No answers

[Harsh Gupta]

Hi,

I have posted few questions for a long time now (in WPF, C#, VB.Net) but it seems that nobody is interested in answering my questions or help me.

Did I do something wrong in the past?

BTW, my rep. doesn't show "Harsh Gupta has a little shameless behavior in the past".

Trying to discuss a potential problem. This could, maybe, not good for new members who try to solve their problems and come online to find that people are not interested in helping them.

If a member feel that the question is incomplete, or irrelevant, or maybe inappropriate, such a hint would be helpful to seekers.

Thank you.

And sorry, if it seemed like a rant. I was trying to post a problem I sensed.

[brad jones]

It could be that nobody knows the answer. Alternatively, you might make sure your wording is clear.

If you continue to not get an answer on a C# question, then try posting on Codeguru.com -- our other site.

Brad!

[MartinLiss]

I looked at the last 20 threads you started and all but three of them got responses.

[Nightwalker83]

Getting replies to your questions will take time because as Brad say maybe people don't know the answer to your question or they can't understand what you are asking. That is unless we are mindless drones who can answer everything correctly and respond within 5 seconds of the question being asked.

[Harsh Gupta]

Thanks Brad and Marty.

@Marty, I know I haven't been very active for last 2-3 years and so, maybe, I don't have a reason to complain. But if you look, closely, most have been finally closed by me (my stupidity of posting such questions in the first place) or I, kind of gave up. I maybe wrong though. ( I am not counting CC.)

It is just for past few months I noticed this, or maybe felt like this. Or like Brad commented, nobody knows the answer or haven't worked on that.

Just my 2 cents.

[RobDog888]

Dont forget that weekends are low traffic on the Forums.

Oh and when you start to get less and less replies to your questions then you should realize that its probably your questions are getting harder and harder so less chances of someone knowing the answer right away. In a way, thats a good thing

[DeanMc]

Also on the subject of WPF for instance, some of the questions are beyond what most people know of it. Since it is a rather large topic it does make it much harder to answer. Even myself, who would know a fair amount on the subject has had to take time off to get projects that are behind done etc.

[HanneSThEGreaT]

You don't seem like a peron that would get negative ratings in any case
I can relate to how you feel. Sometimes though, phrasing a question is difficult. I had to post questions in the past, and I didn't even know how to begin asking! It happens

Hang in there, the right person will come along and help you, sometimes it just takes a bit longer, as most people helping here are volunteers, and you start to feel adjetated, it happens, but when the right answer eventually comes along, it was indeed well worth the wait

Good luck!

[chris128]

If you dont get an answer at all after a couple of days I see no harm in just bumping the topic to make sure a few more people see it. After all, it doesnt take long for threads to slip off the first page in the busy forums (e.g VB.NET).

I just had a look at your last question in the WPF forum though (which is not so busy) and well I would say the reason not many people have answered that one is because it is a very specific thing that not many of us will have had any experience in. I've never even heard of an OLAP cube!

[MartinLiss]

If you dont get an answer at all after a couple of days I see no harm in just bumping the topic to make sure a few more people see it. After all, it doesnt take long for threads to slip off the first page in the busy forums (e.g VB.NET)....

No, please don't do that. Can you imagine the mess we'd have if all the unanswered questions kept getting bumped to the top?

[chris128]

No I cant really because people would answer them. Even if the answer after a few days is "sorry but it looks like no one can help at the moment", that is still better than 0 replies surely?

Would you rather that people create duplicate topics just because their last one didnt get a reply? I think its a bit unfair to say you cant bump something after a few days if it hasnt had a reply because it could just be that for the few hours that your thread was on the first page no one that knew the answer happened to be online. I sometimes go back a few pages in the VB.NET forum and find Active Directory questions that no one has answered that I can help with.

[MartinLiss]

No, we also discourage people from creating duplicate threads and for pretty much the same reason as bumping. While the vast majority of questions get responses you just have to accept that some questions won't get answered.

