Research Before Asking Questions

[quote]eengrms76 wrote:
Imen de Naars wrote:
But do you think there is a motivation for every action? Personally, I feel like that most things I do in my free time are done without any motivation.

That’s kind of a sad thought. I would personally commit suicide if I ever found myself doing things with no motivation. Not all motivations are centered on improving or having any great thought process behind it, but I think every thing you do needs to have a purpose.[/quote]

Isn’t “because I enjoy doing them” enough?

I think CLaw has a good point (omg I can’t believe I just said that). I agree that, to a point, it shows a certain lack of respect to post a question when you’ve obviously not even taken the time to use the search function or even google.

And I don’t think this is a generational thing, I’m only 25. Think about it, 20+ years ago if you wanted to know something you could go look it up, or you could call/write someone more knowledgeable on the subject with your question.

If you were going to take the time to do that, and impose on this person, it only made sense to try and find the answer on your own first. Or at least learn enough about the subject so as to be capable of putting forth some sort of hypothesis or argument regarding the answer you were looking for.

Fast forward to today. If you want to know something, you google it and voila! You have several thousand or even million websites offering you a plethora of information about your subject, and any porn that could be related to your subject.

Hell, the search engine is so popular it’s name has become a verb in common use English! How long does it take? How much effort to type in a few words and hit return (or click the search button)? If you can’t be bothered to do that much, then why would you expect other people to take the time to respond to your forum post asking if creatine will make you swole or some such drivel?

Please note that I’m not trying to discourage people from asking questions. Questions are fantastic, but there’s a huge difference between this:

"this guy at the gym told me that creatine can kill me, is that true?

bobo the idiot boy"

and this:

"Hey guys, I was doing some research on creatine and had a few questions. I’ve never used it before and have a few concerns. I read here (cites article, possibly including a link or a quote) that prolonged usage of creatine could have adverse affects on my liver function.

My family has a history of autoimmune hepatitis and I don’t want to do anything that may increase my chances of liver problems in the future. Anyone know of any other research on the subjects or have any personal experience in the matter?
thanks,
bob"

See the difference, the first example shows an obviously uninformed person asking a stupid question that could have been answered in 30 seconds with a little research. The second shows someone who’s done some research and come up with a question regarding it that he can’t find an answer to. Wow, great time to ask the forum.

I understand it’s an open forum and people can post more or less whatever they want, but I understand where CLaw’s coming from (still have a hard time typing that :D).

[quote]eengrms76 wrote:
… I would personally commit suicide if I ever found myself doing things with no motivation. …[/quote]

Only if you had no motivation to commit suicide.

[quote]Imen de Naars wrote:
eengrms76 wrote:
Imen de Naars wrote:
But do you think there is a motivation for every action? Personally, I feel like that most things I do in my free time are done without any motivation.

That’s kind of a sad thought. I would personally commit suicide if I ever found myself doing things with no motivation. Not all motivations are centered on improving or having any great thought process behind it, but I think every thing you do needs to have a purpose.

Isn’t “because I enjoy doing them” enough?[/quote]

Well then you contradicted yourself- your motivation was to gain enjoyment by doing said activities. You said above you do things with no motivation.

[quote]eengrms76 wrote:
Imen de Naars wrote:
eengrms76 wrote:
Imen de Naars wrote:
But do you think there is a motivation for every action? Personally, I feel like that most things I do in my free time are done without any motivation.

That’s kind of a sad thought. I would personally commit suicide if I ever found myself doing things with no motivation. Not all motivations are centered on improving or having any great thought process behind it, but I think every thing you do needs to have a purpose.

Isn’t “because I enjoy doing them” enough?

Well then you contradicted yourself- your motivation was to gain enjoyment by doing said activities. You said above you do things with no motivation.[/quote]

Yeah, you’re right. I think that probably I connect too easily “motivation” with “goal” - meant as what is typically intended as goal not its real meaning.

[quote]m0dd3r wrote:
I think CLaw has a good point (omg I can’t believe I just said that). I agree that, to a point, it shows a certain lack of respect to post a question when you’ve obviously not even taken the time to use the search function or even google.

And I don’t think this is a generational thing, I’m only 25. Think about it, 20+ years ago if you wanted to know something you could go look it up, or you could call/write someone more knowledgeable on the subject with your question.

If you were going to take the time to do that, and impose on this person, it only made sense to try and find the answer on your own first. Or at least learn enough about the subject so as to be capable of putting forth some sort of hypothesis or argument regarding the answer you were looking for.

Fast forward to today. If you want to know something, you google it and voila! You have several thousand or even million websites offering you a plethora of information about your subject, and any porn that could be related to your subject.

Hell, the search engine is so popular it’s name has become a verb in common use English! How long does it take? How much effort to type in a few words and hit return (or click the search button)? If you can’t be bothered to do that much, then why would you expect other people to take the time to respond to your forum post asking if creatine will make you swole or some such drivel?

