There’s a very interesting discussion going on in the Strobist group over at Flickr. What it boils down to is that one of the members, Don Giannatti, was commenting on a certain trend he had noticed. The issue was group members who would ask vague broad questions without taking the time to do at least a cursory search to see if their question has already been asked (which considering the size of the group, it most likely has). And interesting discussion followed his comment .

On one hand, you have some members who say it’s to be expected and that expecting people with questions to search the forums and/or do some reading before posting is a big barrier and can be interpreted as hostility. On the other hand, you have group members who also say that it would be better if people made an effort to do some research on their own before they post questions. They would most likely find the answers they were looking for or, at the very least, be able to be more specific in their questions. And of course, you have a wide range of people who fall somewhere in between these two position.

Personally, I lean towards the second opinion. The Strobist group has over 43,000 discussion threads and I think I can safely say that pretty much any question a beginner like me would want to ask has been asked and discussed to death. While I can understand why someone would want to get an answer as quickly as they can, 5 minutes spent searching the discussions and just skimming through results sometimes makes the answer to your question clear or ,even better, leads you to ask the actual question you should have asked in the first place.

And it’s not just on Flickr that this problem exists, it’s something that affects all sizeable online forums and even happens in real life. Even though I’m just what I’ll generously call an enthusiast, I have people tell me, “Oh, I really want to get into photography.  Can you help?” And I tell them, “oh, that’s great. Ok, go read this article and try to see if you can figure this out. Then come back and let’s talk about what you’ve learned.” And in most cases, the reply is always, “Oh, but I don’t want to do any reading. I just want to learn what to do. Can’t you just show me?” How am I going to explain depth of field to someone who doesn’t want to take the effort to learn what aperture is?

I think this is the issue Don has a problem with. It’s a lot easier and more fulfilling the help someone who has a genuine desire to learn. To quote Don: “Structured busting of ass is required…”. Why should you expect someone to spend the time & effort trying to teach you something if you’re not also willing to expend time & effort in learning ?