How much time should someone spend searching before posting a new question?

[sync]

Most of the questions asked each day have probably already been answered in some thread. But I've found that getting that thread is difficult and very time consuming.

I'm pretty good at searching and I use a variety of techniques, including Google, to search the forum. I still usually end up with a lot of threads to read. That takes quite a while if only a few or none of them have your answer. If you don't find your answer you can try a different search a read a lot more threads.

So what's reasonable? How much time should someone spend looking for an answer before posting a new question?

[avih]

it's reasonable when you FEEL you've made a genuine considerable effort to find what you're looking for by yourself. it's that simple. trust us (mods), you'll hate it when you have to answer the same question over and over and over and... (and it IS an understatement) over again.

another good point to consider would be to continue an existing thread that's most related to your issue, rather then openning a new one just to get more attention. when the threads are focused, it's gonna be easier for the next one who search to find the asnwer.

bottom line, it's common sense and consideration.

cheers

[Atamido]

<sarcasm> There's a search function for the forums? </sarcasm>


I was looking through AVS Forum (http://www.avsforum.com/) the other day and saw something that I thought would be immensely useful. On the forum I looked at, they avoided using a FAQ, and instead opted for a MetaFAQ (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?threadid=31225). Instead of listing a million questions and answers in a single post, they compiled a list to other posts that contain useful information about certain topics. An example from this:

• What are 480p/960i and 540p/1080i? «« (Why 540p Equals 1080i to the electronics in a HDTV set) .
• What are 3:2 and 2:2 pulldown? «« .
• What is jitter? «« Q&A «« .

The threads that they link to aren't FAQ's written specificaly for this, but just a thread where the question was asked, and people gave good answers. Reading through the thread takes longer to get the answer than to simply read a FAQ, but it beats the heck out of searching throught the forums.

It is also faster overall. It only took me a minute or two to scan through the MetaFAQ questions to find things that I had questions about. From there it was just a matter of reading through the linked thread, with the knowledge that I would find the answer there.

Overall it was extremely concise, limited the need to have many sticky threads at the top, and provided easy maintanence as the only thing ever updated was links and not actual content. I was pleased and it made for a very pleasant and informative experience, despite the migraine inducing color scheme.

I would fully support any effort to make such a MetaFAQ for one of the forums.

[Ookami]

@Pamel

This is already used on Doom9. Example, Capture forum, DV forum etc.

Easy to maintenance? I have other experiences with such things.

Cheers,

Mijo.

[Atamido]

Oh.

Those are forums I don't visit, so, I didn't know. Its strange because it seems like a combination between ideas. Half of the answers being links, the other half are answered right there.

As far as easy, I just mean easier. Putting up, or changing a link is easier than typing out a complex answer.

[Ookami]

Originally posted by Pamel
Oh.

Those are forums I don't visit, so, I didn't know. Its strange because it seems like a combination between ideas. Half of the answers being links, the other half are answered right there.

As far as easy, I just mean easier. Putting up, or changing a link is easier than typing out a complex answer.

Yes, it's an combination. IMO, it's always best to have a combination than to lean only on one side ;) .

So it's a subjective/discussion mix. Shaken not stirred.

Cheers,

Mijo.

[Zarxrax]

On the topic of the search feature, something that has given me trouble countless times was that you can only search for words that are 4 letters long or more. Especially when talking about computers and file formats and such, theres lots of 3 letter things that you can search for. OGM for example. How would one search for stuff about the OGM format, if you cant search "OGM"?

[Acaila]

Just add leading and/or trailing spaces, in your case search for " ogm " instead of "ogm".