Poll of the Day > When you google a question, and the first answer tells you to google...

(+) Yeah! (+)

Basically, I googled this:
is it safe to let animals roam anywhere stardew valley

I clicked the first link. I get a beautiful lmgtfy on the first post.

After the lmgtfy finishes, I find the same link again, causing me to go into a perpetual cycle of looking at the same lmgtfy over and over again.

Just kidding. I just scrolled to the fourth post. But man, this is the third time it happened to me this year. I hate all of you that tell people to google without providing the answer in your post (if any of you are here).

I guess you're right to some degree, that a question has to have been answered somewhere in the first place in order for it to become googlable. for some things though, it's going to be info that's on wikipedia or even a dedicated wiki already, or even a question that google can answer outright.
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Ugh, those guys are the worst.

When you ask a question and they tell you to Google it, then their answer ends up in Google.

"Google it"

Gee, thanks, I literally just did that john sarcasm.

Even moderators of forums are annoying when they close topics marked as duplicates or spam. Then it's just a dead end.

"No necro posting"

Yeah and as far as I'm concerned you're all talking on the same day.

The actual worst is when you have a problem that you googled and there's no help anywhere, and the people in forums can't solve it either, but then in the help thread there's another message by OP that says "Nvm I figured it out" and I'll never know what they figured out unless I make an account and message them to ask them about their 3 year-old post.

Sahuagin posted...

I guess you're right to some degree, that a question has to have been answered somewhere in the first place in order for it to become googlable. for some things though, it's going to be info that's on wikipedia or even a dedicated wiki already, or even a question that google can answer outright.

That is definitely not the issue I'm addressing. The issue that I'm addressing is that these types of people make the search process longer for people in the future, regardless of whether the information can be found in the wiki or not. Contrary to your initial impressions, the answer to this question IS on a wiki. It takes until the second page for a wiki to appear (in the example search I gave).

I get it. If the TC of that topic (and the other topics) had not asked the question in the first place, then I would have probably seen the strategywiki as a first result. But the people who say to google the answer just makes the entire situation even worse. Give the answer in your post, and THEN scold them for not searching if you have to. In fact, just link the wiki if the answer is there. That way, future generations don't suffer from the angsty replies about googling the answer.

Otherwise, just don't reply. I'd rather see an empty topic than waste my time trying to read through that argument. Makes it faster to move on to the next result.

Ultima_Dragoon posted...

The actual worst is when you have a problem that you googled and there's no help anywhere, and the people in forums can't solve it either, but then in the help thread there's another message by OP that says "Nvm I figured it out" and I'll never know what they figured out unless I make an account and message them to ask them about their 3 year-old post.

I forgot about those. Yeah those are pretty bad.

Oh shit... in case this somehow becomes first page on google those searching in the future (I doubt it)... yes you can have your animals roam around without worrying, but could be inconvenient when grabbing animal products.

NovicePro posted...

That is definitely not the issue I'm addressing. The issue that I'm addressing is that these types of people make the search process longer for people in the future, regardless of whether the information can be found in the wiki or not. Contrary to your initial impressions, the answer to this question IS on a wiki. It takes until the second page for a wiki to appear (in the example search I gave).

well in that case I disagree, and you're basically just asking people to do your work for you
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Sahuagin posted...

NovicePro posted...

That is definitely not the issue I'm addressing. The issue that I'm addressing is that these types of people make the search process longer for people in the future, regardless of whether the information can be found in the wiki or not. Contrary to your initial impressions, the answer to this question IS on a wiki. It takes until the second page for a wiki to appear (in the example search I gave).

well in that case I disagree, and you're basically just asking people to do your work for you

Yeah, at this point you're not making any sense lol. You really need to work on your reading comprehension friend. What work? Nowhere in my post am I asking anyone to do my work. I'm asking people to not get in the way of my work.

NovicePro posted...

Yeah, at this point you're not making any sense lol. You really need to work on your reading comprehension friend. What work? Nowhere in my post am I asking anyone to do my work. I'm asking people to not get in the way of my work.

writing out an elaborate post that mirrors an already existing wiki is work. finding a link to said wiki and making sure its relevant to the question is work. all work that you should be doing, not me.

in fact, these 'just google it' answers wouldn't have had to exist in the first place without the *redundant question* that didn't bother to do any research.

on stack exchange this is mitigated in two ways: down voting bad unresearched questions, and closing them with links to duplicate questions/answers.
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Sahuagin posted...

in fact, these 'just google it' answers wouldn't have had to exist in the first place without the *redundant question* that didn't bother to do any research.

I already said that. Before you in fact. My point is that all you do is make it worse if you make a super long post about not googling (I say this as someone who is searching the answers, not asking the question)

Sahuagin posted...

writing out an elaborate post that mirrors an already existing wiki is work. finding a link to said wiki and making sure its relevant to the question is work. all work that you should be doing, not me.

You're constantly refuting straw man arguments. I don't need you to find a link. I need you to not say anything. I don't want to read your long irrelevant post raging about someone not doing research before I know I should look onto the next link in my google search. Again, I'm saying this from the perspective of someone who never asks the question in the first place. I always search it. All you're doing is slowing down my work and getting in my way otherwise.

Sahuagin posted...

on stack exchange this is mitigated in two ways: down voting bad unresearched questions, and closing them with links to duplicate questions/answers.

Finally, an actual fyi, rather than a silly attempt at refuting an argument that was never made in the first place. Yes, that is nice. Obvious, but nice.

in practice, on a regular forum, I usually either answer the question or say nothing

NovicePro posted...

You're constantly refuting straw man arguments. I don't need you to find a link. I need you to not say anything.

I hate all of you that tell people to google without providing the answer in your post

I don't mean necessarily mean "you" as in NovicePro, I mean the hypothetical scenario in which a question is being asked, which you were referring to
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Sahuagin posted...

NovicePro posted...

You're constantly refuting straw man arguments. I don't need you to find a link. I need you to not say anything.

I hate all of you that tell people to google without providing the answer in your post

But why do I hate them? I never said I hate them because they don't give the answer to a question I asked and didn't do my work for me. I hate them because they make googling answers more annoying than they should be, which is the entire point of this topic. Context is everything.

Yeah sorry, I shouldn't have said you directly either