When visiting forums or one of the ever-growing number of community sites (where we are invited to ‘Join the Community’, add friends, join sub-groups and so on) it is easy to join but often less easy to join in.
Sure, casual community sites like Facebook are generally easy to dive into. The cost of any error or community faux pas is small. However, if you are like me, you take a different attitude to professional websites.
On these sites it is easy to feel intimidated by the expertise already on the site, no matter how friendly the site appears there exists that nagging doubt that, should you enter the conversation, your input will be unwelcome or worse that you will look ignorant.
This is a problem for new users in particular. It is easy to be daunted by the users already on the site. They seem so smart, so confident. Who are you to offer your opinion, after all you have only been in the profession a couple of years and these guys are writing books, contributing to this site, and so on. Oh yes, it is easy to become daunted by the prospect of getting involved with an established community even when you have a wealth of real world experience. It feels like you’re walking into a group at a party without an invite.
It is also a problem for the sites themselves as they try to create an atmosphere where professionals can share and discuss ideas in an open way. Constant pleas for users to ‘get involved’ are unlikely to overcome new users’ uncertainties.
Offering your opinion can be difficult. Asking a question can be even more difficult.
Is this a stupid question? Am I going to look stupid, unprofessional, or incompetent if I ask this question? Will I be dismissed by the established community? It really does not take much effort to convince yourself that you really don’t need to ask the question.
The problem with this is that we only learn through experience and ASKING QUESTIONS. Even a ‘stupid’ or ‘obvious’ question can turn out to create a surprising number of responses – and more often than not different opinions and answers from various other participants on the forum or site.
Is there such a thing as a ‘stupid’ question? Generally I would say, no. There are no stupid questions. However. And it’s a big however. There are questions that it is stupid to ask.
In particular, it is stupid to ask a question when:
- You have not spent at least ten minutes with Google trying to find the answer.
There is nothing more irritating when looking though forums than to see a question that can be easily answered with a simple Google query. It’s lazy. Don’t do it if you want any sort of respect.
- You have not searched the forum for the answer.
Despite what Google would like us all to believe, they do not index everything. Sometimes, once you find the right forum, you can search the forum specifically and find that the answer to your question has already been worked over. If you find a thread that almost answers your question, link to it in your question and point out why it does not answer your question. This will help everyone to understand what you need – helps them, helps you. As a member of a forum it is tiresome and annoying to face the same question over and over again simply because people are too lazy to do a simple search.
- You cannot take the time to write a clear question.
Writing a clear, full, but concise question will always solicit better responses. If you think you are too much of a hurry to write a full question consider this; if your question is unclear or incomplete then people will simple respond with ‘we need more detail’, ‘what exactly are you asking?’, and so on. Waiting for these questions and providing the details needed to get an answer will take much longer than simply asking the question correctly the first time.
A good question on a forum is simple enough. Pose the question in the title of the post if at all possible. In the main body of the post, first write a very brief question (one or two sentences), then provide as much supporting information as possible (the more the better). Asking the question first means people can see immediately whether they are likely to be able to respond. If they think they can but only with more information they can read on. If they can and do not need more information then you still get our answer and everyone’s a winner.
All of this said, go out an ask questions. Get involved. Make mistakes and learn from them.
