this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2024
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It is clear that the signal to noise ratio of the WWW is getting worse. It's much harder to find good content when using a good old search engine. And if it's good it is usually hosted on Reddit or Stackexchange.

So remember, even if it's easy too Google something (well, it isn't nowadays), we want to create a fediverse of good content that helps people (I hope). So, it's always better to write a real answer if you have the time and energy. Please help boost the SNR and reverse the AI fueled information degradation loop.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

I feel like it’s 2000 all over again on the Internet. The bloat has made pages borderline unusable, and using AdBlock or NoScript reverts any so-called "design progress" back to the good old HTML days.

Google is only semi-useful now, while pages like DuckDuckGo are starting to deliver results reminiscent of the old Yahoo or Lycos days.

It feels like my trusty, old-school Internet skills are helping me navigate this mess. The reemergence of usenet / groups feels inevitable.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

It's like a bouncing ball, social media starts small, and then it became bigger. It's trending on becoming small again. In the future (barring civilization ending war/calamity) it'll become big again due to some technological progress or shift in society.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 days ago (1 children)

If you don't show me that you at least made some effort to investigate: No.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Its a bit annoying when i google something and search forums and cant find an answer and i go to ask reddit or a forum and someone says"just google it" like am i really expected to make a preamble every ask-post that I've searched already?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago

i really expected to make a preamble every ask-post that I’ve searched already?

Yes. You need to show your effort, otherwise your question will be considered lazy. This is specially true regarding technical issues in volunteer forums.

The seminal essay "How To Ask Questions the Smart Way" explains these and other finer points.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

Check on Ecosia!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

Never say just, and if you bother answering be proper about it

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago

Search for it on the Internet

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago

I never say it like that. But I’ll tell people I found it by searching it. People really need to learn how to search first.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

Did you mean "Don't reply, just google it"? /s

[–] [email protected] 225 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (17 children)

As a software engineer...

Don't just say "just Google it". Guide them to the documentation. Ask them about the detail of the question. If it's an bug, try asking them if they can reproduce the bug.


This reminded me of the time I'm looking for how to do certain things in a software. I found a reddit post asking about the same issue and this is the reply OP got:

screenshot of a reddit thread where OP got a rude reply to search it themselves

Here is the link: https://old.reddit.com/r/i3wm/comments/mupjsf/how_to_showhide_i3status_bar_taskbar/

Imagine. You search the issue you have. Found the ONLY reddit thread that talks about this, and the ONLY thread that talks about the issue have NO USEFUL ANSWER and, worse, the only reply is TELLING YOU TO SEARCH IT YOURSELF. This got upvoted too 😭😭😭.

Luckily, I found the solution (tbh the solution was there in the docs, but the wording wasn't clear and it makes it hard to search) and I end up replying the OP the actual answer.

So, this is a PSA for the fediverse: be nice. It's free.

While we're still young, we have a chance to become a better forum.

Also possibly an unpopular opinion: you shouldn't downvote a question, even if it was asked multiple times. Guide them to the answer instead

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

Being nice isn't free. It takes energy and time. It's worth it though.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 week ago

Wow that is infuriating.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 week ago (3 children)
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[–] [email protected] 125 points 1 week ago (8 children)

Not sure if everyone knows this, but: if you don't want to answer the question—you don't have to post a reply! Crazy idea, I know.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

The issue I have is not that " You don't need to reply." I don't if I don't care about you and your ignorance. Experience will teach you soon enough. But I have more than once provided detailed answers on subjects that I'm well versed and experienced in. Only to be insulted because the answer I provided didn't fit what the person wanted to hear.

And when that answer pertains to a life threat level activity, then I can't help you if you reject the answer. So hey if you choose to put an unknown 200+ year old pipe bomb next to your head and pull the trigger, then Ok it's not my accident scene. And I'm no longer concerned if you live through the experience or not.

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[–] [email protected] 92 points 1 week ago (5 children)

So many times I google something obscure, the top result is the same question asked on some forum with a single reply, "just google it"

[–] [email protected] 57 points 1 week ago (5 children)

The only thing worse than someone saying just Google it is an op replying to their own post saying, never mind fixed it! (Without actually saying the solution).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

The fun one that is at least a bit forgivable is "I found the solution! I just followed ". It's especially fun when you keep finding multiple postings that look hopeful at first but then end up just linking back to the same dead link.

The lesson here is that it can be helpful to future internet searchers (or even your future self) to copy the relevant information or briefly summarize it instead of just dropping a URL. Especially when linking to something like an company's official support forum or posting as many companies will pull that stuff down eventually.

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[–] [email protected] 71 points 1 week ago (24 children)

"Google It"

I google

finds 1 link

its a link to a fourm post with the same question

only 1 answer found

answer says "Google It"

🙃

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[–] [email protected] 65 points 1 week ago (11 children)

"just Google it" has always been a shitty reply. People are asking for your opinion because they want opinions from people, not some nameless site/author/whatever. Even if you're just regurgitating information, it's coming from a PERSON not a random article. Never mind the reliability of the source. Heavens forbid that we social creatures social about a thing for a bit.

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[–] [email protected] 53 points 1 week ago (3 children)

The amount of times I've googled a problem, and the first result is a forum post of someone just being told to google it then locking the thread is way too high.

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 week ago (7 children)

I'm starting to give up on Google. I've literally copy and pasted the same error message in Google, DuckDuckGo, and Kagl.

Google will respond with "no results found" while the others will actually give me a response.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

Test kagi too

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

How do the results from ddg match the query? It doesn't look particularly helpful to me, and if not, why would I prefer to wade through a number of results that are ultimately unhelpful?

If there are no matches, I want to be told.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

The issue I was having was getting a hyper-v host to connect to an iscsi array on a nimble. That first result was pretty much exactly what I needed. It didn't highlight it in the preview, but it was on the page once I opened it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago

Ah, so that's definitely good. It wasn't clear from the screenshots, at least not for me

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Even if the results aren't exactly what I'm looking for, getting something even tangentially related can be helpful in finding the ultimate solution.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

I'd say so. It's a starting point for looking into LUN mounting issues with an incorrect host type. These results are better than nothing.

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 week ago (6 children)

Also, fuck Google. I've been removing the word from my lexicon. I say, let me search (or research) that instead

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