Some folks are hard of hearing, and they can’t carry on conversations at normal volumes. Unfortunately there are some who are hard of helping and can’t carry on forum threads because of this unfortunate disability. Below you will find some signs—definitely a non-exclusive list—that you are suffering from this all too common malady.
The good new is that unlike some other disabilities, this one is easily overcome. The trick is realizing you‘ve got it and simply not doing the things that create the problem.
1. Secret Projects
So you’ve got a great idea, maybe world changing. It could be worth a lot of cash, maybe a patent or two. But you’ve only got the idea, you don’t know how to do it. So, you show up in the forum and carefully avoid revealing your great idea in your question. You provide incomplete and misleading information that just doesn’t add up and the expert members in the forum spot the inconsistencies right from the start. Rather than clarify, you obfuscate, eventually admitting it’s a secret and you can't say, revealing the goldmine idea to the people who are helping you for free. If your idea really is worth so much, spend the money on a consultant.
The real secret is your idea is almost certainly not as brilliant as you imagine it to be. And, even if it is, why do you imagine getting free help from people like this is ethical or even just polite?
2. Arbitrary and Unexplained Constraints
This is a symptom of a general problem. You have a problem and have decided on a solution, part of that solution is a particular part or method and it is presented in your question as the problem. It is unexplained and presented as a given. When the expert members question the constraint you just say something like “I have to use this, just help me”. Meanwhile everyone who knows what they are doing is agreeing that it would be much easier if you’d just chuck that constraint and do something else.
Occasionally, this is just a poorly presented problem and you imagine that it is a waste of time discussing the constraint with your free help. This eventually resolves itself with a bit of friction, but the process moves on. More often, or so it seems, the constraint is a result of the above: the substitution of the problem for its solution, which is now presented as the problem. This is extremely unproductive and after a few posts back and forth you will have lost the more weary expert members and annoyed the stalwarts. When you eventually reveal the real reasons for the constraint, at least 80% of the time it turns out to be caused by your own ignorance and not the problem itself.
If you are not expert enough to implement a solution, you are counting on luck to settle on one. You should be expert in your problem, and presenting that in detail—which would include real starting constraints (e.g.: I have a drawer full of part X and can‘t afford a substitute, or my boss demands I use method Y and I can‘t change it) along with story of what the problem is and what the expected solution will do will actually get you a great deal of useful free help.
3. Stupidly Reduced Problems
This one can actually be caused by good intentions. It is related to the problem substitution issue above in that it comes from replacing presenting the problem with presenting the solution as a problem. The idea is you don’t want to discuss anything about your problem except how to make some choice you’ve made along the way “work”.
Sometimes it is presented as a simple question like “what size resistor do I need to do X?” and the expert members look at it and say “you are going to need a 30W resistor that will cost a fortune, what are your trying to do?”, or something similar to which you reply “where can I get one?”, or something like that. You are given links and suggestions, and you see that the part is very costly and begin to ask how to do it more cheaply. Finally after much head scratching from your free help, you are finally cajoled into revealing the context and the whole thing shifts to a real solution to your problem, not a goofy one.
Similarly, you might present an analogy instead of your actual problem to “save everyone the trouble” of knowing what is actually going on. An inflexible rule of reality is that analogies break down, almost always sooner than later, and, well I think you can see what is coming…
The bottom line is if you come to a forum for help from experts it’s because you lack information, skills, or insight to solve your own problem, and while, yes, it is possible you have everything worked out but few details, even in those cases in order to help people need to know why a solution is being implemented not just what that solution is. Almost always, in the cases above, you need help crafting a solution, not implementing one.
This doesn’t mean you don’t have some good ideas, or you are dumber than the experts, it just means you came here for th expertise, experience, and insight of the expert members and it is basically rude and definitely unproductive to use the forum as free help without respecting the expert members offering it and presenting all the information they need without them pulling the teeth out of it to work it out.
If you really can‘t reveal the problem because it is commercial, maybe this isn’t the right place for help. It might be, if you can provide enough context and you are honest up front—this does happen.
If you have a solution, maybe it is viable or even good, but first present the problem you are trying to solve. Give details, use pictures and diagrams. If you have constraints explain the reasons for them.
