A moment of frustration...

[Lewiy]

Often, "real" solutions can be extremely complicated and difficult for anyone to understand who doesn't use the data or project in question.

When I post a question I try to identify an individual part of the problem with which I'm having trouble and create a "simple" example of this (being careful not to over simplify resulting in an answer which doesn't really help when put in context). Generally a little thought towards your own problem first will help in the long run because no-one wants to read through a huge post trying to work out what the OP really wants.

 

[SydneyGeek]

Generally a little thought towards your own problem first will help in the long run because no-one wants to read through a huge post trying to work out what the OP really wants

Also, thinking about the question before you post it can actually help you solve it yourself -- or get somewhere along the way :wink:

Denis

 

[Smitty]

Re: Real Problem

I think the reason that most people don't post real problems on here is that no one ever answer them. I posted one a couple of days ago on the Technical Issues.....but no one helps.

My problem is that I can longer create charts in my Excel 2007. It worked fine last week and now won't do anything. I am an Accounting student and REALLY NEED TO GET MY ASSIGNMENT DONE!!!

I have tried Microsoft help but I can' afford $49.95 for someone to help me. I thought they had great support before, but the new one is a real joke......

Amy

Welcome to the Board!

This is a joke right? Have you followed this thread at all? Unfortunately, based on your post count, I think not.

Regardless , there's not much sense in bitching about a post to which no one responded without posting a link to said post so we can take a look.

I will take a look for it and if it's warranted, move it to the Excel Questions forum, where it'll have just a wee bit more readership.

In the meantime, you might want to reread this post and rethink this:

I am an Accounting student and REALLY NEED TO GET MY ASSIGNMENT DONE!!!

Smitty

EDIT: Your post has been moved to Excel Questions.

 

[Marbles]

What we all should remember, is that, nobody should expect to be judged by what they ask. This site especially, lets people ask any question, and answer any question. There isn't, and shouldn't be any snobbery, if your question isn't answered, then try somewhere else, but if it is answered, it's usually either correct or corrected by someone else. And it's all the better for letting everyone choose for themselves.

 

[ExcelChampion]

People answering posts are at different stages as well...

1. Those that are learning by "doing" and thus apply knowledge they recently learned and end up posting a solution

2. Those that know the solution already and try to guide the OP.

3. Those that know the solution already and give the solution.

Coupled with OPs that either want to learn by asking or OPs that just want a solution, we end up with several different combinations.

For myself, when I was learning, I would post solutions to questions and then Aladin or Yogi Anand or just_jon, or Tusharm, etc would come in and post a different approach at which point I would ask what the difference was. It was a great way for me and the OP to learn, if the OP wanted to learn.

As well, I suppose I am one that gives the solution and if the OP wants to learn then I will oblige. I see nothing wrong with that. It is not up to me to try to teach someone that doesn't want to learn. I would rather them decide what is best for them and then ask for the lesson if that is what they want.

 

[Marbles]

If you ask an open question, you'll usually get an open answer. If you restrict the question, you might miss the answer that someone never thought of.

 

[Oorang]

You know perhaps some this frustration could be alleviated if there was a community agreed upon standard for what constitutes a "good" question, and in turn what constititutes a good answer.

In the word's of OakTree's Signature :wink:

"The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution." Bertrand Russell

 

[Peter_SSs]

My thought on this is that Erik got it just about right on page 1 of the thread.

To me one of the great features of this forum is that those users that do get peeved at meaningless OP questions or spoonfeeding responders or OPs who expect too much (and want it NOW!!) etc generally just mutter under their breath and move on. The tone of the board is generally helpful, generous, forgiving, non-judgmental, ...

I guess I am pretty much in the spoonfeeder category (though I don't always have the right medicine in the spoon and a few are required). My feeling is that if somebody posts a question and doesn't want the answer, they could easily say; "Here is my question. Please do not answer it - just nudge me in the right direction" and I would be happy to oblige.

Although most of my posts have been answering questions rather than asking them, I am largely using the board as a learning tool for myself. By getting in and trying to answer questions I think that I have learned far more than if I had been asking them all the time. After all "How do you know what you don't know?" Other people's questions soon highlight things you don't know and give you a new learning starting point. As has already been pointed out in this thread, if you do suggest a wrong or inefficient approach, somebody else soon puts you straight - generally in a polite and friendly manner.

I guess that I have now made this post into one of those that often get skipped over because they are too long. Oh well, too bad! Let's hope this board stays such a friendly and helpful place.

 

[DonkeyOte]

I have to say I just stumbled on this thread looking for something else and found it very interesting... especially given the people on the post... a lot of whom are big time contributors to the site. I appreciate it's not been added to for some time but figured I would post anyway... I'm like that. I answered a post about a 10-pin bowling template the other day only to discover that it was posted originally in 2004 or something

I like this site a lot and the whole issue of whether OPs are investigative by nature is an interesting one... I often wonder how many really "unique" questions are asked on Mr E and how many are in truth really just minor variations to a question that's been asked here a thousand and one times before...

I suspect that if a guest/member was *really* (heavily) interested in learning the nuances of Excel for themselves and in so doing solving their own problem they could probably find something amidst the multitide of posts on this site that once broken down would allow them to adjust to suit their own needs. However, as time goes on I believe this gets more difficult because IMO Mr.E is a victim of it's own success as I think the real issue comes down to how easy/difficult it is to search the 1.5m posts and find something that is along the same lines of your requirement. The site is SO good and successful that you would have to either a) be very clever in your search criteria and/or b) have time to go through all of the posts returned... given a lot of the posts are slight variations of each other it's likely that their search method would return a LOT of results... perhaps they look at them all and think -- "jeez, I'd be better off just posting my own specifics in a new question as I don't have time to go through these..."

Let's be clear, I'm not knocking the search engine here I'm merely saying there are normally too many variables in the OPs scenario for them to find something they deem similar or the opposite, their search is too generic... without the expert knowledge it's difficult for them to ascertain as to whether or not an old post is really giving them what they need.

Fundamental point I guess is that for 95% of the time the questions are posted by people at work and most people (in my experience) by nature aren't inclined to spend hours trying to solve something they feel they can get someone else to solve in minutes.

The posts I avoid are those along the lines of:

"I got this formula from someone here a while back but I need to change it to now do this, can someone please change it ? "

This to me is where I (as someone keen to learn in general) get frustrated... the attitude of not wanting to know how something works I find difficult to grasp... ie how on earth are you comfortable using something in your job that you don't yourself understand ? The mind boggles.

In summation, this site is awesome... I am very much a contributor of the answer variety but I do ask the odd question... however just by answering questions I have in the past week been blown away by contributions from pgc01, oaktree, fazza and mikerickson to name but three... and THAT is why I love this place... That and the fact I know I am not able to generate a solution to every question posted here as I simply don't know enough... I suspect I never will.


Incidentally - I WAS looking for:

"what does Ingore List feature" do ? Presumably just PMs...

 

[Domski]

"what does Ingore List feature" do ?

No wonder you didn't find it