I agree to a point. I agree that if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it...

That being said - there is a BIG difference between a newbie who doesn't know anything and is interested in learning, to a newbie who runs into the place shooting their mouth off, asking all of the wrong questions. The second type of poster is very annoying and I can see why some people choose to flame them. Some of that second group respond positively and learn the hard way about forum etique... others don't see what they're doing and follow the path to its ultimate end of being banded.


In a nice fluffy world, ignoring a post would lead a newbie to find the answer themselves. Search is pretty obvious and widespread. They found the site most likely by using google in the first place! Unfortuneately newbie response to being ignored is whinning and pouting. Why aren't people answering me. Bump. Bump. Bump. Waaa Waaa. I get carried away, and 95% of new posters aren't that person... but we've all seen them.

I guess what I'm saying is - be responsible for your own actions. A flamer and a lamer are equally to blame when it goes south. Check my record if you want - I'm flame free I beleive...

 

you sure woot, I thought you were a flamerj/k

most of the posts are duplicates, I try to check before posting but sometimes it is nearly impossible...the tires/exhaust is probably the most used newbie post...I try not to flame peole, normally just ignore the post...thats what drives people away.

 

That's exactly what this place is... a family.

Personally, regarding the search feature, I try to use it every time I have a question. The problem is (and I know this happens to the newbies that actually do search) that I sometimes just flat-out don't know what to search for. Either I just flat-out don't know what to search for or what I try to search for is so ambiguous that the "The system could not find any results" message comes up.

I haven't been around here long enough to answer many of the repeated questions, but over on HondaCivicForum, I always, and I mean always kindly tell the person to use the search feature for these kinds of questions and then I proceed to answer the person's questions. I try not to flame unless the OP is absolutely asking for it ("who here street races?", "I learned to ride on my brother's 1krr last week, how do I do a wheelie?", etc.)