Being hard of helping isn’t your fate, it’s just a lack of skill at asking questions. You can learn and when you do, remember the help you got and hang around and pay it forward.
Good luck.
The good new is that unlike some other disabilities, this one is easily overcome. The trick is realizing you‘ve got it and simply not doing the things that create the problem.
1. Secret Projects
So you’ve got a great idea, maybe world changing. It could be worth a lot of cash, maybe a patent or two. But you’ve only got the idea, you don’t know how to do it. So, you show up in the forum and carefully avoid revealing your great idea in your question. You provide incomplete and misleading information that just doesn’t add up and the expert members in the forum spot the inconsistencies right from the start. Rather than clarify, you obfuscate, eventually admitting it’s a secret and you can't say, revealing the goldmine idea to the people who are helping you for free. If your idea really is worth so much, spend the money on a consultant.
The real secret is your idea is almost certainly not as brilliant as you imagine it to be. And, even if it is, why do you imagine getting free help from people like this is ethical or even just polite?
2. Arbitrary and Unexplained Constraints
This is a symptom of a general problem. You have a problem and have decided on a solution, part of that solution is a particular part or method and it is presented in your question as the problem. It is unexplained and presented as a given. When the expert members question the constraint you just say something like “I have to use this, just help me”. Meanwhile everyone who knows what they are doing is agreeing that it would be much easier if you’d just chuck that constraint and do something else.
Occasionally, this is just a poorly presented problem and you imagine that it is a waste of time discussing the constraint with your free help. This eventually resolves itself with a bit of friction, but the process moves on. More often, or so it seems, the constraint is a result of the above: the substitution of the problem for its solution, which is now presented as the problem. This is extremely unproductive and after a few posts back and forth you will have lost the more weary expert members and annoyed the stalwarts. When you eventually reveal the real reasons for the constraint, at least 80% of the time it turns out to be caused by your own ignorance and not the problem itself.
If you are not expert enough to implement a solution, you are counting on luck to settle on one. You should be expert in your problem, and presenting that in detail—which would include real starting constraints (e.g.: I have a drawer full of part X and can‘t afford a substitute, or my boss demands I use method Y and I can‘t change it) along with story of what the problem is and what the expected solution will do will actually get you a great deal of useful free help.
3. Stupidly Reduced Problems
This one can actually be caused by good intentions. It is related to the problem substitution issue above in that it comes from replacing presenting the problem with presenting the solution as a problem. The idea is you don’t want to discuss anything about your problem except how to make some choice you’ve made along the way “work”.
Sometimes it is presented as a simple question like “what size resistor do I need to do X?” and the expert members look at it and say “you are going to need a 30W resistor that will cost a fortune, what are your trying to do?”, or something similar to which you reply “where can I get one?”, or something like that. You are given links and suggestions, and you see that the part is very costly and begin to ask how to do it more cheaply. Finally after much head scratching from your free help, you are finally cajoled into revealing the context and the whole thing shifts to a real solution to your problem, not a goofy one.
Similarly, you might present an analogy instead of your actual problem to “save everyone the trouble” of knowing what is actually going on. An inflexible rule of reality is that analogies break down, almost always sooner than later, and, well I think you can see what is coming…
The bottom line is if you come to a forum for help from experts it’s because you lack information, skills, or insight to solve your own problem, and while, yes, it is possible you have everything worked out but few details, even in those cases in order to help people need to know why a solution is being implemented not just what that solution is. Almost always, in the cases above, you need help crafting a solution, not implementing one.
This doesn’t mean you don’t have some good ideas, or you are dumber than the experts, it just means you came here for th expertise, experience, and insight of the expert members and it is basically rude and definitely unproductive to use the forum as free help without respecting the expert members offering it and presenting all the information they need without them pulling the teeth out of it to work it out.
If you really can‘t reveal the problem because it is commercial, maybe this isn’t the right place for help. It might be, if you can provide enough context and you are honest up front—this does happen.
If you have a solution, maybe it is viable or even good, but first present the problem you are trying to solve. Give details, use pictures and diagrams. If you have constraints explain the reasons for them.
Being hard of helping isn’t your fate, it’s just a lack of skill at asking questions. You can learn and when you do, remember the help you got and hang around and pay it forward.
Good luck.
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