Please note that I’m not trying to discourage people from asking questions. Questions are fantastic, but there’s a huge difference between this:

"this guy at the gym told me that creatine can kill me, is that true?

bobo the idiot boy"

and this:

"Hey guys, I was doing some research on creatine and had a few questions. I’ve never used it before and have a few concerns. I read here (cites article, possibly including a link or a quote) that prolonged usage of creatine could have adverse affects on my liver function.

My family has a history of autoimmune hepatitis and I don’t want to do anything that may increase my chances of liver problems in the future. Anyone know of any other research on the subjects or have any personal experience in the matter?
thanks,
bob"

See the difference, the first example shows an obviously uninformed person asking a stupid question that could have been answered in 30 seconds with a little research. The second shows someone who’s done some research and come up with a question regarding it that he can’t find an answer to. Wow, great time to ask the forum.

I understand it’s an open forum and people can post more or less whatever they want, but I understand where CLaw’s coming from (still have a hard time typing that :D).[/quote]

Good post.

You analyze alot of meaningless things. For you to actually contemplate this makes me shake my head. Malo Verde said it best.

[quote]m0dd3r wrote:
If you can’t be bothered to do that much, then why would you expect other people to take the time to respond to your forum post asking if creatine will make you swole or some such drivel?[/quote]

Bingo. I answer questions when I’m qualified to and when I think the person is serious. People who will not do basic research are not the kind of people who will apply what is told to them. They need to be left to die on the vine.

<-----Look! It’s my screen name!!

[quote]rainjack wrote:
What do they want? They want the satisfaction of seeing their screen name posted on the internet.[/quote]

[quote]malonetd wrote:
<-----Look! It’s my screen name!!

rainjack wrote:
What do they want? They want the satisfaction of seeing their screen name posted on the internet.

[/quote]

whore.

[quote]rainjack wrote:
malonetd wrote:
<-----Look! It’s my screen name!!

rainjack wrote:
What do they want? They want the satisfaction of seeing their screen name posted on the internet.

whore.[/quote]

I just wanted to quote you guys.

Kinda like “rock,paper,scissors”, just with screen names.

I feel powerfull!

[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
m0dd3r wrote:
If you can’t be bothered to do that much, then why would you expect other people to take the time to respond to your forum post asking if creatine will make you swole or some such drivel?

Bingo. I answer questions when I’m qualified to and when I think the person is serious. People who will not do basic research are not the kind of people who will apply what is told to them. They need to be left to die on the vine.[/quote]

There is very large flaw in your reasoning: people don’t necessarily know how to research their questions.

If you do a google search for, I dunno, “increase testosterone”, you’ll get lots of crappy results (of the promised penis lengthening kind probably).

Sometimes, if you know where to find the answers, you wouldn’t need to even ask the question. So by asking, it could well be an implicit admission that they don’t know where to look.

Also the point of asking a question in a forum is the discussion that follows (and starting a new thread will generate more discussion than tacking a question onto a month’s old thread that has long-ago died).

So if someone has a questions about, say, drinking soy milk, they, again, might to just ask it, because he previous posts might not have answered a particular question.

But what’s complaining about it going to accomplish? If you don’t want to answer a question because you feel that it’s been asked before, just don’t post.

Almost every thread topic on T-Nation has probably been discussed or otherwise covered somewhere else… so if everyone researched their question sufficiently, they’d probably rarely ever post (and the forums would be pretty barren).

[quote]jjoseph_x wrote:

There is very large flaw in your reasoning: people don’t necessarily know how to research their questions.

If you do a google search for, I dunno, “increase testosterone”, you’ll get lots of crappy results (of the promised penis lengthening kind probably).

[/quote]

That’s not a flaw in his thinking. That is a flaw in the thinking of the person asking the question. Most of this information took years of study to learn the basics.

I was a biology major in college. This shit wasn’t just handed to me and took a lot of personal research so I could tell the difference between bullshit and truth. The problem is, people log on and want everything handed to them. very often, it is nowhere near that simple…because how does the person asking the question know who is answering their question correctly and who is blowing smoke up their ass? They don’t unless they have educated themselves enough to know the difference.

Much like the guy that asked about fat loss in obese people, it was pretty clear that he had a basic understanding of how the body worked…but it isn’t that basic…and that won’t be explained fully in a response to an internet question. It takes opening some books on basic anatomy and physiology. It takes TIME and a whole lot of personal effort…something many of these people don’t seem to want to put in at all.

If you log onto a discussion forum for the first fucking time and start asking questions without any research of the forum or past topics that have been discussed, you are an idiot, plain and simple. You deserve whatever half assed answers get thrown at you.

People need to stop making excuses for laziness all in the name of it being a “discussion”. If you ask about creatine…when the same damn question was just asked the day before and there is a huge button that reads “SEARCH” on the top of the screen, you are a dumbass. Don’t make excuses for them. Point out the search button and let them do some reading.

[quote]Professor X wrote:
jjoseph_x wrote:

There is very large flaw in your reasoning: people don’t necessarily know how to research their questions.

If you do a google search for, I dunno, “increase testosterone”, you’ll get lots of crappy results (of the promised penis lengthening kind probably).

That’s not a flaw in his thinking. That is a flaw in the thinking of the person asking the question. Most of this information took years of study to learn the basics.

