Why so many repeat questions?
Since I was recently and publicly chastised by @
FBinNY,
Originally Posted by
FBinNY
Are you having a specific problem, or is this another of your general questions? I don't speak for anyone else, but while I'm willing to put the time and effort to help someone with a problem, I have zero interest in making an effort to write a treatise just so satisfy someone's idle curiosity. There's plenty of information on this topic, if you'll make a modest effort to research it. Rant over --- I'm out.
I thought I’d post the very obvious question – why is virtually EVERY question on BikeForums one that’s been answered many, many times before?
And being who I am, I can’t resist answering that question as well. I find several credible reasons among which are:
1. The BF search engine is profoundly lame. In honesty, this problem isn’t unique to BF, but rather to all “content creation programs” used for the web. One can search directly with Google, but the instructions on how to do so are not there.
2. Google searches are overly broad and provide thousands of incidental, inappropriate, or just plain wrong links. The main cause of this is the persistence of data on the internet. An article may have been posted 15 years ago and may not have been correct even then, but its longevity drives it toward the top of the search engine, despite the fact that its content may me completely wrong.
3. Many of the links on the internet are obsolete. Even if an article was accurate 15 years ago when it was posted, newer technologies and information may have made the original article useless.
4. Members pay to be a part of BF so that they can get up-to-date and definitive answers from a community of like-minded bicyclists. A BF member will participate less if they get humiliated for asking what they thought was a reasonable question.
5. Newbies, routed to this site by a search engine, may ask a question without knowing that it’s been answered many times before. Having a “FAQ” section in each branch of the forum would help reduce these questions. Of course, any potential member who gets chastised for asking what is, to them, a reasonable question will be FAR less likely to become a BF member if they don’t feel welcome.
Now, all of that said, it is true that some (and I’m as guilty of anyone on this) are just plain lazy. Rather than spending a half hour wading through YouTube videos made by guys who are apparently less than literate in addition to having poor personal hygiene (probably from living in their parents’ basements), I opt to post the question on BF. And I do it BEFORE I damage an expensive frame by doing something stupid to it.
So ultimately, I predict that the same questions WILL continue to appear, again and again, on the same topics. The way to avoid being burned out by this is to ignore the repetitive questions and let someone else answer them. OR, as I suggested earlier, to create a FAQ section…