Reply of the month

[Tiger]

 

what would be nice is a reward for people who could post concise questions.

 

 

here here

[Jack_O'neill]

another who agrees with CAD64 here. I give the best answers I can whether I get brownie points or not.

 

what would be nice is a reward for people who could post concise questions.

 

Its always helpful if the person asking the question will give as much information as possible about what he or she is trying to do. "How do you render" is nearly impossible to answer with anything other than "What are you trying to render?" I think some times those types of questions are posted by someone lonely and in need of conversation.

 

In my own experience, I've found that quite often if I don't know how to do something, I'm probably not going to know how to ask about it either. There may be variables or facets to doing this "thing" that I'm not aware of, because I don't know what is involved in doing it.

[SEANT]

With regard to the suggestion offered in the original post, though potentially similar to an answer rating mechanism, it may have value in a broader sense. For instance, a “reply” may contain information that does not directly deal with an originally posted question but be extremely poignant to other matters.

 

The member casting the vote may want to bring additional attention to a post that would otherwise be lost: possibly not be exposed by the “Similar Thread” mechanism already in place on this site.

 

I’m not necessarily casting a vote in favor of a “Vote for Reply” button, but I think we’ve all seen posts that for one reason or another would not likely gain the attention of all those interested.

[dbroada]

In my own experience' date=' I've found that quite often if I don't know how to do something, I'm probably not going to know how to ask about it either. There may be variables or facets to doing this "thing" that I'm not aware of, because I don't know what is involved in doing it.[/quote']

Agreed, it is difficult to ask before you know what to ask but a little history about the end result can make huge gains. So often somebody will ask (say) "how do I draw a square?". What they really want is to know how to put a border on all their drawings. Something like "I think I need to draw a square to start my border, how do I do that?" would get (hopefully!) many more sensible answers. The original square question would have got some (correct) answers but not necessarily helpful ones.

[td88]

In my own experience' date=' I've found that quite often if I don't know how to do something, I'm probably not going to know how to ask about it either. There may be variables or facets to doing this "thing" that I'm not aware of, because I don't know what is involved in doing it.[/quote']

 

Wow, Jack, do you get it.

 

Very gratifying to hear a dispenser of advice express that level of insight into the state of not knowing. This era of technology adoration has, somehow, created a sub culture of "tech experts" who, in my experience, have no idea of whether they're communicating to the questioner and, most of the time, don't seem to care. BTW, I place myself squarely in the questioner category. Definitely not a tech expert.

 

Nice going,

 

td88

[uddfl]

LOL, internets is serious business.

 

For those who want to be recognized for their forum posts, you should ask CadTutor to enable the reputation system and let the fun begin. If you care enough to make threads about "I am helpful, gimme a cookie", then it should suit you well.

[Lee Mac]

LOL, internets is serious business.

 

For those who want to be recognized for their forum posts, you should ask CadTutor to enable the reputation system and let the fun begin. If you care enough to make threads about "I am helpful, gimme a cookie", then it should suit you well.

 

 

Haha - internet reputation eh...

[Cad64]

This era of technology adoration has, somehow, created a sub culture of "tech experts" who, in my experience, have no idea of whether they're communicating to the questioner and, most of the time, don't seem to care.

 

I think you have us confused with some of the other CAD sites out there. Here at Cadtutor, we DO care. That's why we go to such great lengths to ensure that every problem is solved. And not just with one answer, but usually with many different alternatives. And if there is no response from the OP, we follow up to see if the problem was solved or if it still needs further attention.

[Lee Mac]

I think you have us confused with some of the other CAD sites out there. Here at Cadtutor, we DO care. That's why we go to such great lengths to ensure that every problem is solved. And not just with one answer, but usually with many different alternatives. And if there is no response from the OP, we follow up to see if the problem was solved or if it still needs further attention.

 

I would second this - sometimes a thread has no replies for a while, maybe due to the ambiguity of the request or otherwise, but we still let the OP know he is being listened to by maybe replying with questions asking for clarification, and not just ignoring him/her.

[td88]

Cad64,

 

Your answers are excellent and other sites are far more guilty but, I get a little tight in the shorts by the suggestion that the quality of the questions needs to improve. I think Jack's description expressed it perfectly, the burden for knowing how it works is on the replier. If you knew how to ask the question, most times, you'd probably know the answer. Far more "experts" are guilty of impatience and arrogance, than questioners guilty of inarticulation. Purely my expereince, however. And, yes, I've seen it happen on CADTutor, although, far less frequently than other sites.

 

I have vast experience asking "dumb" questions.

