is one http://www.excelforum.com/excel-prog...te-if-not.html

There are loads each day.

I would like to have something similar to stack overflow where we can mark posts down to say if no research has been done etc, then this will limit the questions the user can ask, if they keep submitting non researched posts or asking for their work to be done.

I think this could be what turns me off this forum.

Thanks

Nathan.

but posting here is researching to some extent,no? but i get your drift

Almost everyone here is trying to get their work done, no?

Stack Overflow is geared towards those who consider themselves programmers; this site is not. A lot of people have no idea how to adapt the solution from one question to their specific situation. Of course, there are those who make little to no effort to either research or solve their questions before posting, but you can just ignore them if you wish.

All the Excel forums I frequent have different attitudes and customs - that's one of the reasons I use more than one, and I personally wouldn't like them to all be the same. In all of them there are irritants, but that's pretty much a given when there are this many people involved.

Just my tuppence worth.

My 2 cents worth as well....

How would you know (for sure) that they did - or did not - do any research on their question?

I get it that some members just want all the work done for them, and mostly, I see them being asked what they have done so far, and that we will help them build on what they have.

Also, as mentioned above, some members really have no clue what they want, or even if what they want, is even possible. - they just want help. As with those members that hardly ever say thanks for the help they get, we are all free to answer or ignore them

My 2 cents worth as well....

How would you know (for sure) that they did - or did not - do any research on their question?

I get it that some members just want all the work done for them, and mostly, I see them being asked what they have done so far, and that we will help them build on what they have.

Also, as mentioned above, some members really have no clue what they want, or even if what they want, is even possible. - they just want help. As with those members that hardly ever say thanks for the help they get, we are all free to answer or ignore them

Somewhat related...

My biggest annoyance is people that post replies like:

See the file:

File.xlsx

Tony:

My personal favorite are the ones that just say "plz help my formula" and have one of these attached Capture.PNG



OP: Agreed about the research, I've noticed there are a lot of posts about IF functions and nesting IF's...I understand that logical operators can be a difficult concept to someone who is not familiar with it, but there have to be at least a thousand threads titled word for word: "help with nested IF formula"...one google search would do the trick don't you think?

Luckily I love playing with stupidly complicated IF scenarios and always dive on these threads when I see them unanswered

In the end we are just here to help though right? That, and to beg for rep. Which sometimes annoys me more than the lack of research tbh ^-^ Sig reminders are fine, I'm talking about people personally requesting rep in every post they make

If people searched long enough, I dare say 75% of them would eventually find a solution.

What would we (those of us that like to answer questions) do with all the idle time on our hands?

We would spend our time writing the shortest formulas possible for completely overcomplicated and unlikely scenarios.

Speaking of which....where is Game #10?!?

lost in cyber space (I hope)

Hi Speshul,

In the end we are just here to help though right? That, and to beg for rep. Which sometimes annoys me more than the lack of research tbh ^-^ Sig reminders are fine, I'm talking about people personally requesting rep in every post they make

That's true but I've learned an awful lot since I joined this forum and that was after I wrote a book!

Originally Posted by Speshul

My personal favorite are the ones that just say "plz help my formula" and have one of these attached Attachment 339961

Yeah, those are equally annoying.

99.99% of the time I pass on those ones.

I have the feeling that a lot of people posing questions don't have any idea how a solution is going to be arrived at so don't have a good idea or any idea of what to research. They know what they have but may not even know if their data is useable or not like values that should be numeric but are really text. If their data is good they may have little idea of how to use it to get the solution that they want.

What "gets under my skin" are "bait" questions that don't really relate to the problem that they want solved. By this I am referring to a rather simple question being asked then more and more details and restrictions are added until the end resultant question is totally different from what was originally asked and if was asked in the first place would have taken a small amount of time and effort to answer.

I don't even think about whether or not a poser of a question has researched the subject or not because they might be like I was years ago when given a project and a computer. I knew how to plug it in and where the on/off switch was and that was it. My only help was the supplied manuals.

I don't know the other person's positions so I give then the benefit of a doubt whenever I can.

I'm taking a short vacation from answering questions....just too tired and somewhat frustrated at the moment. I'm only here to help as well as I can and when it becomes "too much" I take a break.

Keep on truck'in my friends.

Probably not the first time this issue has been raised. I have some sympathy and share some of the frustration (whatever, perhaps there's a better word).

But some of those nested If questions aren't always that simple, and sometimes warrant a different approach. And that's what makes them interesting if you take up the challenge.

But, what is very straight forward for some folk is the very bottom of the learning curve for others. For example, I was with a guy at a client's premises today and I was showing him something and I just double clicked on the bottom right hand corner to Autofill a formula ... his reaction was amazement. His comment: "whoa, what did you just do then!?" He knew about Autofill, just not about double clicking.

Equally, sometimes people just don't know how (best) to ask the question, or what words/terminology to use.

So, you have a choice: ignore it if you think they are being lazy (or whatever) or look at it as an easy opportunity to up your post count, increase your rep and, of course, re-inforce the knowledge and wisdom you have.

Regards, TMS

Originally Posted by Tony Valko

What would we (those of us that like to answer questions) do with all the idle time on our hands?

I don't know! I'm suffering withdrawal symptoms right now and it has only been a couple of days

Re: Ron's post #13

LJMetzger and I were both working on a thread a while back and, Lewis, coined the phrase "dynamic requirements" - that was the first that I heard that notion articulated and thought that it described many of our frustrations

(Ron's avatar doesn't scare me)

Originally Posted by xladept

Re: Ron's post #13 "dynamic requirements"
(Ron's avatar doesn't scare me)

I just love that "dynamic requirements". That would have been the perfect job description for my working career!

I did my best to make that avatar as scary as possible ...if at first you don't succeed... LOL

Yeah - he sure knows how to turn a phrase - keep working at it kid - you'll get it

My point is the amount of 1).... 2)..... or thanks for the help, but how do i make it copy Sheet1 instead of Sheet2, or "Need Macro to copy sheet data to a new sheet"

The latter is available every day on the forum, showing they havent even searched.

Someone asked about how to check file modified dates, so i sent a google link to the FSO, he said "i dont think this will do what i want" showing not even read/tried it.

Whilst not disagreeing with you in principle, I would suggest that reading, understanding, implementing and adapting are different things. Given a programming background, it's relatively easy to follow through. Maybe not so easy for the "basic" Excel user.

Regards, TMS

Agreed. For me, it kind of depends on how far adrift the supplementary questions are. I will quite often say, the original question has been answered; new question, new thread ... and explain the advantages of starting a new thread.

When I see these "application" threads, if I recognize them soon enough, I am completely turned off of them. If they are completely up front in posing their problems in creating their application, at least the problem is "limited" somewhat and if they have done some work, especially if the calculations failed, that shows that they are involved and don't just want the work handed to them I don't mind lending a hand up to the point that I feel they should be able to continue on their own.

If you feel that you are being taken advantage of, I think it is time to drop out of the thread.