Commentary on "Read the FAQ".

DP
Posted By
Daryl Pritchard
Sep 6, 2003
Views
403
Replies
12
Status
Closed
Hello all,

As much as I know that many people here, professional and non-professional Photoshop users, as well as Adobe personnel lend much free and helpful advice to fellow Photoshop users, I suggest that a short reply such as "Read the FAQ" is generally NOT a good answer. I feel I’ve seen that type of response enough that I would like to comment on it here.

Does simply referring someone to the FAQ list potentially steer them toward finding their answer? Yes…but only if the topic headings or content of the postings contains words that even the most inexperienced user is likely to get a "hit" on, when performing a search. I know I’ve performed enough searches that left me coming up empty-handed that I can empathize with others who have the same bad luck.

One of the most common topics that people are referred to the FAQs for is that of color problems that can usually be resolved by running Adobe Gamma. Using that example, let’s pretend that I have come to the forum as a new user who saw that their palettes were tinted purple on their screen. Efforts to search the FAQs using keywords or phrases such as "purple tint", "palette color", etc., turn up nothing that appears to address my problem. Trying to think of some better keywords, "wrong colors" leads me to someone whose printed images were off-color, with Adobe Gamma discussed in the solution. OK, while my problem isn’t exactly this, maybe the solution is similar…I’ll give that a try. Or, maybe I’m a little skittish with "trying" fixes on a PC so I ignore that post and keep on searching for one more reflective of my problem.

It is tiring and sometimes frustrating to keep hunting and hunting for a solution to a problem, particularly if there’s a good chance that a polite question to other users might speed me on my way. Sometimes questions aren’t posed in a manner that is respectful of the user community as they should be, and thus a more haughty response is sometimes seen. But, ignoring those and focusing upon the more respectfully presented questions, I think we can encourage folks to consult the FAQ list while also offering some degree of more useful help. Once a person has successfully found an answer to one or more problems among the FAQs, the more likely they are to first return there before posting what seems an all-too-familiar question to many of us.

The next time any of us feel like responding with "read the FAQ" or even the similar "RTFM" (read the fine / friggin’ / fabulous… manual), I encourage us to elaborate with at least a little extra help. Staying with my prior example, a response of "Yours is a common question and you should find the answers you need by reviewing the FAQ list after doing a search on Adobe Gamma". The answer is implied yet maybe it will also encourage the person posing the question to actually go to the FAQs and learn a little more about problems related to theirs.

Lending help to others can also be trying of one’s patience when we seem to hear the same questions over and over, or when we simply have other tasks pressing upon us that we need to accomplish. To that end, I certainly understand why a somewhat curt "half-answer" is sometimes offered, but I really think it does little in serving the needs of a user-to-user forum like this. Also, if a new user of Photoshop finds this forum helpful, then they may return such help later, as they become more proficient users themself.

I think this is a great forum and many thanks are extended to each person who shares their knowledge with us all here, even when said in a more abrupt manner than usual. Heck, we all have days when our patience is wearing down.

Thanks,

Daryl

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Y
YrbkMgr
Sep 6, 2003
Daryl,

I agree with your sentiments. I usually try to say something like "Reset your preferences per the procedure in the faq" or "See the faq and look for Dialog Box Missing?"

I see some folks who go ahead and actually provide the link – I do that too for some of them like "Computer locks up or reboots…".

I’m not sure how to get more complete, and usually judge by the tone of the question. If they say "hey! photoshop screwed up my computer, it keeps rebooting", I might just reply in kind with "See the FAQ". I dunno, it’s kind of a two way street. Know what I mean?
DP
Daryl Pritchard
Sep 6, 2003
Tony,

I agree with you fully and answers such as yours are the type that I encourage everyone to provide. Meanwhile, those who pose a question in a "blame Adobe" or "blame Photoshop" sense, with no effort given to provide useful insight into their problem or their own attempts to investigate it, well, I see no problem with a short, less useful reply. Yes, I know what you mean. ๐Ÿ™‚

Daryl
SS
Sy Sez
Sep 6, 2003
I agree to some extent, when all self-help options are exhausted; but it astounds me how many questions are posted that could be easily, and concisely resolved by referring to the programs HELP menu, the manual, or Quick Reference Card.

It seems some folks are just too lazy to utilize the resources that are readily available to them—- They want quick, solutions, with minimal effort on their part. I think it’s a better learning process when one at least attempts to figure things out for themselves.

When you explore the program, seeking a solution for one problem, you often learn about other functions that you never knew were there.

Having said that, I’ve also exhausted all available resources to a problem, and in frustration posted it, only to find the answer should have been obvious to me!

You can’t win "em" all.

