JD, you Sir are the Man! Excellent write-up, well thought out. I thorougly enjoyed it. No wonder you wrote a book. Merry Christmas and keep up the good work.
OB
(The only "stupid" question is the one not asked.)
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JD, you Sir are the Man! Excellent write-up, well thought out. I thorougly enjoyed it. No wonder you wrote a book. Merry Christmas and keep up the good work.
OB
(The only "stupid" question is the one not asked.)
I am impressed by the width and breadth of the technical knowledge and experience brought to this forum by the members. I am amazed at the amount intelligently directed experimentation that goes on and also the stoopid things that people confess to like shooting chronographs. Lots of people are comfortable posting their goof ups and we can lčarn from them and analyse them. One thing about the stickies is that there are so many of them but only because we don't throw away gold. In fairness in researching on this sight I have often gotten an information overload.
Recluse has done it again! Eloquently stated what I've seen and commented on different times. GREAT post!!!!
I quoted the above because I will say that it "SEEMS" that many of the questions wanting instant gratification come from the younger members, but I have seen several from new members that should be mature enough to study a bit before popping out the repeat questions. I personally have tried to ignore questions that are extremely basic and have been answered in multiple posts before. Sometimes I will point a fellow in the right direction, and on occasion I'll answer although I usually will add a source for further reading.
I have noticed a trend though in the mid-level members NOT answering other's questions. When I get really frustrated with the "silly" questions, I try to remember that Molly and several others that have departed would occasionally point a guy in the right direction in hopes that he would learn how to help himself somewhat. We have lost many since I joined, but I see many others coming along that at least partially fill those empty shoes.
Thanks for a great post Recluse...
Edd
Not so much repeat questions that bother me. I don't expect someone brand new to casting either to know their way around this rather large forum or have read it here before. There are still a lot of old wives tales floating around even in the printed media regarding casting and it's easy to see where/how a new guy can get confused. The ones I tend to ignore are the ones that obviously have done zero reading or research, questions like "Are there any good loads for a 38 special"? Questions such as "what kind of lead should I be looking for for my 38 special" is an entirely different type of question and sounds like someone that really does want to learn something.
Not very much recently but a few years ago there was a rash of posts that I called alphabet posts. A long paragraph without a single capital letter or punctuation mark, not a period, comma, nothing but line after line of a very long string of letters. Those were ignored, I rarely got through the first line of letters before going to a different thread. Those posters were screaming to me loud & clear that they couldn't care less how hard to read their post was just figure it out and tell me what I want to hear. Yep, sure I will.
Rick
cbrick has made a good point in the above post without really saying what is on my mind after reading this thread.
So to that I'm going to issue a challenge to our educated masses hear. We all know that the search functions of forums
leave something to be desired, and while a lot of us have had to learn "how to phrase a question to get what we're looking for" on, say, google,
the same needs to work here. My challenge would be that when you give a response to someones query, try to phrase it in such a way as to make is
easier for searches to bring up good results.
I will agree, that there is a literal ton (or more) of info available here. I spent months reading before I signed on to this forum.
Yet, when I go searching for something, I often encounter pages of search hits without a hint of what I'm looking for.
Rephrasing your search many times makes a huge difference. So, I'm asking that when posting, we take enough time to think,
"how can I phrase this so that someone might find it in the future".
Recluses OP is outstanding and is very sticky worthy, glad to see it was made.
This is a great forum, with a huge wealth of knowledge, and I for one just want to say thanks to all who make this what it is.
Why do some newbs do better than others?
On some threads maybe half the answers are not pertinent to the question where the "expert" responder simply didn't read or can't read with comprehension. Some answers are simply wrong, overly simple and/or purposefully cryptic, vague, cute or poorly represented. Some newbs are more prone to slick language or sales pitches that sound good and are easy and cheap--- just human nature. While some other newbs THINK about all the responses then use the matter between their ears and proceed to learn mostly by their own independent research, experience, common sense and initiative.
Recluse, very well said!
I don't know that this is so much a generational issue as an issue of approach and expectation.
This could be exemplified if you had a student show up who wanted you to teach him or her how to cast. There is the student who really wants you to teach them how to cast so they can do it on their own, and then their is the lazy selfish sort who would be most content for you to do all the work for them. The difference between one who gladly wants to recieve knowledge and one who is simply a taker. We've always had lazy selfish sorts, nothing new under the sun when it comes to human behaviour.
Nobody likes a mooch.
