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small rant on "just answer the question"

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Keith Broughton:
I must preface this by saying that I have great respect for a lot of the people here and I appreciate the time they take to read and answer a (my) posts.
Much has been learned.
That said, here is my frustration.

A clear and concise question is posed with information to clarify the question and yet, most responses do not directly address that question.
This happens quite a lot, perhaps due to the question not being fully read or understood. If not understood, perhaps ask for clarification before posting an answer that is not helpful.
If I ask "is it raining where you are" I don't need the answer to be something like "you need an umbrella" Yes or no would suffice. Then if I say "it's raining here what can I do" have at 'er! :)
If the question is straight forward, is it unreasonable to expect that responses should, at the very least, include an answer to the OPs question?
As an example, my "DI transformer question" resulted in a lot of lines of text of which only 1 or 2 actually answered the question.
I had made it clear what I needed, and what was not needed and yet, TMI ;)

In the end, this is probably a"just the way it is so deal with it" situation and , if so, OK.
However, I just had to get it off my chest  :)

TJ (Tom) Cornish:
By usual standards of this forum, I found every post in your thread to be a reasonable, well-intentioned reply .

You knew what you wanted to know; the vast majority of posters don't, and ask questions that reveal this.  IMO a strength of this forum is pointing people to answers that will actually solve the issue for them, rather than answering the [wrong] question they asked.

John Roberts {JR}:
 ;D ;D  ...Rant?

If you read my signature line it explains this...

People are often unsure of what they know, so they answer what they "think" they know hopefully to get reinforcement. Some just want to talk about themselves.

This is the WWW and the price for free advice is sorting the wheat from the chaff....

JR

Debbie Dunkley:
I see it this way Keith....
I find sometimes a thread can go totally off the subject and result in a completely different discussion and if the OP is in a hurry to find answers, this can probably be a frustration but  I enjoy this aspect of the forum……
If this was a Q&A section of a manufacturers website, then maybe we would get direct answers with no ‘fluff’ - but it isn’t.
I see the forum as a place where folks can throw ideas around to develop a thought and the ‘fluff ’ can be a good source of information to the OP or anyone else who may benefit from the discussion. It can start at ‘A’ and end back at ‘A’ having gone through the alphabet and back again.
I really enjoy how some of these threads evolve and I have learned more this way than I would if questions were simply answered in the first post.
It’s like sitting around the dinner table with family - someone asks a question and everyone throws out all kinds of ideas - some are helpful and some are not so much but its fun exploring along the way. The personalities here are diverse and I enjoy learning the more 'animated' members here and the directions they tend to go in.
I have probably learned as much reading between the lines and in the not so obvious responses as I have from the more obvious and direct responses.

Keith Broughton:
Good and valid responses. It is often that the meandering process provides interesting and surprising info and I like that, but how about answering the question first ,then expound.
I'm not sure how "Here is the question...what would the spec be to look for?" leaves much to the imagination as to what is needed.
I did get an answer, so job done but it amazes me that someone would go to the trouble of responding, sometimes in a detailed manner, with info that doesn't address the question.
Mind you, it's their time and effort so no sweat off my brow. :)
It's not just my questions, or this specific post, or this forum I am referring to, but rather something I see it happening on a number of occasions.
I just figured mentioning it here would get me a better discussion than on, say, a motorcycle site :D

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