Please Only Answer Questions if you know the Answer!

[Greg Needel]

I hate to come down on people but recently i have been seeing more and more people answering questions like:

"i think that is correct but i am not sure"
"I am pretty sure you would be fine with that"


Those posts are useless and potentially harmful.

In a perfect world everyone would read the rules and search before they post but i have come to accept the fact that doesn't happen, but the biggest problem i see now is people giving wrong information in posts. Answering questions from what they think they know or from a previous year. So i ask you all if you don't know the answer for sure please just don't post. There are some teams out there that will take everything written on CD as the truth and this could seriously affect their season, if they never follow up on the answer received here.

Here is my suggestion: If someone posts a question that is in the rules, directly quote the rule. If you can't do that or can't find the exact rule DON'T POST.

example:
Question: "Can we use 4 small CIM motors?"

Answer: " yes you can because of rule <R43>, Teams may utilize one or two additional small CIM motors (part #FR801-001) in addition to those provided in the kit of parts. This means that you may use up to four, and no more, small CIM motors on the robot."

Thank you all for your time and hopefully you will heed my recommendation.

[Freddy Schurr]

Hey, this should be a sticky!

[Arefin Bari]

One word for Greg... Amen.

[Conor Ryan]

Listen to Greg, or his battle bot will come after you. I can't agree more we just want to know whats right and whats wrong, rules have no grey area, and any of the Refs and Inspectors will tell you that.

[kjhobin]

This Year seams like the most of these etiquette posts. Thank you to all the mods and other people writing these posts! Keep up the good work!

[JVN]

Greg,
I think you've got a point here, but I'm really not positive.

-JV

[rufu5]

uHMMMM! Please search before you post:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...threadid=42239



"I Kid! I Kid!" (Triumph the Insult Comic Dog voice)

seriously just joking (looks to window for ChiefDelphi etiquette swat team) ... you beat her to it by 6 minutes


...

(puts on negative reputation Kevlar vest)

[BrianBSL]

Better to let someone know that you are not 100% positive about the answer you are giving them, then to give them an answer that you think is 100% correct and you turn out to be wrong (as that could be far more harmful).

Just my $0.02.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by BrianBSL

Better to let someone know that you are not 100% positive about the answer you are giving them, then to give them an answer that you think is 100% correct and you turn out to be wrong (as that could be far more harmful).

Just my $0.02.

Not really. His (entirely valid) point is that it's better to just not post at all.

[aaeamdar]

Originally Posted by Cory

Not really. His (entirely valid) point is that it's better to just not post at all.

Jumping into the fray of public, I'll add my own, mostly counter to what is posted here.

Though I may not have extensive CD experience, I have used forums quite a lot for looking up information for various purposes. Part of the hard part of using them is (no offense) that any idiot with an internet connection can post in them. This is just what forums are. There are various systems (such as reputation on CD) that help to determine how knowledgeable someone in the community is. However, the bottom line is that your results when searching a forum will be only slightly better than your results using a "poll-your-audience" method on Millionaire. Again, that's just a fact of forums.

When people post things saying, "I think you can use 4 CIM motors but I'm not sure" there is some information that can be gleaned out of that. Smart forum usage means that you take everything with a grain of salt. However, if everyone says "I think (x) but I'm not sure" then they are probably right.

Everyone is free to pay very close attention to these types of posts or ignore them completely, as they please. It's our job as responsible and intelligent forum users to pick the good from the bad and base it around our own knowledge.

If someone were to ask an incredibly obscure rules question, especially if it were (to a certain extent) interpretable, and only people who were absolutely sure posted a response, that would not be as helpful as a general concensus from the community as a whole.

Thanks

[paulcd2000]

Go aaeamdar!!!!!

You are absolutly right. If you only want perfect responses, you aren't going to get any, because no one wants to look in the rules for each and every thing. People have the right to post how they want, and you shouldn't restrict them.

Also note that not everyone is perfect, and this definetly isn't a perfect world.

[sciencenerd]

Originally Posted by Arefin Bari

One word for Greg... Amen.

Sciencenerd senses a certain... irony in this post.

But I agree with Greg. If you can't cite your sources, you don't know it.

[Starke]

thanks for the answer to my question from another thread. i agree with you man. all the way. no maybes ever.

hey greg, when you coming to visit 340?

[Dan Zollman]

Originally Posted by Greg Needel

I hate to come down on people but recently i have been seeing more and more people answering questions like:

"i think that is correct but i am not sure"
"I am pretty sure you would be fine with that"


Those posts are useless and potentially harmful.

I agree partly, but half an answer might be better and more useful than no answer if nobody is 100% sure.

It is a problem if someone says that they're sure but they really aren't. As long as the poster says that they're not sure, the asker can be wary of that and will have a place to start.

[SpaceOsc]

Originally Posted by nycpunk

Although i agree for the most part we cant get too serious about this. Remember FIRST is about teaching in a fun way and we were all newbies at one point and we have all made mistakes and incorrect posts (even Greg ). My point is that while we do need to cut down on the cit-chat and waisting space when important questions need to be answered we cant turn CD into a fascist place where confused newbies, who may have great ideas and control our future, will be too afraid to post and expand themselves.

Very Much in agreement with you. I see what this thread is about often around here in CD, but that in of itself is not enough for me to want to impose any set of rules on anyones answers or questions on CD because no one is paid to give anyone great answers here, CD isn't Customer Support its created by people willing to give there time and talent to further the cause of FIRST. whether its because you read the manual but cant quote it so you tell them " Yeah you can use them.. but I'm 89% sure so check the manual too!" or if they want to try something new and wacky that you might have seen before or never thought of so you give them your opinions " Sure, The Hover Craft will work but it seems in your setup someone will die before it gets off the ground". Examples of not 100% Great Answers. But if theres anything you would want to come away with after reading the CD forums shouldn't be "I Wish there was Less Spamming" but instead " People Try to Help when they can, wow )

as for Information that may result in harmful or misleading, Insecurity in an answer is its own disclaimer. Start to worry when people give you the wrong answer on Purpose!

-Osc