How important are Excel forum's?

[DocAElstein]

In your opinion - how important are Excel forum's?

Is forum lurking enough - or do you think that forum contribution (getting your hands dirty), is imperative?

...

… I can only say I would give the thumbs up. And agree with everything positive said about, in particular this forum..
.. Lurking is OK. And certainly initially just asking questions is OK. Everyone does as much as they can. Team work. But I would recommend trying to put a bit back, -it can be a bit hard initially but as already commented, answering questions on the forum is a good way of clearing the mind when you get stuck on your own project. And you really do learn the most by practicing. And better in the “real world” to answer a real problem rather than a set one in a book.
. And so grateful as I am for the help received it makes you want to give back and contribute.

.. BUT: - My only small –ve point. There seems to be lot of one thread posters that do not always explain their problem too well and after obtaining a solution never acknowledge even with a simple thanks. Admitted it is a free forum and no one has to answer a Thread. But maybe there should be some requirement to the legitability, that is to say if a member is “real” and not just registering each time under some pseudo name so as to not be traceable as someone who always asks for help, but never gives something back or even acknowledges help - as would be visible in the profile if they always used the same name. I have had some criticisms as to my behavior on the board. But I accept them and stay “real”.
. And possibly some more emphasis to new members to read the rules FAX and Guidelines / tips for posting etc..

Alan Elston
Bavaria

 

[Jon von der Heyden]

Hi Alan

Thanks for your feedback. You've made some good points here, and the issues you describe are concerns that are voiced fairly routinely, and issues we (mods and admin) have done our utmost to address.

The issue of not getting acknowledgement is often discussed, but the mods agree it is something very difficult to police and enforce, so we rather encourage others to post freely without a determined expectation of "thanks".

In terms of authenticating "real" users, here we rely on the forum software. We do check for possible duplicate accounts and try and force users to use a single account. As mods we've been quite successful. The software itself plays a part. Users cannot subscribe to multiple accounts using the same email address. We have blocked IP addresses to prevent users that don't intend on using the board in the prescribed manner.

Finally, about reading rules and posting guidelines. All new members receive an email asking them top read terms etc. The links are there. There are stickies in various forums. Most of the mods include links to the rules and guidelines in our signatures. And we have encouraged other to include the same in their signature. So I'm absolutely certain that visibility isn't an issue - and at the end of the day we cannot force people to read terms, rules and guidelines. All we can do is reprimand those that don't comply, occasionally even having to ban those that persist in not following the rules (regrettably).

So thanks for your comments and they are well received and absolutely relevant. However I would like to encourage you and others to please not pursue these topics to much further in this thread, as the objective here is to discuss how forums add benefit to the learner, rather than discuss the nitty-gritty things that annoy us at this forum. There are already existing threads covering these topics that can be resurrected. Thanks again

 

[DocAElstein]

......... Thanks for your comments and they are well received and absolutely relevant. However i would like to encourage you and others to please not pursue these topics to much further in this thread, as the objective here is to discuss how forums add benefit to the learner, rather than discuss the nitty-gritty things that annoy us at this forum. There are already existing threads covering these topics that can be resurrected. Thanks again

ok

 

[DocAElstein]

In your opinion - how important are Excel forum's?

...........

How important are Excel forum's?

…. After a frustrating week trying to find out how Excel is working.. I am wondering if Forums like this do their part to help ensure the existence of mankind!! - meant a bit light hearted.. but….
. I spent a week doing tedious experiments and in parallel have been reading articles written by experienced users sharing their results from their similar “Experiments”. - All to the end of trying to find out how VBA is doing a few things!
. I am continuously amazed that often no-one knows for sure. I naively thought someone wrote the program Excel once and knew roughly how it worked. Clearly it is not the case. The people who started it have probably “moved on” and forgotten what they did and those people that take it over and add bits don’t fully understand how the existing stuff works!!
. I expect the number of experts that come close to understanding how Excel actually works is very few. And many of them seem to be active in Forums like these, generously sharing their knowledge.
. So that makes maybe Forums like this with the generous sharing of that knowledge essential to the existence of mankind. If these people do not keep sharing their knowledge then we will lose control and Computers will take over us..

Alan

 

[Zack Barresse]

All true, and scary thoughts Alan.

 

[aarroyo]

I am brand new to this place and I am glad I found it. I was struggling very hard at work to get the grasp of excel and use it to its full potential. This place has helped me out multiple times and even gotten me a few bonuses. Thanks a lot to all contributors.

 

[cyrilbrd]

...do you believe that you could have attained your Excel knowledge from only books, perhaps a course or two, and by trial-and-error?

I learned to use spreadsheet on Lotus 1.2.3 on a remote island where the only means of communication was a VHF radio, the only source of knowledge back then was a battered book (a bible) covering all kind of topics except what we needed. This situation evolved from Excel 95 to Excel 98 then to Excel 2003 and to Excel for mac X till 2008 where we got a better radio... Finally with Excel for mac 2011 the VHF radio was replaced with a satellite phone... but still no internet. It is in 2012 that I discovered (sounds like a cave man story?) that numerous 'Excel Forums' existed and were a vast source of answers and the easiest solution to learn something... Trial and error (mostly error) was the only way back then, but nowadays I would say that a forum is by far the most convenient way of learning / experimenting and getting advise from seasoned users.

How about the professional Excel consultants out there? Finance / business skills aside - do you think that they could possess the requisite skills without forum interaction?

Some threads are extremely interesting as they would gather the opinions of such professional or experienced users (one does not warrant the other) however it would be impossible to determine if their knowledge is the resultant of studies / hands-on training or to their consistent and abundant contribution to a forum. I would tend to think that your knowledge is limited not only by the tools you use but by your willingness to learn from others.

Is forum lurking enough - or do you think that forum contribution (getting your hands dirty), is imperative?

...Qui Scribit Bis Legit...
Interaction and more importantly question asking may accelerate one's comprehension, but the capability to communicate or shall I say to formulate a question eloquently might be the back bone of getting correct answers.

 

[Michael M]

This forum has saved my sorry butt on many occasions, so I believed that I had to "put back in"
I'm now an Excel addict...is that a good or bad thing?
My peers in the workplace, which we have over 6000, regularly come to me with their Excel issues.
Without forums like this one, I'd never have ventured into VBA or any formula beyond SUM

Keep up the great work....all of you posters !!!

 

[My Aswer Is This]

I started using Excel in the mid 80’s using Excel 4.0. I loved creating Macros. In the early 90’s Excel scripting language changed dramatically and I was lost. As the years passed I got back into writing scripts building UserForms and more. I’m still not as good as a lot of folks here but I love the challenge. I’m also an Excel junkie. I enjoy helping people here on this forum as best I can. If you’re reading this and have not got into scripting you should look into it. You will be amazed at what you can do with scripting. I’m still trying to figure out how to get Excel to make coffee for me.