Is it only me who is tiring of all of this?

[CalebD]

I love to help out new members on SailNut but I troll a bunch of different marine based forums and more and more I just start feeling like I have no answer to people who pose questions like this:
"I bought an Irwin 30 sailboat recently and am looking to convert the tiller to wheel. My first question is, does the boat have to be out of the water to do this? Secondly, any idea how much this will run me..."
I can't even seem to muster the humanity to reply that the poster should try the boat out with it's tiller in tact and see if it really is so bad. They are hell bent on having a wheel driven boat and do not really care to hear about the practical side of cockpit space with wheels vs. tillers.

I must really be losing my patience because this kind of thing just irks me to no end:
"what is "Opti part patent pennant holder"which part of the op?
can you send a image?
help..."
No boat make, model or year given. Apparently no google search on the part of the poster either or at least no brains.
I am only 52 but I feel like I am getting to be such a dinosaur that so few people of younger generations have a connection with me in any way. Are these people just lame or is it really that I am so far out of touch?

The fact of the matter is that that I do not have all that much useful information to impart to every poster. I only know what i think I know and usually I shut up and let others fill in the gaps. I just get the feeling that this world (and our country in the US) is turning into something like the movie titled 'Idiocracy' that wasn't much better written then some of the posts I have been reading lately. Idiocracy (2006)

Feel free to give me the finger up or down as you like as I mostly don't seem to care about your juvenile fantasies of whether you boat should have a wheel or if I can identify some obscure rigging part with a 5 word description. Post a photo (and you know you should know how) of the parts in question and us old timers can make a lot more sense of it then your hormone laden brains can.

Sorry to say but I feel like there just is not much 'there' there out here in the internet world. The newcomers don't make me feel any better.

End of rant.

[kiprichard]

Right On!!

[Hartley18]

Coming from a couple of newbies..


Seriously though, Caleb, you have a fair point. I personally am not convinced that some of these aren't just "intelligent" spammers (ie. ones that at least KNOW what a boat looks like as opposed to your normal grass-roots spammer who haven't a clue). In the mix are also likely to be bored school-kids, locked in their bedrooms with the PC whilst their parents-who-should-know-better throw dinner parties, who get a buzz out of wasting peoples time..

The trouble is that, in the miasma that is SnailNet, you do get some posters (like Udoma) who are geniune people asking genuine questions about genuine boats, but they simply don't have a good grasp of English - it isn't their fault because it isn't their language, but you can sense the frustration.. In those cases you simply have to take a risk and hope it works out in the end (in that case it did). Unknown by many Americans, there is a big world outside of the US of A and not everyone understands your language...

It would help a mint if more newbies would follow SD's advice (follow the link in my sig) and put a few more details together and a pic of their boat in their avatar, but if they don't and you don't have any answers for them??

My best advice: Just ignore them. If they're seriously in trouble I'm sure they'll keep trying. Save your efforts for the long-term posters (like me!) who find themselves really stuck sometimes and need a helping hand..

[sawingknots]

i understand what your saying but a little patience and tact goes a long way,not every member maybe has that much knowledge or even seriousness but they do have the right to ask/participate,i don't mind the foolish posts,its the rude and arrogant ones that curdle my milk,lets keep this forum fun and open to everyone.btw its no problem ignoring the mundane or uninteresting.sawingknots

[St Anna]

Pretty much all yachty's will tactfully (sometimes) help another with advice or with lending a hand or tools or whatever. Regardless of type of boat, level of experience etc.

If we feel we are too close to loud, obnoxious types, we up anchor.

Sailnet just allows many yachty's new and old to ask for help or for advice. So Caleb, if you are feeling hammered, just pull up your anchor and have a look in the next bay. Then give me some advice when I need it.
cheers

[Vasco]

Caleb,

Yes I think you've nailed how many feel and this accounts for the lack of posts. Too lazy or too challenged to do a search. Throw the question out and hope for a complete answer with part numbers and diagrams. I often wonder if the trolls have learned a new technique, instead of in your face stuff they now slide subtle, incomplete questions out and wait for the debate.

[FSMike]

I sympathize with CalebDs point. I have wondered if there is some way to set up a newby sticky to eliminate, or at least focus, some questions. A dedicated thread couldn't possibly cover all newb questions, but maybe it could offer guidelines on finding answers/commentary to newcomers.
There are times on boating forums where I am reminded about the adage concerning feeding a man a fish vs. teaching a man to fish. To paraphrase, Give a newcomer an answer and you have answered one question; teach a newcomer how to do his own research and you have answered a whole bunch of questions.
I don't know exactly what it would take to do this. I do know it needs to be attention getting somehow, so newcomers will take advantage of it.

[Bene505]

Caleb,

There are a lot of people "out sailing' because it's summer (in the US at least, where many SN-ers are based). Perhaps that diminished some of the luster of the site for you.

By the way, once I get some time, I have a great picture of you working on our 4 heads. I need to put that up on SN for others to see Caleb-in-action. Thanks for the help.

Regards,
Brad

[deniseO30]

The beauty of online forums is that they can be spontaneous, shallow, fun, boring, dumb,intelligent, thought provoking, angry,and more. I love it!

It's always easier to post your questions rather then researching them. It's always easy to make light of the newbie's dumb questions, It's always easy to act smug and all knowing about other peoples blunders and bloopers. It's always easy to forget we were new once upon a time!


I have a question... how would I put tiller steering in a center cockpit boat?

eek.............................................ru ns away

[svHyLyte]

For some really dumb questions the only answer is: