Course, I think that I have to be very careful here to prevent this thread descending into a troll-match, and I don't want to see that happen. Harmless trolling is all good and fun, but that's what the lighter side forums are for, so we don't get it in the technical forums.
So I'll try to stick to the point, forgive me if I make any boo-boos on my choice of words.
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That dosen't happen on this board.
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Oh yes it does. I did a search with Google a few weeks ago, and it came up with a link to one of the threads in the addiction forum. That's how I found this forum in the first place. That time, I found useful information. I'd like to think that this will continue to happen in the future. I'm enthusiastic about low carb now, but I wasn't then. If that search had brought me onto a thread which tells people to go use a search engine or do their own research, I wouldn't have bothered looking any further. That would have meant I would have missed out, and my life since then would have probably panned out far differently as a result.
I'm just trying to defend the newbie here. The most telling statistic is that jacobsdad has still only made two posts, both of which have been in this thread. I think you should cut some slack to the newbie, because if you don't, future newbies will see it, and the forum won't get any more of them. Moreover, I don't see any need to make any point about who has posted the rudest thing in this thread. Your (Slim's) response suggests that you've taken my comments personally and are trying to deflect - but I didn't intend anyone to take anything personally in the first place, so I'm a bit disappointed with myself with the thought that my choice of words might have caused that to happen.
Take your point about allyoop's post ... but it never occurred to me that it could be directed at specific regulars on this forum. I assumed that it equally referred to remarks she'd heard on other web based forums, newsgroups, radio phone-ins or in discussions she had had with relatives, neighbours or colleagues. Again, I think you're taking that one on yourself when it's not intended. You can't deny that there's a
lot of misinformation about low carb doing the rounds, which is another very good reason for having a forum like this one, and trying to preserve the quality of the discussions on it.
I also think that posting questions on forums can be a good way of finding out answers, and it's great that there are people who are able to offer informative answers. That's the whole point of forums, and I want to support both the newbie's and regular's ability to do this. But it's not an alternative to searching. When I post a question, I do my own searching as well, but I obviously don't bother to say that every time. I guess most people realise that without you having to spell it out, but if they don't, then that's their problem, not yours.
I think it's safe to assume that everyone here knows how to use search engines, because if they didn't, they probably wouldn't be here in the first place.
If a forum covers a subject I happen to be clued up about and feel like I want to help people out with, then I will specifically home in on the threads with the lowest post count first. I know that it can be disheartening when you've posted a question, and no-one bothers to answer it, when other threads around it have become very busy, so I like to think that I'll do my bit when I can to prevent some poor soul having to put up with that. However, if people post to say "go use a search engine", then that will bump up the post count for that thread in the same way as any other post. Result? Regulars see it as a busy thread, and they assume that the issue has already been dealt with, and so they don't bother to look, when in fact, it hasn't. If searching hasn't got anywhere, then frustrated newbie will start posting more new threads about the same subject to bump up the chances of actually getting a sensible answer.
You might say, but hey, this forum's not that busy yet. I guess it's still realistically possible for one person to keep track of everything that happens on it by themselves. To that, I'd say that it would be nice if it got busier in the future, but when it gets to the stage that hundreds of new threads are being created every day, then the things I describe here will become a serious problem unless the regulars take the right attitude to it.
Course, threads wandering off topic like this one has won't exactly help either, so I don't plan to make a habit of this. So, for all these reasons, I still believe that not posting at all is better than posting to say that someone should do some research or use a search engine.