Why, yes, thanks for asking. However, I actually wanted real world experience from friends and members that have used [product in question] or can offer advice for avoiding common pitfalls I may not know about. Considering that search engines order results based on esoteric criteria that often give incomplete or, in the case of targeted optimization, misleading results, I tend to trust the words of living humans regardless of their choice-supportive bias.

In addition to the blatant marketing for products (barely) related to my query, most technical references are far out of date. The search engines do not seem to include recency in their relevance calculations.

Understood, Mark, but, sometimes the question is so clearly, so easily answered by a quick search it's pretty obvious the poster is just being lazy--wanting to be spoon-fed knowledge by SF's brain trust.

E.g.: The current battery-powered chainsaw thread is a good example of the kind of thing you're talking about. Of course the OP could have searched on it. (And probably did.) But he wanted the personal opinions of people here he felt he could trust.

Then there are people that post things like:

quote:

There are a bunch of these in our house:



I'm told they're "light switches." How do they work?

There are at least two or three threads running right now that fall into that category.

quote:

Originally posted by architect:
The search engines do not seem to include recency in their relevance calculations.

I think part of that is due to search engine spamming, where content creators put stuff on their web pages to artificially influence search engine results. The search engine people are constantly fighting that battle.

Another part of it is that sometimes we’d rather support a company run by a member here but we don’t know they exist.

Sure, but at least have the courtesy of also doing some of the research yourself as well as adding in some form of context ~ to make an answer palatable.

While mostly good intentioned, the sample size of SF expertise cannot compare to the complete Internet.

Do both, compare answers, offer some context and avoid open ended questions just because you are too lazy to do the research your self.

Additionally, some answers that require a lot of detail are just regurgitated Internet answers anyway.

Otherwise, just be courteous and channel complaints to the "what's my deal" thread.

What's Your Deal! is down the hall.

quote:

Originally posted by mark123:
“Have you tried a search engine for your query?”

quote:

Originally posted by mark123:
.. I actually wanted real world experience from friends and members that have used [product in question] or can offer advice for avoiding common pitfalls I may not know about. .

quote:

Originally posted by mark123:
Another part of it is that sometimes we’d rather support a company run by a member here but we don’t know they exist.

If your question included aspects of the last two quotes your're less likely to get the first question. Even better, head off the first question at the pass.

For example: I've already searched for x but I'm wanting real world experience, advice for avoiding common pitfalls, and it'd be a bonus if there is a Sigforumite who sells it. Who do y'all recommend for x?

Good luck searching for answers on the internet. It seems like whenever I search for a comparison of products, take electric chainsaws for example, I get a dozen pages like this:

Do you want to know about XYZ electric chainsaw vs ABC electric chainsaw? In this article we are going to discuss the pros and cons of each, but first let’s talk about what an electric chainsaw is, what it does, who might want one, where to buy them…

Dozens of BS websites following the same general format with all the information one can get from reading the box, but no actual experience with the product. Site names like: electricchainsawadvisor.com, electricchainsawdepot.com, outdoorchainsaw.com, chainsawmanlyman.com, etc.

Many years ago I asked my internet friends what was the best personal GPS unit to use. I trust the SF trust much more than reviews that could and most likely are paid for by the manufacturer. My wife thought I was nuts, but like what has been proven many times before the SF trust came through. There is a vast knowledge here. I like to think that most are more than willing to help, and it benefits us all.

At least part of this is driven by credibility. If I look up a set of headphones, say, on Amazon, and look at the reviews... they may be written by humans, or may not. The humans may have a clue, or may not.

If I ask on here and ensigmatic says, "I had a pair of thus-and-such and I wouldn't wish them on a politician", then I've heard enough about that brand.

Yep, there’s often low credibility in search engine results. I just saw “have you tried a search engine” twice yesterday on the front page here. I don’t think it’s necessary for adults to remind adults.

SF gives all of us a chance to contribute and we all benefit by the experiences we describe.

My approach is
1. do internet search first for basic info (or search in real life at stores)
2. search sf for existing sf insights
3. ask sf a particular question, for deep understanding

I try to respect the hours many of us spend answering questions here by searching here before asking what may already exist.

Given the pace of change in some technologies a repeated question may be required.

With internet search engines, there is a great deal of chaff to sort through before you get to the wheat, and sometimes after all that searching you find there is no wheat.

This all too often! ^^^^