[chris128]

sorry to argue but why? I cant see any reason at all why people bumping after a few days of not getting a response is a problem.
I'm not saying people should be encouraged to just bump after half an hour (although some people do actually do that...) but after a couple of days its just a chance for them to get some different people to see it. Those Active Directory questions I mentioned in my previous post - why should people have to accept that a question like that wont get answered when if they were to bump it after a few days then someone like myself that knows a bit about Active Directory might see it and answer it.

I'm not suggesting that you actually tell people to bump after a few days, I'm just saying that I don't think there is any good reason why it should be discouraged. But at the end of the day, you're the admin - I'm just giving you my opinion

[MartinLiss]

We do allow an occasional bump.

[MartinLiss]

sorry to argue but why? I cant see any reason at all why people bumping after a few days of not getting a response is a problem....)

See post #10.

[HanneSThEGreaT]

The whole problem with bumping, Chris, is that people tend to misuse it. You will use it with caution, but many members, will bump a thread after each 5 minutes. That causes a lot of jargon in the thread, it causes many members adding non sense posts informing the OP to not bump / argue with the OP, and in doing so, chances of finding decent actual help, deteriorates.

I know I'm not a mod or anything here, so Mods, Admin, feel free to whip me about my interference

[chris128]

I totally understand that and agree that bumping within less than 24 hours should not be allowed. What I am saying is that after a few days of not getting a response it shouldnt be considered a bad thing or that you are doing something wrong, if you want to just bump and ask if anyone has any ideas.

We do allow an occasional bump.

Well thats all I am talking about, so I guess I can shut up now

[brad jones]

Rather than simply bumping a thread - my stance has always been that if it didn't get answered, there was probably a reason. As such, if it hasn't been answered, then the poster should ask why it wasn't. My stance is that if a post isn't answered after a day on this forum (24+ hours), then the poster should try to add more information or try to clarify what they are asking. Add more information.

They are bumping the tread, but they are also giving it more chance for success. This also avoids the wrath of mods yelling about bumping

Brad!

[RobDog888]

Rather than simply bumping a thread - my stance has always been that if it didn't get answered, there was probably a reason. As such, if it hasn't been answered, then the poster should ask why it wasn't. My stance is that if a post isn't answered after a day on this forum (24+ hours), then the poster should try to add more information or try to clarify what they are asking. Add more information.

They are bumping the tread, but they are also giving it more chance for success. This also avoids the wrath of mods yelling about bumping

Brad!

This is what I do as per your advice a long time ago

I try to make it a great opportunity to re-phrase the question or post an update with more findings you have from additional debugging etc. That alone usually spurs the replies.

[DeanMc]

Bump



Just kidding. I see both sides, but I would lean more to brads, I tend to write out a post and not have it answered because its something many people have not worked with. For instance I have a post on named references which just died a death. Even jmcilhinney couldn't answer it.

Rather than bump it I went and found the info, know im writing a quick article on it so that future questions on this topic can be answered.

The other thing to realise is the harder the topic the less likely it is that your question will be answered so you should really be actively searching and not waiting for a forum post.

[chris128]

Even jmcilhinney couldn't answer it.

[RobDog888]

He doesnt reply/answer any of mine when I do ask which is very seldom for the past few years now. Hes slacking!

[Shaggy Hiker]

I feel that if you DO bump a thread, then you should stick around and track its progress. After all, anybody doing a bump and run...that's just annoying (unlike puns).

To get back to the OP, I would have to say that I rarely get a solid answer in the VB section. If you are new to the language, or new to programming, you tend to ask questions that dozens of people can answer. As you get more experienced, the questions you ask will tend to get more and more obscure, which means that fewer and fewer people have sound answers. Therefore, I would suggest that you are looking at this in the wrong way. The lack of replies is likely saying nothing negative about you, but could be considered to be a positive thing. It may simply show that you are pushing the envelope of knowledge.

Don't worry. Be happy.