I was a biology major in college. This shit wasn’t just handed to me and took a lot of personal research so I could tell the difference between bullshit and truth. The problem is, people log on and want everything handed to them. very often, it is nowhere near that simple…because how does the person asking the question know who is answering their question correctly and who is blowing smoke up their ass? They don’t unless they have educated themselves enough to know the difference.

Much like the guy that asked about fat loss in obese people, it was pretty clear that he had a basic understanding of how the body worked…but it isn’t that basic…and that won’t be explained fully in a response to an internet question. It takes opening some books on basic anatomy and physiology. It takes TIME and a whole lot of personal effort…something many of these people don’t seem to want to put in at all.

If you log onto a discussion forum for the first fucking time and start asking questions without any research of the forum or past topics that have been discussed, you are an idiot, plain and simple. You deserve whatever half assed answers get thrown at you.

People need to stop making excuses for laziness all in the name of it being a “discussion”. If you ask about creatine…when the same damn question was just asked the day before and there is a huge button that reads “SEARCH” on the top of the screen, you are a dumbass. Don’t make excuses for them. Point out the search button and let them do some reading.[/quote]

I understand your point, however, if you don’t know how to search, or aren’t capable of searching for the answer, you might, instead want to post a question.

It’s not necessarily a question of laziness or stupidity. Sometimes, it’s sufficient simple to prompt someone to do a little search (i.e. just tell 'em to click on search and they’ll find all of the info).

Like I mentioned earlier, if you do enough research (and there is a lot of material out there) you probably will find the answer to your question (whatever it is), so almost no one would ever need to post on a forum at all. So, you could theoretically say the same so any most people who post questions (newbies or not).

Very often the dicussion that follows the question does matter.

However you are right, we do want immediate answers… it’s human nature (we want whatever we want as quickly, and easily as possible… though it doesn’t always happen… but it’s still what we want). If you’re lost you could consult a map or drive around until you find my destination… or you could just ask someone for directions.

However, if you feel that it’s a silly question, that’s already been answered, just don’t reply…

[quote]jjoseph_x wrote:

I understand your point, however, if you don’t know how to search, or aren’t capable of searching for the answer, you might, instead want to post a question.[/quote]

If you are on the internet in the year 2007 and don’t know how to search for something, you don’t deserve to ask a question.

You make things so complicated. Somebody posts a questions, people reply. Why bothering thinking who deserves what, and so on? Or, rather, it’s okay: that just means you won’t reply, but it’s not universally true.

[quote]Professor X wrote:
jjoseph_x wrote:

I understand your point, however, if you don’t know how to search, or aren’t capable of searching for the answer, you might, instead want to post a question.

If you are on the internet in the year 2007 and don’t know how to search for something, you don’t deserve to ask a question.
[/quote]

Here at T-Nation you have a bunch of newbies that are lazy and want everything handed to them. I think the proper respones to the obvious lazy, spoonfed little idiots is exactly as the professor has laid out previously.

What cracks me up are the “just give them a chance because maybe they don’t know how to search” folks.

We have stickies at the top of the Beginner Forum, and the Photo Forum. How do make excuses for someone being too stump headed to read through those?

Go to skip’s board and try posting a stupid newb question in the doggcrap forum before reading everything they have already written. They handle it the right way over there - with extreme prejudice.

[quote]jjoseph_x wrote:

I understand your point, however, if you don’t know how to search, or aren’t capable of searching for the answer, you might, instead want to post a question.

[/quote]

Are you implying that people are too stupid to learn how to use the search function?

And how could they be incapable of searching for the answer? Help me with that one.

As previously said, some newbies want everything handed to them. They are not prepared to search because it takes too much time.

[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
Is it just me… Or does it seem like 90% of people who post questions to the forum don’t do even remedial research before posting?

I always research issues deeply before asking any questions. Am I just strange in this way?

Is this a generational thing? Or is it a trust thing? A respect thing?

I think it’s rude to ask questions that have been asked dozens of times before. It shows a lack of respect for the people I’m asking the question of. It’s like not paying attention in class or in a meeting, and then asking everyone to repeat what was just said.

I am not willing to trust what anonymous people on an Internet forum say unless I have some basis to trust them. If I’ve done my own research, then I can figure out if the person answering my question has a clue.

Thoughts?[/quote]

This has been discussed before, use the search function, idiot.

[quote]Professor X wrote:
jjoseph_x wrote:

I understand your point, however, if you don’t know how to search, or aren’t capable of searching for the answer, you might, instead want to post a question.

If you are on the internet in the year 2007 and don’t know how to search for something, you don’t deserve to ask a question.
[/quote]

Lots of people aren’t at all computer literate. And even among those who are they might not know how to formulate a question using the “advanced search” features of yahoo or google to help get better results.

Even on the T-Nation website, if you search for “creatine” you’ll get a lot of results and you might have to parse through a number of item before you find the information that you seek.

I’m not saying that I condone asking questions without the slightest about of research, I’m just saying that I can understand why people do it (if my parents were on this board, they’d just ask away… not because they are stupid or lazy, but just because they figure “why not?”).