A Brief Rant About Hotline Questions
I guess every 52er has a different reason for perusing/ spending time on the Hotline. (I am new to 52) and I 'do' the Hotline for 2 reasons. Primarily, I want to see if i can help someone. Secondarily, there are lots of things to learn from the many knowledgeable 52ers who are so generous with their time as to teach us valuable lessons and provide helpful information.
But i have a major problem that i need to rant about. It really disappoints me that a significant number of questions could be answered if the poster:
a) put their index finger to good use by simply clicking 'google'
b) learned to fill in the 'searchbox' at the top of every Hotline page (a Searchbox that has CATegories, no less, to make the search even easier.)
and
c) did a little homework before asking the question
As a perpetually curious person, incuding perpetually curious chef,I full well know what it's like to just not have time or energy to do homework before asking a question. In that case, I try to mea culpa (i.e. ask forgiveness)in my question intro.
Certainly you can say to me that we are free to answer or not answer Hotline questions- "It's a free country" and all that. Absolutely. Agreed. But it just disheartens me, makes me lose interest in trying to help, and lowers my general level of respect for more and more of the population of question posters.
End of rant. But how I wish there would be a permanent heading, under the FOOD52HOTLINE heading, that says this:
"Before posting your question, Have you tried using the Searchbox feature in the top righthand corner of this page?And don't forget Google !"
This is probably too harsh for most of you, but I would also add "We are a helpful group of chefs but you need to do some of your own homework as well!"
The kinds of irksome questions I'm referring to are like:
"What are dal?"
"What's a good recipe for rice pilaf?"
" At what temperature does water boil?"
" How many kinds of pizza toppings are there?"
"What can I use in place of buttermilk?"
Fortunately, there are tons of excellent valid questions on the Hotline, and it's wonderful to see the generous spirit and broad knowledge that our community has.
For that, I feel continually fortunate.
46 Comments
Of course you are entitled to your opinion. You are not entitled to be rude when expressing it. Perceived rudeness never excuses an impolite response, that's basic etiquette. Three other posters said exactly the same thing you did yet managed to do so in an inoffensive manner. Let me put it another way: Would you tell your mother to "get a life"?
That was rude and uncalled for. This entire thread, from rant to the various responses needed to be said. Minds have been changed, positions mellowed, good discussion. If you don't have anything polite to say, just be quiet and move on.
we did have a rather harsh string of posts some time ago that really left everyone with a bad aftertaste that none of us wants to go thru with again.
food discussions come up, there is a fabulous exchange of ideas & thoughts & opinions that gets shared that none of us want to dismiss in a brusque manner. Its part of this community.
No matter how good at cooking or baking or whatever you are, there is always going to be someone else out there who is better than you. Sometimes I'm going to ask questions that other users think are unnecessary or stupid, and sometimes they will, like you, not want to help. I'm sorry if that bothers you, or makes you lose respect for me, but so be it. Personally, I would hate to see this forum become somewhere where people are too embarrassed by their lack of experience to ask for help.
We also wanted expert cooks to have both a place to share their knowledge and to ask more sophisticated questions and receive answers by peers who were equally savvy cooks.
We love that Hotline has grown into a rich and varied daily conversation. We don't think of it as a forum (forums tend to become balkanized or inert, and we don't want this), we actually see it as a problem solving service and wonderful way of building community. When someone helps you out with a cooking problem, you connect with that person in a meaningful way.
We would like to note that, yes, there are some joke questions that come in, but that's bound to happen with a service that is so open. No need to answer them -- in fact, if you don't it's more helpful to us because when a question isn't answered in 15 minutes, the Food52 staff receives an email with the question and link, so we can see that it's a joke question or spam and can go in and delete it.
We have lots of plans for Hotline, many of which should solve some of the issues raised here. Repeat questions, for instance. We're working on a way to bring up previously asked questions (and similar questions) as you ask your new question. And we're planning to divide Hotline into topic areas so you can follow specific topics -- like bread baking, preserving, etc -- that interest you.
