Private Message Q&A availability

[emrr]

There is not enough time in the day/week/month/rest of my life to adequately answer the PM questions I receive (here and other forums) and also work/earn a living/do my own DIY/etc.  It can be a serious time management problem, and I find myself using a lot of abrupt shorthand in attempt to answer rather than ignore.

This is a place of learning and sharing.  Many questions come from beginners who may be afraid to reveal what they don’t know publicly, but that’s a great way to learn.  While I’m flattered to appear the expert, I don’t earn a living as a volunteer instructor.  I’m happy to help when I can, but questions should really be first addressed to the group at large.  If anyone feels that I should see something and weigh in, please post publicly and then send me a link via PM.  I may not be able to spare the time, and perhaps someone else can answer both quicker and better. 

In times of….no time (seems to be all the time)….I will begin responding with a link to this boilerplate when relevant.  Anyone else feeling similar pressures is free to link to this as well.  Of course some things require direct private communication, and I will answer those directly.

Thanks. 

 

[JohnRoberts]

+1  I am active on several forums and decline to answer questions privately.  Sometimes I just cut and past the question into a forum if it's a good question (rarely is.)

The strength of a public forum is for everybody to learn from questions and answers.

In time there will be more people who can answer the questions.

JR

 

[emrr]

Yes, I have taken to posting answers to questions into threads, rather than responding to PM's when it works. 

 

[PRR]

> There is not enough time in the day/week/month/rest of my life to adequately answer the PM questions

+1.

 

[ruffrecords]

I get a few PM questions but mostly email ones. Usually its from newbies who don't want to embarrass themselves in the forum and I can understand that. If the question is one I think is likely to be repeated I encourage them to ask in the group. I still end up answering many email questions but as I am retired I have more time available than most.

Cheers

Ian

 

[Rocinante]

Well let me be the first of a long line of folks to thank you guys.  Thank you!  This forum is like the coolest class one could ever take.  That said; sometimes you get a little desperate and want to take the professor aside to get a little more clear on a subject, even though you see him running down the hallway trying to get to the next class he teaches, or home to his wife and family, or off to the bar to relax.
I'm sure you guys get questions that must seem absolutely ridiculous and make you concerned for the human race.  I'm sure I've asked them!
    I can personally attest to harassing Ian.  Incessantly.  Thanks Ian.  Usually it isn't out of fear of seeming like neophyte but more like not wanting to waste the threads space.  Especially if it feels like something everyone else already knows.  But me.
I've been on here for a little bit.  In that short amount of time I have learned more than I can ever repay.  I am very very grateful for the education.  It has also taken my audio skills to a higher level cause I actually am beginning to understand what it is that is going on the signal, and what it is I can do to manipulate that to my advantage.  Inside and outside the piece of gear I am using.
I've been so insanely busy lately I truly can understand not having the two minutes it would take to respond to a question.  It isn't there.  Now top it off with having just gone through a very tragic loss of a client (c word) and expecting another dear friend to be leaving this...... (this beautiful thing called life) and spending time with my wife and kid and balancing the studio with my other job and taking on another big client....  It is a lot.  And so I can definitely understand.
So once again thank you!
Thank you for sharing your precious time.
My hat goes off to you gentlemen!
And thanks for tolerating our rudimentary questions.
Cheers
Dylan

   

 

[ruffrecords]

@Rocinate

I think you would be surprised just how many people don't know the same things you don't know. The other thing is that us "relatively experienced" guys don't actually know everything!! - in fact I think I have learnt just as much as you from this forum over the years. With those two factors in mind, it does actually make sense to ask questions, however dumb and simple they might seem, on the forum. That way you get the benefit of all the available expertise and loads of others learn as well.

I can understand there are certain forums where noob questions are treated to a shower of invective but the great thing about groupDIY is that that never happens.

Cheers

Ian

 

[jackies]

I can understand there are certain forums where noob questions are treated to a shower of invective

You have no idea!  :
There's even a Russian joke about that:

If you ask a question on an American forum, you get a full page of answers.
If you ask a question on an Israeli forum, you get two pages of questions why are you asking that.
If you ask a question on a Russian forum, you get six pages explaining what a complete dickhead you are.

;D

 

[dandeurloo]

This forum rules. 

 

[JohnRoberts]

I can understand there are certain forums where noob questions are treated to a shower of invective but the great thing about groupDIY is that that never happens.

Cheers

Ian

Sometimes it can get irritating when you hear the same questions over and over. That's why yesterday's newbie, needs to learn and becomes tomorrows answer man passing along the shared knowledge.

I once had a technician working for me who had the bad habit of asking the same questions over and over. I made him keep a notebook and write down my answers from the last time he asked.  I don't think he lasted that long. I suspect on his previous  job he worked for a boss who literally told him exactly what to do every time.  I wanted a tech who could learn and grow.

