General Forum question vs. PM'ing someone

[acamp]

I get a lot of PMs but I agree they’re not best asked in the open so someone else’s might benefit.

I always have to use google search and use the site flag to find anything. This forum software is terrible, the upgrade didn’t help much.

That is what I do here as well as the other forums I visit, it works great. Usually better than the forum search.

Hello!
Can you list the steps on how you do this search through google?  Thanks!

Type in your search words as you would here in the Google search box then add site:degreeforum.net at the endit causes the search results to be limited to only this site.

So if I wanted an answer on Calc 1 providers, in google I would type in:

Calc 1 providers siteegreeForum.net


(Or did I mess that up haha)

[allvia]

I get a lot of PMs but I agree they’re not best asked in the open so someone else’s might benefit.

I always have to use google search and use the site flag to find anything. This forum software is terrible, the upgrade didn’t help much.

That is what I do here as well as the other forums I visit, it works great. Usually better than the forum search.

Hello!
Can you list the steps on how you do this search through google?  Thanks!

Type in your search words as you would here in the Google search box then add site:degreeforum.net at the endit causes the search results to be limited to only this site.

So if I wanted an answer on Calc 1 providers, in google I would type in:

Calc 1 providers site:degreeforum.net


(Or did I mess that up haha)

you are correct "calc 1 providers site:degreeforum.net" and you will see results related, you can modify your search to narrow it down more and more by altering your keywords. In example you may have better results with Calculus I vs calc 1.  Best thing is there is no minimum limit so you could search WGU and not be told it has to be at least 4 characters.

[davewill]

I do sometimes direct people who PM me to make a forum post instead, it depends on what they're asking.

I agree that searching is hit and miss. Because last years' answer is sometimes golden and sometimes woefully out of date, there's no real substitute to reading a bunch of recent threads on the subject you're interested in.

The wiki is probably the best starting point for a true newbie.

[cookderosa]

Further to this, please do a search, so you don't keep asking the same questions over and over. I get PM often as well, and one last thing, turn ON your PM option otherwise I can't reply to you. In these cases, I usually create a thread and have your alias in the subject. I agree, having the question open gives more opportunities for different answers, but the majority of the time, you will get the same type of answer. Have fun reading, researching and reviewing threads to get a hang of things...

That's hard- because our entire forum is based around ASKING QUESTIONS. If people stopped asking questions, we'd only have archives.... which would become obsolete in about 24 hours.

I like questions, I "earn my living" answering questions, but, I 100% agree with Dfrecore. When you answer a question privately, it's one and done. Answer publicly and everyone can benefit to the knowledge here! I can think of a dozen other reasons why the Q&A format of this forum makes it *quite literally* the best resource for this kind of information in all of cyberspace.

EDIT TO ADD: I love when people preface a question by saying "this is probably a stupid question......" because 99% of the time it is an exceptionally insightful question that works out details of something I might not or someone else might not have thought about before. As soon as we say "yep, that's stupid- it's been answered here 4000 times dummy, don't you know how to search?" we stifle someone's curiosity and instead they worry about looking like an idiot for not knowing how to use the search function. Even if our search function was good (it's not) the more people talk, the better this place is. Sending people into the archives shuts them up, it doesn't open them up.

[dfrecore]

That's hard- because our entire forum is based around ASKING QUESTIONS. If people stopped asking questions, we'd only have archives.... which would become obsolete in about 24 hours.

I like questions, I "earn my living" answering questions,  but, I 100% agree with Dfrecore.  When you answer a question privately, it's one and done.  Answer publicly and everyone can benefit to the knowledge here!  I can think of a dozen other reasons why the Q&A format of this forum makes it *quite literally* the best resource for this kind of information in all of cyberspace.  

EDIT TO ADD:  I love when people preface a question by saying "this is probably a stupid question......" because 99% of the time it is an exceptionally insightful question that works out details of something I might not or someone else might not have thought about before.  As soon as we say "yep, that's stupid- it's been answered here 4000 times dummy, don't you know how to search?" we stifle someone's curiosity and instead they worry about looking like an idiot for not knowing how to use the search function.  Even if our search function was good (it's not) the more people talk, the better this place is.  Sending people into the archives shuts them up, it doesn't open them up.

I agree that telling them to "go search" is not only not helpful, it's rude, and discourages them.

Directing them to a specific place to look for answers is fine (i.e. the Wiki or Beginner's Guide).  Encouraging them to spend time reading is also fine.