From Noob to Guru:

I'd like to put this as a sticky in the TIPS ON USING THIS SITE section, but I'm submitting it here first for your review. Comments are welcome.
Dan
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From Noob to Guru:
Hello everyone, and welcome to the forums.
If you will indulge me, I’d like to wax philosophical on the journey from Noob to Guru and the pitfalls that come with it. It’s not something we consciously think about, which is why it’s so important to understand. For the purpose of this article, “GURU” shall be taken to mean anyone you think is a significantly knowledgeable member of the forum that you would turn to for advice. “Noob”, is not an insult, but simply a new person.

As a noob, we are excited to join a new community of like-minded individuals that have the answers to our burning questions. Then somebody says, “Use the search function.” and sometimes we feel unwelcome because our question isn’t answered directly. We reluctantly use the function and get many answers, realizing that most of our basic questions have been answered many times and begin to respect the wealth of knowlege that is already available. Then we begin to ask more specific questions that require thought and opinions. People with the answers are happy to provide them and provide links to discussions where there is more information.

Eventually, we see questions we noobs know the answers to, and we are excited that we can help out someone who is where we were knowledge-wise, not long ago. We are more familiar with the board and where topics are located, and happy to direct those newer than us to them. Eventually we feel more secure as somewhat of an authority on the subjects. Over time we gain more knowledge and confidence and begin to be considered gurus ourselves by noobs.

Here is where it gets tricky, because the more we know; the easier it is to fall into a tone of post that makes us sound like know-it-alls. And we don’t even realize we are doing it. From this we can garner resentment by others, which gives us that not-so-fresh feeling about the forum. Also we begin to get frustrated by seeing and answering the same questions over and over. We start telling others, “Use the search function.”

The point is that no matter where we are on the journey from Noob to Guru, it is important for the harmony of the forum to consider the position of both the poster and the audience. We all need to be aware of how we come across to others, no matter how much knowledge we have.

------Gurus need to remember that noobs are entheusiastic people that need guidance, much as we did once. Gurus need to be patient rather than short with noobs.

------Noobs need to not take personally the know-it-all tone or the suggestion to “Use the search function!”. They need to appreciate the contributions of those who share their knowledge by understanding that the majority of guru knowledge has already been posted somewhere on the forum. Curmudgeonly attitudes of gurus usually stem from frustration, which usually stems from the knowledge that the information requested is already available if the poster will search for it. If a guru took the time to post the answer, its disrespectful for a noob not to make at least an attempt to search for it. In short, gurus are more likely to respect and help those that first try to help themselves.

All of the attitudes listed above that we go thru on the journey from noob to guru are normal (even the not-so-nice ones). Nothing to be ashamed of. By being aware they are normal, hopefully we will all be a little more tolerant, and not so quick to take offense at the actions of others.

Dan

My first reading would be that this could appear a little condescending or could be taken the wrong way. I will need to read several separate times.

I believe there is a good message in the post. We may even want to reduce the message and include in the "welcoming email" ... but it is important not to alienate our "gurus" or "noobs".

Thank you for that. I look forward to your revisions.
This was a first draft. Stream of consiousness and all that.

Anyone else?

Wot Bill says; I think it's appropriate but I'd like to digest it overnight.

Thanks, Dan.

I made several changes the first night or so, and its been 5 days since then. I took into account some comments and made it less abrasive and shorter.

As this is your site Bill, I won't post it without your permission.
I just ask that you make a decision to either let me post, or give me some concrete feedback as to what else you'd like changed.

Just want to move forward with this as another topic has reared its head that warrants a "Use the search function!"

dspevack wrote:

I made several changes the first night or so, and its been 5 days since then. I took into account some comments and made it less abrasive and shorter.

As this is your site Bill, I won't post it without your permission.
I just ask that you make a decision to either let me post, or give me some concrete feedback as to what else you'd like changed.

Just want to move forward with this as another topic has reared its head that warrants a "Use the search function!"

I thought about this the other day on how to accomplish this and still be "friendly" ... then it hit me ( and so did the shower ).

I can at times find things using our search facility ... but there is a bunch of times that I cannot find it using our search facility and then resort to using Google ( or use your favorite ) search engine.

What if we turned this into an very solid education piece to maximize your search success ... sometimes from our search facility and sometimes elsewhere. We could easily keep this sticky and well as have other contribute suggestions for "search" improvements that can help everyone.

Then we could easily provide a link to everyone who joins the forum on how to maximize your search "successes".

How does this sound ... I would be curious of everyone's opinion on this.

I'm not sure if it's the same on this forum-base but on my X9 one, using the Search engine directly from the thread one is on only gets results from that particular section, not the whole forum.
For example, if I do a search for Brake Lights from here, it'll only show anything from 'Administration' and nowhere else.
In order to get results from everywhere one needs to go to the Home Page and search from there.
That catches out new members every time.

I'll experiment a bit unless someone already knows.

Scrub that - this forum's different!

I was in that section yesterday cleaning it out (moving posts that were not supposed to be in that section into the proper one). There was a post specifically recommending people to use the search feature. We can certainly replace that post with an in-depth tutorial on how to get best results from the search function (internal and external) if someone would like to write it.

My post however is about understanding changing attitudes, why people are told to search, and tolerance. They are not overlapping concepts, and posting what you suggest will not get the same message across.
I wrote this because I am passionate about the message.

I don't think in its current incarnation it would be offensive to anyone but the most easily offended. Such a person wouldn't last long on this forum anyway.

But I can't force you to allow the post.

Please make a decision.

Dan

It's fine by me.