Ricesnaps
07-11-2006, 12:15 PM
The last few weeks and of course todays posts have got me thinking.
Can I make a bold, but qualified suggestion....
I have a feeling that when we request advice from people on the forum, it would help make that advice much better and simpler if we all considered what we were asking a little better and filled in some of the gaps and background. I for one have been both on the recieving end and the giver of frustration. Hopefully that qualifies me to offer this suggestion.
1. How many times do we see posts where the first few replies are "so how much have you got to spend" or "what size is you amp" or even "what other lights have you got". When posting questions, it might be helpful to outline what you want to spend or offer up some supporting information to help get the right answers
2. Pie in the sky or a buy it now? I for one have a habbit of thinking out loud, but with little intention of doing anything about the advice there and then. It might help to include something along these lines when posting for advice. Is this something you want to buy or do right now, or is this something that is just in the back of your mind and you are thinking about? Can I sight Crazy's post on the Mackie thread where he clearly suggests that he might be thinking of buying some in a year or so. So we all know this is just an early stage thought process.
3. What do I want to achieve? This is my best area to comment on. The only person who actually knows what they want to achieve or why they are asking about things is the person who asks the question. so maybe it would help to offer us some background. I remember posting a question some months ago about replacing my Leo's and Scimitars. Maybe what i should have said that I didn't actually have much spare cash at that point, that the replacement would in part be based on funds from the sale of these effects and that if I was to replace straight away, then there wouldn't be much more than £100 or so to add on to the money from the sale. In fact if I had been completely honest, what i really wanted to do was replace these with four moving heads, but I knew full well I really couldn't afford to buy them until maybe the end of the year. If you'd all known thatm then maybe the advice would have been different. You may have said, forget changing them until you can afford to buy something much better as they are about the best in the price range, or maybe you would have told me to forget moving heads completely and stick with scans and barrels. What I actually managed to work out on my own was that these were OK for now and I should save up for a significant upgrade. There are always things we all have in our minds which will influence our decisions - I have been getting very frustrated trying to understand why Jay for example decided to buy the dynatwins and not a cheaper selection of effects - but maybe there is something in the back of his mind that none of us realise? I hate light boxes and would certainly push anyone who asks away from them, but maybe the person asking thinks they are the absolute dags dangly bits. if that's the case, don't ask for opinion, just tell us why you want to go down that route.
4. What do you already know. There are many times where I particularly get frustrated that people don't seem to know very basic things. The problem is, many posters actually don't tell us they don't know. If you have a very very limitted knowledge of something, maybe tell people in your post so the advice can be given and frustration avoided. Or maybe you have a little knowledge and for some reason believe you are right, but tell us and maybe we can take that into account. There was a thread about volume settings on amps not so long ago and I remember Jamie suggesting I should wack the volumes on my amp up full and control from the amp (I always only go to 50%). Well Jamie, I did listen and I did try it briefly at the begining of the night on Saturday, but chickened out and turned it down. Why? Well I don't know enough about what potential damange I could do to my speakers and with the amp on full, I had very little movement on my mixer to get huge volumes....
Maybe the above can act as a starting point. Hope it makes sense, but I would certainly like to encourage people asking for suggestions and advice to consider being a little more in depth when they ask questions....
Can I make a bold, but qualified suggestion....
I have a feeling that when we request advice from people on the forum, it would help make that advice much better and simpler if we all considered what we were asking a little better and filled in some of the gaps and background. I for one have been both on the recieving end and the giver of frustration. Hopefully that qualifies me to offer this suggestion.
1. How many times do we see posts where the first few replies are "so how much have you got to spend" or "what size is you amp" or even "what other lights have you got". When posting questions, it might be helpful to outline what you want to spend or offer up some supporting information to help get the right answers
2. Pie in the sky or a buy it now? I for one have a habbit of thinking out loud, but with little intention of doing anything about the advice there and then. It might help to include something along these lines when posting for advice. Is this something you want to buy or do right now, or is this something that is just in the back of your mind and you are thinking about? Can I sight Crazy's post on the Mackie thread where he clearly suggests that he might be thinking of buying some in a year or so. So we all know this is just an early stage thought process.
3. What do I want to achieve? This is my best area to comment on. The only person who actually knows what they want to achieve or why they are asking about things is the person who asks the question. so maybe it would help to offer us some background. I remember posting a question some months ago about replacing my Leo's and Scimitars. Maybe what i should have said that I didn't actually have much spare cash at that point, that the replacement would in part be based on funds from the sale of these effects and that if I was to replace straight away, then there wouldn't be much more than £100 or so to add on to the money from the sale. In fact if I had been completely honest, what i really wanted to do was replace these with four moving heads, but I knew full well I really couldn't afford to buy them until maybe the end of the year. If you'd all known thatm then maybe the advice would have been different. You may have said, forget changing them until you can afford to buy something much better as they are about the best in the price range, or maybe you would have told me to forget moving heads completely and stick with scans and barrels. What I actually managed to work out on my own was that these were OK for now and I should save up for a significant upgrade. There are always things we all have in our minds which will influence our decisions - I have been getting very frustrated trying to understand why Jay for example decided to buy the dynatwins and not a cheaper selection of effects - but maybe there is something in the back of his mind that none of us realise? I hate light boxes and would certainly push anyone who asks away from them, but maybe the person asking thinks they are the absolute dags dangly bits. if that's the case, don't ask for opinion, just tell us why you want to go down that route.
4. What do you already know. There are many times where I particularly get frustrated that people don't seem to know very basic things. The problem is, many posters actually don't tell us they don't know. If you have a very very limitted knowledge of something, maybe tell people in your post so the advice can be given and frustration avoided. Or maybe you have a little knowledge and for some reason believe you are right, but tell us and maybe we can take that into account. There was a thread about volume settings on amps not so long ago and I remember Jamie suggesting I should wack the volumes on my amp up full and control from the amp (I always only go to 50%). Well Jamie, I did listen and I did try it briefly at the begining of the night on Saturday, but chickened out and turned it down. Why? Well I don't know enough about what potential damange I could do to my speakers and with the amp on full, I had very little movement on my mixer to get huge volumes....
Maybe the above can act as a starting point. Hope it makes sense, but I would certainly like to encourage people asking for suggestions and advice to consider being a little more in depth when they ask questions....