What we ask for here is for everyone to be generous with each other and patient with us. Thanks so much!
What do you think of the subheading ideas some of us have suggested, amanda? (similar in spirit and concept to the subheading info on the recipe submittal page)?
best,
mindy
Not much to add to what's already been intelligently discussed except perhaps this:
SKK, I think I understand where you're coming from but I enjoy the threads that are only peripherally related to food. Judging from the number of comments, others must find them interesting as well. Right now 4 out of 5 topics in the Popular Questions box are not directly food related.
It's ironic that you would make such a thoughtful and thought provoking contribution earlier in this thread and then declare you've had it with just this sort of question. I hope you'll reconsider.
People who don't know the basics can often be overwhelmed by the responses that come up using a blind google search. They don't know what to trust, or sometimes, what information they should be looking for. Here we can provide help and answers based on experience and intuition, and they can depend on answers being basically reliable (or at the very least 'in good faith' which is more than can be said for the internet at large.)
Forums that become overly tetchy when guests (or newly joined members) re-post previously answered questions have always bothered me. It puts obstacles between you and your answer in what should be a welcoming community. "You haven't done enough research to even ASK that question!" is not a helpful response to anyone.
I feel as though people who are interested enough to thoroughly research the background and multiple sources of an issue (like many of us who enjoy answering questions here) are not really the same people who come here looking for a quick answer. And those of us who are the curious-minded sort, who like to seek out and fully understand answers on our own, shouldn't disparage or belittle other people who just come here looking for help.
That's exactly what this sort of q&a is for, filling in other peoples weaknesses with your own strengths and vice-versa.
I also find that I am able to learn something reading the answers to even some of the simplest questions. 52ers manage to come up with detailed and informed answers which enlighten me to nuances of the issue at hand that I had never considered, and I feel more knowledgeable for it.
I really don't want to raise a white wall around this community. I'm willing to entertain the idea of that everyone who comes here is sincerely looking for help. And I'd like to offer it to them.
- frustration with people asking questions that have been answered before
- frustration with people asking what is perceived by some to be a "dumb" question
As for the first issue, it's a common problem that forums face. Most regular participants deal with it by copying the URL of a previous string of responses, thereby (subtly) training the person asking to do a bit of homework. Reminding people to search Google would take the user away from the Food52 site, which would be contrary to the site's objectives. Certainly there are technological advances that could be made to make search smarter, but all in good time.
It's important to be mindful that there are also variations specific to an individual's circumstance as well.
As for the second issue, I'd be disappointed if this forum intimidated more novice cooks from asking questions that were perceived by "elites" to be too simple. And, we can't all be experts on everything.
Encouraging everyone to deepen their understanding of cooking _no matter what their starting point_ will help everyone eat better, to @usuba dash's concern.
Voted the Best Reply!
When I first started on this site I was a little righteous about a question, as in I said to myself 'that person should know the answer to that'. Turns out that person was 9 years old and truly wanted to learn.
I have since stopped judging questions as well as answers. I have appreciated giving a wrong answer to a question about marmalade - really a dumb answer - and no one ranted at me just graciously put in the correction.
BTW, I TOTALLY appreciate everyone's help with my many questions; this group has made a HUGE difference to me! Dare I say, even going so far as to save lives by correcting a home canning mistake I made?? Generosity of spirit; kindness to ourselves and others -- that's what makes a great community!
That said there are repeat questions all the time, probably because people either didn't do a search at all or they did but the search "tags" didn't bring up a match.
There is also a bug I noticed, that any reply you send via the twitter feed shows up as a question on the hotline page here. Hence there has been a wave of some really weird sounding questions that are most probably answers to a question, only we have no clue which question that is.
I agree with your Google comment. An answer I always cringe at reading is "I Googled this for you". Personally I prefer to read answers from the responder's own expertise. It's that expertise that has made this a strong community. That expertise has helped me on more than one occasion, as for example my recent kimchi question which produced a useful discussion and clarified what I needed to know.