Helping on the tech forums?

anyone ever try to help on the tech forum but feel like you dont know what you are doing?!? or that your suggestions wont work??

 

The best thing to do is not to answer. There are plenty of people around to do so its not incumbent on you to help.

The worst thing is helping a newbie who doesn't know anything about anything. You can find out how much they don't know after about two or three posts. I leave those to people who have more patience than I...

 

You have a point hulk. i thought it would be better to try to help and perhaps end up helping yourself as well. meaning the more you try to help people the more you will learn and the better your troubleshooting skills will become. maybe im wrong...

 

If you know the problem is a video card driver, by all means, get more info from them, go to the manufacturers website, find the correct driver, post a link to it. if it isn't the driver, someone else will post something and you will learn more about whats going on. Replacing drivers was probably the first thing the other person would have suggested.

 

I don't post in the tech forums as much these days, not nearly as much. I try and just help as I can though.

 

I don't mind helping & I only offer when I know that I may be able to help.

However, there are times when the request is unclear & therefore mis-understood leading to suggestions that may not work or even make the situation worse. I try my best to stay clear of these types of questions.

Often you never know if your suggestion was right or even used.

 

If you think you may have an answer to problem, by all means post it---the most that can happen is it may not work, on the other hand, it may help.
In the security forum, you should be knowledgable enough to recognize the problems that are above your skills. There are some things that few can deal with easily. Fortunately, TSG has the best and most informed techs anywhere.
I see the techs in security scrambling , trying to help everyone, and I don't know how they do it--my hat is off to all of them!.
If you wish to help in that area---you must stay with it everyday--its always changing and is never really learned, a real challange.
Another thing is communication skill , which is necessary. I never mastered that, not to mention CWS kicking my butt more than once!.
Never fail to help if you think you can. >f

 

i know nothing about security so stay away from that. i post mainly in hardware but i think i have lots to learn. ill keep reading and taking notes.

 

Read--learn--and help , whenever you can >f

 

I have to say, I have gone the way many have....my posting was for the most part - - all tech, then I got stuck in the dungeon for a while. For my own sanity I was able to escape some. Now I try to help those who's problem does not have many or any replies.

 

One thing that is hard about helping is, if you are not best, quickest , most informed , or WRONG, it can be embarassing. My opinion ,so what .
The important thing is to not cause damge or complicate something someone more knowlegable is working on.
Its a hell of lot easier to work on a machine first hand, than do it on forum.
Nobody is good at everything , and everybody knows something---thats what its all about --"help". >f

 

Cell, the very question shows you are learning! I was totally overeager when I first found this place, and there are some problems I look back on and think "wow, I should have really just kept my virtual mouth shut . . . " It's hardly the end of the world, tho.

So now I try and wait and just address the ones that I really DO know. I also keep an eye out for threads that are not being replied to. Two parts knowledge, two parts impulse control. Cheers!

 

Whenever I'm here, I always try to answer a few questions.. Or, at least, give it my best shot.. Sometimes I get over my head, if I do, I'll try to ask another person to help with the problem.. There's no way you're ever going to know the answer to every problem, just do your best.

I think the biggest problem is that techs tend to speak as if the person reading the answer knows what they're talking about.. Sometimes it's hard to explain to a newbie..

I also tend to step out of the way of members who I know are capable of answering the problem without my input.