Difficulty answering questions

[Deleted]

Declining Question Quality?​

Lately, I’ve found it increasingly difficult to answer questions. Is it just me, or has the overall quality of the questions gone down?

In many cases, what’s being posted doesn’t feel like a genuine question at all—it’s more like a request for someone else to do the work, rather than an attempt to solve a problem as part of a learning process.

Has anyone else noticed this trend, or am I the only one seeing it?

 

[ahuvas]

I am probably guilty of being a newbie who is probably driving you crazy however I think two points need to be made:

1. I usually have come here after days of trying to work it out myself.
2. Everything is a learning experience Once we know how to do it we can teach it someone else
3. We really do appreciate all the help that everyone gives us

Plus I have a thread regarding check boxes under forms forum if you want a challenge

 

[RoyVidar]

What about turning it the other way around,

as long as people willingly do others homework and create whole solutions, is there any reason to expect better phrased questions showing evidence the OP has made some inquiries/searches before posting?

I think the standard is set by what we (as a community) choose to answer.

Have you also considered that by your presence and activities here (and other places, of course), you've gained competence, so that the questions you earlier found challenging and interesting, are now boring and "newbie" stuff?

 

[Mike375]

RoyVidar,

On the thread below, I posted the tables, but still don't know how to use your code.

http://www.access-programmers.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=141268&page=2

 

[Brianwarnock]

Well Uncle i am not clever enough to explain things to people , only show them how I would do it.
Take the recent thread asking how to grab the info already being displayed on a form and using it to print the relevent report. Nobody gave a satisfactory answer so I decided to have a go, did some testing, read some help, did more testing, and bingo got the answer, so posted the sample code, with a little explanation required. It was easier for me than trying to explain as I am short of technical terminology.
But I suppose you could argue that if I can do it from scratch why couldn't the poster.

Brian

 

[Brianwarnock]

One other thing that is bothering me is the lack of feedback, I don't want a thanks everytime I spot a syntax error, but if use terms such as "try", "might", phrases that suggest I'm not sure it would be useful for both me and more importantly people searching the forum to know if the answer worked or not. this has been made worse by the reputation thingy as some post on there as a way of saying it worked.

Brian

 

[Rich]

One other thing that is bothering me is the lack of feedback, Brian

You'll be waiting a long time here for that Brian

 

[pono1]

I am not on the Boards every day but when I do poke around, I don't understand most (60-75%) of the questions I read...sometimes it's because I haven't ever used the Access feature the user is attempting to work with; other times it's simply because there's too much or too little information. I know some people don't like it, but I am not bothered when someone asks for help with their homework any more then when someone asks for help with their real work.

Regards,
Tim

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

LOL Roy....

>>> the questions you earlier found challenging and interesting, are now boring and "newbie" stuff?
<<<

I hadn't thought about it like that, but it has a grain of truth!

does this mean I have "Post" "Nasal" depression....

Meaning some posters get up my nose.

 

[Brianwarnock]

I'm finding that frequently when you ask for a DB to be posted the poster says its huge or the data is confidential, doesn't anybody work with specifically designed test data anymore?

Gee I must be old fashioned.

Brian

 

[Moniker]

I totally understand what Gizmo is saying. Not only does it appear that people are here looking for someone to just write code for them, often times the OP doesn't know the half of what they're talking about, making the answer even more frustrating. Often times, there appears to be no effort on the OP's part at all to get to a solution before they ask how to get to a solution.

I'm sure you remember my "10 Ways To Not Get An Answer" post, and that still holds true. People that come in here and proudly declare, "I have no idea what I'm doing with VBA/Queries/Forms/Working In A Database To Begin With" shouldn't really be given an answer, just a nudge.

The only ones I try to really answer fully are the ones where people post code and say, "This is my code. At line <blank>, I get <this error>. I tried X, Y, and Z, but none of that works. Any suggestions?" At least that person has done most of the work already. Too many others seem to be asking you to do their homework for them.

So, yes, the majority of the questions prove either that a) 80% of the newer users of this forum have no idea what a database is or b) 80% of the users do not want to do their own work when they know we exist and will sometimes do it for them.

 

[NigelShaw]

Hi,

Everyone must have been a newbie at some point. i think questions can be mis-read as requests to "do this for me" which is not always the case. asking how to do something doesn't mean that the person wants it doing for them.

being a newbie, i am asking lots of questions. not that i'm completely inexperienced with Access, more so that you learn in different ways. i took an Access course a little while ago and got this stupid "certificate" yet didn't learn anything. you look for answers in books and they are written in a way they you already know!

i'm pretty good with VB in an Excel point of view and used to create my forms from scratch as there are no wizards but that doesn't mean i should be an expert in Access VB. they are different and we all have to learn. some things that should be quite simple are sometimes really difficult. maybe you expect that it would be hard so look for a hard answer.

i find that once the person asking the question has found or been given the answer, they will apply that to their next project and not ask, but advise.


regs,

NS

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

I'm resurrecting this 14y old thread.

Are things better or worse!

 

[jdraw]

Yes!

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I've been around long enough and have a strange-enough memory that I recognize common homework problems that have been thrown our way over the years. Which is why I now tend to write air code - clearly declared as such - OR I explain things in lengthy paragraphs with no code at all. I will still post code segments, provide links, and do a detailed analysis of a wonky bit of SQL sometimes. However, I have observed a LOT of cases where it at least SEEMS that the new people want the work done for them. The ones that really get me peeved are "I posted my DB, can you fix it for me?" No hint at what is wrong, no hint about what it was supposed to do, no hint as to any error messages, no hint of expectations OTHER than "fix it for me." Then you open it and all you see is low-level garbage that maybe doesn't even have relationships defined and the table doesn't have a prime key but needs to have parent-child relationships... things that are totally crazy and hopelessly warped beyond repair.

When I see a total mess in a posted DB, I try to be diplomatic but there are those times where I really think that an undiplomatic answer is warranted. That is one thing that becoming a moderator did for me. It made me moderate my own answers first, to avoid offering those really undiplomatic answers. I take the position seriously and don't want to give the forum a bad name due to having lost my temper with some person who grated on my nerves in some way. But oh, my brothers and sisters, there are times when I have to ask myself "Was I EVER that dumb?" I have to tell myself "yes" even though that strange memory of mine has forgotten those times, perhaps by repression of unpleasant memories.

 

[Gasman]

Yes, I see a lot more of what I call 'Oliver' posters.
They come here (and on other sites) and ask for some code. That code is given to them.
Then come right back and ask for more.
No effort made to understand it, just ask for more.

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

'Oliver' posters.

I like that description!

 

[Cotswold]

If someone asks a question when the solution is in the Language Reference, that they don't appear to have bothered to read. Then I don't bother responding. I don't mind at all spending time, passing on knowledge and assistance from my experience. However, I won't do anything for somebody, that they cannot be bothered to do for themselves.

 

[Gasman]

If someone asks a question when the solution is in the Language Reference, that they don't appear to have bothered to read. Then I don't bother responding. I don't mind at all spending time, passing on knowledge and assistance from my experience. However, I won't do anything for somebody, that they cannot be bothered to do for themselves.

Most times I do not know the answer, but a quick Google gets me the answer, or something to work with.

 

[GPGeorge]

I am not on the Boards every day but when I do poke around, I don't understand most (60-75%) of the questions I read...sometimes it's because I haven't ever used the Access feature the user is attempting to work with; other times it's simply because there's too much or too little information. I know some people don't like it, but I am not bothered when someone asks for help with their homework any more then when someone asks for help with their real work.

Regards,
Tim

I regard requests for homework as a sort of surrender on the part of many such posters. It's means they've given up on themselves, or on their own ability to learn for themselves. That's sad. I often advise them to that effect.

Others are just too selfish and lazy to put any effort into it. They want enough right answers to pass the course and anything else is a bonus. We'll see them later if they continue to use the product.

In either case, I would consider it cheating the poster out of a learning opportunity to supply answers with not attempt to explain WHY those answers apply.