Leigh
W
whozit
Sep 6, 2003
Maybe you are just making things harder than they should be. "Purple tint" means a color, not a monitor problem. Ditto for "palette color" and "wrong colors".

Try a search here on the Forums for "purple monitor" and see how many hits come up…

Part of the chant of "read the FAQ" or "RTFM" is in order for you to learn the core concepts of Photoshop, which are pretty straightforward, but seemingly foreign for many, if not most "newbies" and not-quite-so newbies.

Here is an EXCELLENT article regarding the reasoning behind the RTFM and Read the FAQ responses:

<http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html#asking>

PS> THANK YOU, ADOBE SYSTEMS FOR THE RETURN OF THE ‘EDIT’ FUNCTION ON THE FORUMS!!!!!
DP
Daryl Pritchard
Sep 6, 2003
True enough Leigh…the first place to look for help is indeed the good ol’ Help menu and documentation that came with PS. If you don’t have the documentation, then that’s another issue altogether usually. ๐Ÿ˜‰

And yes, we all stumble across a question that, no sooner do we ask it than the answer seems to be staring right at us nearly.

Ol’ Whozit, I’m not making things harder, as it wasn’t me with the question I used as an example. But, for many new users of Photoshop, they may readily find themselves short of knowing what might be the best keywords to search the FAQ for, in striving to help themselves out before coming to the forum with a question.

That "Smart Questions" reference is a good one, with many good points. Thanks for the link.

Indeed…it is great to have the Edit function back in the forum, not to mention the old style of the forum itself!

Regards,

Daryl
Y
YrbkMgr
Sep 6, 2003
I think one of the challenges is, at least for me, when embarking on a new area, it’s the terminology. How many times have we found ourselves not being able to find what we want in a manual because we weren’t using the "correct" term under which to look?

That’s why I like online help btw.

But I think that’s the point that Daryl is making – it’s difficult for a newb or even folks who dabble here and there to find what they’re looking for because there’s terminology that they don’t or wouldn’t use.

When you have a deadline, or are really really frustrated that you can’t seem to get something as stupid as a clear background, you come and post. You wouldn’t, initially (in most cases) think to call it a transparency.

So what I take home from Daryl’s message, is to try and remember that newbs are newbs – kinda <grin>.
DP
Daryl Pritchard
Sep 6, 2003
I’ve never been too good at keeping things concise. I’d say you boiled my post down nicely Tony. Thanks.
JW
John Woram
Sep 6, 2003
… many questions could be resolved by referring to the HELP menu,
the manual, or Quick Reference Card.

Right! But many questions can’t. Like the one a few days ago about this PS message: "launch failure while communicating with one of your installed cameras or scanners. Recommend re-install or update device twain drivers."

The user has to guess which device might be the problem, then guess what the name of the driver is, then guess what to do about it. That’s a lot of guessing for someone who’s not an expert. So, he posted a question here, and got this answer: "You DO have some kind of TWAIN or WIA device driver installed – and that driver is buggy. You need to find and remove that driver."

That’s right–you do have to do that. But anyone expert enough to find, remove and replace a nameless/unknown buggy driver wouldn’t be here looking for help in the first place.

’nuff said?
Y
YrbkMgr
Sep 6, 2003
True John, but some people also ask: How do I resize an image without cropping it?

Honestly, I don’t have much of a problem answering it, but let’s face it, press F1 then search for the word "resize".

Or this is my favorite one:

I started photohsop today and got some kind of error message that said something about a conflict. I can’t remember what the error message said, but now I can’t get into Photoshop.

I want to look over my glasses at that person and say:
"Do you know why they put those little messages up on your screen? SO THAT PEOPLE WILL READ THEM!.

My biggest pet peeve is not reading the message that apps display (like the ones in IE). My kids got a very fine lesson on that one. Hate that <shudder>.
P
Phosphor
Sep 6, 2003
I think pointing someone asking a frequenly asked question to the F.A.Q. section (linking to the actual thread is also helpful) is perfectly warranted…That’s why it’s there. When a new topic is placed in that section it is usually fairly well composed, and edited for clarity. If it answers a question, that’s great. If it raises new questions, that’s OK too, as long as the inquisitor has demonstrated that they have at least TRIED to follow the suggestion. It saves those of us who visit here a lot a considerable amount of timeย—time that can be used to help on questions that AREN’T asked frequently.

And when someone is just flat-out lazy, or expects to be spoon-fed every little answer, they DESERVE the RTFM reality check.
JW
John Woram
Sep 6, 2003
I can’t remember what the error message said, but now I can’t get into
Photoshop.

Finally, a problem I can solve. You see that round button on the front panel of the PC? Hold it down for a few seconds and the error message will go away<g>.
Y
YrbkMgr
Sep 6, 2003
LMAO! I like that answer!

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