Slashdot Mirror
Where to Ask if not Ask Slashdot?
Rick the Red asks: "It seems that 3/4 of the Ask Slashdot articles are met with "Ask Google" answers. So, where do you go for answers (besides Google)? Advice (besides Dear Abby)? Opinions (besides ePinions)? If you want to know how to network one of those 4-in-1 printers, how do you find someone who's tried it? If you need help with some discontinued merchandise, who do you ask? If your pet project hits a snag, what do you do? Come on, all you "Ask Google" critics, fess up -- where do you think people should turn instead of Ask Slashdot?"
This should be in the 'Meta Ask Slashdot' catagory ;)
I personally ask stuff like that on mailing lists, usenet, and IRC (not in that order!). You can also try hooking up with a geeks / sysadmin group in your local area (I'm sure there's one most everywhere), and ask friends / associates there.
I'd suggest Ars technica...it's a great place to ask questions and the search gives you access to a bunch of older questions.
Google is another good one of course.
IP Therefore I am.
The forums at Tom's Hardware or anandtech are some of the best places to get answers to tech questions. Especially if its a question about which hardware to buy.
Another good way to go is to find a slashdot user who will probably have your answer, and check their journal/e-mail.
And of course usenet is great. And you can use google for that too!
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
It's getting worse! I don't usually join the folks bitching about Ask /. questions, but this is getting old.
/. is the forum for how to network your 4-in-fucking-1 printer, that's what 4-in-1 printer newsgroups and customer support are for.
The post said exactly what you do, ASK GOOGLE. As more people are getting into this stuff, fewer are learning the way most of us did years and years back -- We Looked It Up.
I don't think
Jesus. Stop posting these obvious questions! Just type them into Google:
where do I ask my questions other than slashdot
That results in this link:
ask.slashdot.org
Sheesh.
Come on, do some research. Ask Slashdot is by far the quickest way to get a legion of smart people with nothing to do but read slashdot to find your answers. Got a problem you don't want to waste an hour or two looking for the answer. Just ask slashdot.
Ask slashdot is just a smarter search engine.
Neck_of_the_Woods
#/usr/local/surf/glassy/overhead
Yeah yeah go ahead mod me down before you read the full reply, for having an unpopular opinion...
but here it is anyway....
The reason for asking a question at ask slashdot is to get the help of people how have done it before. This is a plain stright forward simple truth. Yes in many cases you can go "ask google" however...you might get a page or two with in formation on the howto's...you will not get the life expirence information on how everyone did do it(as opposed to the one or two ways that google might give you)...the information that ask slashdot response will give you are the gotcha's the alternative approches, and so forth...
Its a community folks, personally I would rather ask the people who have done it and have the expirence that I can ask questions of during my implimentation...than trust it to some googled web page that may or my not even be currently maintained. Asking slashdot can also cut through alot of the bullshit that you might otherwise run into because the slashdoters who have bene there before will more often than not point you to the resources that did work for them...
Power Corrupts,Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, leaving one person(group)in charge is absolutely corrupt.
To try a somewhat different tack -- here are two things questioners can do to avoid stirring up us critics:
1) Mention where you've already looked (Google, Usenet, whatever), what you've found and what additional information you want. Half the time, the karma whores who do a quick search haven't found a useful answer. Telling what you've already done boosts your credibility and makes it easier for readers to complement other sources.
2) Maybe this is just me and a few others but -- enough with the "What is the best ____ for geeks?" questions! If you're trying to purchase an identity, why not go to Abercrombie and Fitch and buy a good one?
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
I follow about 30 Usenet groups daily, and see some great help (with a client capable of doing some filtering, the signal to noise ratio is better than almost anywhere else on the net).
As a result, anytime I have a question, the first place I will hit is Google Groups.
With the right search terms and narrowing it down to the correct groups, the help can be fantastic. Chances are that if you are having a problem or question, someone else has had the same problem.
When I seach for Mac problem, for example, hitting comp.sys.mac.* with a search will give me quality results about 99 out of 100 times.
The other nice thing is that there are questions and answers for almost any subject you can imagine, from networking a four-in-one device to turning left on red.
[Yes, so maybe it is part of Google. But I am guessing that a lot of people submitting "Ask Slashdot" questions are not hitting that before they submit.]
- (c) 2018 Hank Zimmerman