Telling people to search instead of answering their question...

One pet peeve I have is when I see someone ask a legitimate, not-so-obvious question and they are told to search, usually in some form of "the search tool is your friend" type comment. It especially gets me when it's from a moderator on a support forum in response to "how do I do this" - exactly what the forum is designed for.

If you are going to tell them to search, can't you also answer them and just give them a reminder to maybe search around first in the future? And if we keep telling people to search, what is the point of a forum and/or people being able to post/make new threads?

What are your thoughts on

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I agree it isnt so nice especially for new users. I also hate that similar threads modification, how counter productive is that?

 

I agree with what has been said thus far. I usually like to direct them to the thread/post in which their answer has already been mentioned and indirectly hint to them to use the search feature.

Something like:

 

I think it depends on the forums niche, fair enough here but on our teen forums we would prefer more members to give fresh opinions when it comes to advice as most situations are different in some way or another.

 

That's certainly a good point.

Another situation would be on a board with a demographic of users that are fairly technically-incompetent; you wouldn't want to scare them away by forcing the search feature upon them. :p

 

Lol I dont think the similar threads mod helps any forum out at all and infact would only lead to decreased thread posting, I would never install that on any of our forums. Asking someone to search a database of mods because they never used their common sense to look first is fair enough

 

I never really liked the Similar Threads feature; it's always been a bit inaccurate.

 

Even if it was accurate I wouldnt use it, it is like telling your members not to ask or post a thread and just to read others. Forums need threads and I believe it takes a good portion of thread creation away especially on larger forums.

 

That's yet another good point. As a counterpoint though, there are often numerous threads related to a similar topic but offer different content for the viewer - in which case, it is useful. But that's not too common.

 

Meh, I just hate that mod lol It could be of help yes but it could lose a new thread on the forum and I dont think its worth it

 

I'm quite surprised by the opinions on the similar thread tool. Perhaps I should disable it on my forum?

 

I would prefer people answer the thread myself. I see a lot of this when I do a search at say Google and want to find the answer quickly. When I get to a destination and it says use the search instead of giving a decent answer than I just click back and go to the next links.

On vBulletin.com, we have the opposite issue. We actually want everyone to create a new thread for different issues. It makes it a lot easier to solve them because often times seemingly similar issues have completely different causes. So people come and do a search on Error 1064, which could be 1000 different things in reality, and post in an existing thread instead of creating their own. Just makes our jobs a lot more difficult.

 

If its a technical support issue, I will use the search feature. Example - lets say that I'am looking for a database error message. I'll start with google, or the support forums for what ever software I'am using. If I am getting the error, chances are its already been addressed by someone else. Probably 95% - 99% of the time I can find the answer I need.

If its a general discussion forum, and I'am not looking for tech support - I'll usually start a thread before using the search feature.

 

Ya, that "do a search" or "this is an old thread" reply gets a little old. I usually answer the question my self and follow up with there is more info available if you do a search. That and the only dumb question is the one you don't ask etc. My niche is filled with new people all the time looking for experienced help. And the last thing I want to see is someone getting hurt because they failed to get the answers to their questions. If I don't know it, I'll do the search my self and post the results.

 

The worst is when you actually do decide to search the forum you landed on and find that the search function is disabled for guests. :p

 

I normally just put something like..

Check out these recent threads, they contain some great info: Link 1, 2, 3 etc

 

I think the reason why users especially those who are newbie in the online businesses preferred to ask questions in the forum rather than researching it because sometimes users might just want to know the idea of experts based on their experience.

Usually If I know the answer to their question I probably give them the answer to as far as I know and advise them to take a research also for better understanding.

 

Oh, I love that.

 

I agree with you Savage. It really pees me off when I am on a support site (an official support site) and the person answering just says "This question has been answered multiple times! Use the Search features". Maybe if the question has been asked multiple times, the development team need to make the answer more available, maybe by including a FAQ in the documentation.