Grumpy Surfers

[simon_says]

Does this website attract the most bad-tempered users of any website on the internet? twice i have read answers saying 'use a search engine', or words to that effect, written in a bad-tempered way. calm down people!

[andy hughes]

A Site as popular as this, with as many regular Visitors, is bound to attract its fair share of grumblers, which is a shame really. Let's face it - not everyone in the world knows or understands what a search engine is, or how to use one, and similarly, one man's 'everyone knows that!' is another man's 'well I didn't!'. and that is the purpose of visitng this site in the first place. Personally, I would never take anyone to task for asking a frequently answered question - it's just the first time that that individual has asked it, that's all. If anyone is winding all of us up (the 'pounds in a stone / fake Vitton' brigade spring to mind) then that's an occupational hazzard, and the amusmement factor must obey the law of diminishing returns, so they should be answered politely, and then left alone.

[ravenhair]

What andy hughes says is very true, but it must be pointed out that he and mikewith are two of the most patient people ever to use this site (andy in particular takes time to compose amazingly helpful and detailed answers). The rest of use regulars get frustrated when we read the pounds in a stone/equiba/vuitton questions over and over again not because of the few seconds it takes to answer the question but just at the inherent stupidity of people who can't do the simplest things like look four questions down the list where it's already been answered. Oh, and the dreadful spelling and grammar sometimes appals me, but I'm too polite to say anything . . . Oh dear. I hope I haven't opened the floodgates to a whole torrent of abuse.

[Kit]

I post to another similar board, looking for lost poetry quotations. We have a similar problem. I direct them to the last time the question was asked - have to say though, our archives are more accessibly laid out than Answerbank's, and we have a month's worth of questions to view rather than 20. I find the questions here drop off the end quite quickly, especially in some of the more active sections, and have found that even if you search you don't always find an archived question if you don't use the exact word used in the title of the question. In answer to your particular question - no, the site does not attract the most grumpy surfers - I am lovely.

[coemgen]

If you want to find some really grumpy people, try forums like femail.co.uk

[jenstar]

Bad-tempered? Yeah? Wanna fight?