JR

 

[ruffrecords]

Sometimes it can get irritating when you hear the same questions over and over. That's why yesterday's newbie, needs to learn and becomes tomorrows answer man passing along the shared knowledge.

JR

I agree. I think we should also encourage people to use the search facility first. I don't spend much tine at gearslutz but their board does have one useful feature - it does an automatic search on your topic and asks you to check your question has not already been answered before you post.

Ethan??

Cheers

ian

 

[critterkllr]

I've asked quite a few embarrassing questions. I'd rather be embarrassed by posting a dumb question rather than send an individual PM. Questions through PMs make me feel like I really should be "hiring" somebody for consulting (which I have done). I mean, the point of these forums are to share information openly with others. Everybody benefits.

Searching on this site can sometimes be difficult. Especially if you don't know the exact words you're searching for. Then there's the conflicting info that comes up. Also, keeping every bit of support or random question in a 200 page support thread is something that took some adjusting to. When your brain is fuzzy from trying to take on a lot of new info, sometimes the best way to get help is to ask a question that is direct to your situation. Even if it's very similar to other questions that have been asked a lot.

Thanks to all of you guys for everything you do. Without this site, there's no way I could accomplish what I've always dreamt of doing.

 

[emrr]

From time to time someone will get annoyed with me here when I say something like

We talked about this already here, and I gave answers, I don't know where it is.

If I say that, it's because I don't have the time to re-invent the wheel at that moment.  It's out there, now you know.  And there's so much here, I can't even search my own posts for something I know I said, and find it with any frequency: I could spend hours searching for something I said for someone else who wants to know it and not find it. 

 

[JohnRoberts]

Sometimes it can get irritating when you hear the same questions over and over. That's why yesterday's newbie, needs to learn and becomes tomorrows answer man passing along the shared knowledge.

JR

I agree. I think we should also encourage people to use the search facility first. I don't spend much tine at gearslutz but their board does have one useful feature - it does an automatic search on your topic and asks you to check your question has not already been answered before you post.

Ethan??

Cheers

ian

This problem is as old as the WWW and I haven't seen a perfect solution yet. Geerslutz seems to still get lame questions and I avoid most of the forums over there.

I have seen web forums attempt to set up wikis to accumulate the forum wisdom but that is another near full time job to edit and manage so usually fails.

I will often recommend search terms or even link to a search rich with answers.

I don't mind answering questions it is how I learned, and if members are confident they know the answers feel free to chime in. I don't much like, when posters post answers that are just them guessing or looking for confirmation of some obscure theory.  That said sometimes I will post a guess (or in error).

We live and operate in the real world so when in doubt post your advice and we'll tell you if (we think) you are wrong. There is nothing bad about inspecting dubious ideas and putting them to rest, or not.

Many questionable ideas are  extremely persistent so must be squashed repeatedly and often.  8) (I wrote a column called "audio mythology" back in the '80s and many of those old myths are still kicking around.)

JR

 

[JohnRoberts]

From time to time someone will get annoyed with me here when I say something like

We talked about this already here, and I gave answers, I don't know where it is.

If I say that, it's because I don't have the time to re-invent the wheel at that moment.  It's out there, now you know.  And there's so much here, I can't even search my own posts for something I know I said, and find it with any frequency: I could spend hours searching for something I said for someone else who wants to know it and not find it.

+1... we can't write a textbook article every time the same question comes up. Sometimes my short answers are not understood or misinterpreted.  but that's life on the WWW.

JR

 

[Dr Gris]

To comfort you, it"ll probably only get worse 

Long before I joined this forum four years ago, when it was still Prodigy there seemed to be more discussions about circuits among people with more or less education in EE than newbie questions from hobbyists like me.

As I understand it some of those guys have left this place because of the invasion of people like me  :-[

DIY has become really popular since the kitbuilding explosion. That's how I started with the GDIY51X rack.
Before that I've only tinkered with my vintage keyboards, modded my Fender amps and soldered cables.
The DIY thing will grow even more when people think they can save a buck, sometimes you can, sometimes you can't...
I'm old enough to feel embarrassed about asking a question, exept in some specific cases, without doing as much searching as I can here or elsewhere.
I'm a slow learner 'cause I'm also very busy; full time dayjob, family, musician at night/weekends and audio engineer...

What I'm trying to say is that I admire you knowledgeable folks for taking your time,
and I hope everybody gratefully respects that sharing knowledge for free is a luxury.

That reminds me...I have a question I haven't found a good answer to...time to start a new topic...  ;D

Best regards
//Magnus

 

[braeden]

I don't get asked any questions at all, I feel left out.

Help?  :'(