Well said, Recluse et al. I suspect that many newbs find their way to us via internet queries because many of my searches lead right back here to my online home. I don't mind answering the simple questions but I try to help the poster find more info if that question indicates an incomplete understanding of the process. I'm into my 4th decade of reloading but casting is something that's relatively new to me. I feel I've learned a huge amount here and at my casting bench but each trip to either place shows me how much more I have to learn.
It's so true that a certain aptitude and a solid knowledge of firearms is required for a successful boolit casting experience. Not everyone who stumbles into this site will stick with it long enough to experience the wonders of the cast boolit. On the other hand new members keep a site alive, no forum can survive without them. Many folks on this site are patient and gracious teachers and I feel I owe it to them to pay it forward.
Thank you, Wow what a great post!
Jeepyj
There is something to be said for "LURKING" I have been here for over 3 years and there are guys that joined less than 3 months ago with a higher post count than me. Not insinuating in anyway that there is something wrong with that. Most people are more personable than I am. I don't post alot on here, not because I don't get on here much but because every question I have had is somewhere on here already. That being said, even after lurking for some nine months before I joined I look back at some of my first post and I asked what I call some stupid questions. I was in Afghanistan when I joined this site, and as I said, had lurked for some time before I joined, it occupied a lot of the few hours I had for personal time over there. Young people are trained for instant gratification by the society they grow up in. Even if they don't have the smart phones or computers at home they see it at school or at family or friends homes, they know it is out there and that it's easier to just get online and ask in some search engine for a quick answer. When it refers them here, they think why wade through the "stickies" when they can just start a thread with their question and get an answer. Obviously there are several lines of thought on this subject based on the post in this thread. There are however only 2 real options on the matter, either their question gets answered or everyone tells them to go to the "stickies" it's already answered in there. Being rude to someone because you are mad about reading a "Stupid Question" I think is uncalled for. Even if it's not until you open up the thread and read the OP's question that you discover it's a question that has been asked a hundred times before, it's still easier and less stressful for all involved if you would just hit the back button and move on.
Great write up JD.
" Young people are trained for instant gratification by the society they grow up in."
I agree whole heartedly with your entire post and I especially see the wisdom of this statement. I worked with a lot of young people for over 30 years and I also have 5 kids of my own (all grown up) so I have first hand experience with the instant gratification phenomena. I think this even extends into a lot of other areas as well.As far as this thread is concerned what is frustrating to a lurker/newbie person is having your question answered by several answers from several people.
"Hit the back button and move on" is good advice.
that is because quite often there is more than one correct answer.
for instance leading in a revolver.
it could be several different reasons cylinder throats, barrel throats, frame constriction, scroll work on the barrel, the sights dovetails.
not to mention the load and boolit details.
Ditto +1 and same as above
A while back I asked what a lee soup can is. I got 2 replies the first, from a moderator said to go to the stickies. The second told me it was a lee 113 grain boolit.
I just now tried the search function for lee soup can. I got tons of data, I mean pages and pages. The first page had two posts about 7mm soupcan boolits. The second had no threads with the word "soupcan" in the title. There were a bazillion more pages which I am sure tell a whole bunch about the lee soupcan. But the way I found out what a soupcan was tonight was to go to the list of my posts and find the one where I asked the question. I have found the search function on this site to be about useless. I once was envolved in all sorts of searches, ie patent, tax and environmental regs, research etc, so I am not unfamilar with digging stuff out. ButI have found it
I have found it very difficult to search out stuff on this sight. I have read and reread stickies and probably have read over half of them. I am not sure on that, they grow pretty fast.
Without a doubt this is my favorite site on the whole internet. There is so much about several of my favorite topics. But fellers we suffer from the problems of success. If a gun person doesn't come here there is a vast hole in his background. Even we who have been here for years learn new stuff here. If you want to ignore a noob fine, but I think this sticky is great but overly critical. A lot of us old farts make blunders. I learned that since I just plink I don't need a chrony any way.
can i use your heirarchy of gun owners as my signature or will it be too long lol maybe i can find it in a sticky ... ill be back
Been reloading 40 years. I've learned more than I'll ever use. Most of the casting knowledge came from right here in the last 5 years. Yet, there is still more to learn. The whole powder coating thing is Greek to me, and the stickies and post threads on it are long and daunting. Well, I'll get to reading them as soon as I can find anymore room in this shrinking reloading room for the 'stuff' I'll 'need'.