 

td88

[MaxwellEdison]

It is not that the questions are dumb, it's that the posters tend to leave out important information to put the problem into context. This is a common occurance whenever asking assistance of someone "outside" the project. The questioners leave a lot of the information out that to them is obvious, having been working with the drawing, but to someone outside looking in those trying to answer have no way of knowing. This is why most of the first few replies to a question are looking for more information on the problem.

[Jack_O'neill]

So often somebody will ask (say) "how do I draw a square?". What they really want is to know how to put a border on all their drawings.

 

Some of those folks are the ones I was talking about in the earlier post about being lonely and looking for someone to talk to!

 

One of the things that the public and private schools fail to teach is communication, or rather, effective communication. No one knows how to frame an intelligent question, and I blame today's society for another facet that hinders communication...the need to spin every thing. We do it so much in our jobs and political involvements that its become second nature to many to try to hide some inadequacy either out of fear that the knowledge would be capitalized on by an adversary, or simply poor self esteem. Either way, asking "how do I draw a square?" hides the fact that the poser of the question doesn't know beans from buffalo chips about making a border.

 

My former employer, one of the biggest and most paranoid corporate dinosaurs in the world, was so afraid that someone would steal some of their 30 year old trade secrets that they absolutely forbade anyone from using sites like this. It was ok to read, but you didn't dare post from the company computers no matter how dire your need to know something. When I came looking for answers I would post from my home computer simply to avoid the hassle. Even then I would have to try to find ways to ask how to do things to avoid any reference to the company's products. Believe it or not, they actually paid people to go through forums like this and even the adult oriented sites looking for any evidence that employees had posted something there. Hard to believe I know, but they really did it.

 

But, for every one person who has to deal with this type of situation, there are a hundred that simply don't ask the right questions.

[ReMark]

Short of posting a sign that reads "Please ask only intelligent questions" I don't think there is much we can do in that regard. Thus the need for follow-up questions by those attempting to assist.

 

I disagree with td88 and others who say that "if you knew how to ask the question...you'd probably know the answer." I find that to be illogical as Mr. Spock would say. No offense meant.

 

CT already has a friendly reminder to people to be as detailed as possible with their questions. I believe many first timers aren't even aware of this or choose to ignore it. Maybe they visit for the stimulating conversation; like this one!

[Jack_O'neill]

Short of posting a sign that reads "Please ask only intelligent questions" I

 

I disagree with td88 and others who say that "if you knew how to ask the question...you'd probably know the answer." I find that to be illogical as Mr. Spock would say. No offense meant.

 

 

In some cases, that may be true or more likely, the person might be able to figure it out on his own, but I agree with ReMark, the person asking the question was most likely unable to arrive at the answer, thus the need to ask.

 

My son-in-law called one day and asked "how do I fix a water leak?" He's a bright young man, but never in his life has he had to do anything mechanical. He's a chef. Well, ok, was it the toilet, or the sink, or the main line coming into the house? All he could see at the time was a leak, and called to ask how to fix it. At the time, as far as he had thought it through, a water leak was a water leak. Just like Dave's example of "how do I draw a square". Borders are made up of squares, so if I can draw one, maybe I can figure out the rest.

 

It's never as easy as it seems, or as difficult as we think it will be.

[Lee Mac]

There are a lot of people that just want a hint at what to do also - and so will only elaborate on the part they are stuck on - this happens a lot in the LISP & VBA forum, where a user will post just a snippet of the code which they believe is causing them the problems, and normally you find the problem is elsewhere...

 

I'm bad for giving people "hints" at how to do things, I end up just writing out the whole code and giving it to them - it gets the job done, but doesn't really benefit their learning...

[wannabe]

This thread exemplifies why a points system would fail. All I originally suggested was to have a recognition for the single best reply, partially derived from the OP expressing how beneficial the reply was.

[eldon]

This thread exemplifies why a points system would fail. All I originally suggested was to have a recognition for the single best reply, partially derived from the OP expressing how beneficial the reply was.

 

There are some OPs who do not respond to a life-changing reply, so as you say, I think your suggestion has been shot done. Interesting discussion though and worth getting out in the open.

[wannabe]

I was merely clarifying my original point and in no way intending to assert myself of offend anyone. Reading back to myself did suggest this; but they aren't propensities of mine.

 

Hope that clarifies my intentions, as with the original post, just trying to help and be useful/constructive

[ReMark]

An interesting exchange of ideas and opinions. Nothing to apologize for.

[Jack_O'neill]

I was merely clarifying my original point and in no way intending to assert myself of offend anyone. Reading back to myself did suggest this; but they aren't propensities of mine.

 

Hope that clarifies my intentions, as with the original post, just trying to help and be useful/constructive

 

I don't see that there was anything said that should offend anyone. I think this was a very interesting discussion. And it proved what someone said, we're all adults here, and this was a discussion, not an argument. I found it very refreshing.