when asking for advice

[jowwy]

From now on it seems when asking for advice on this once friendly cycle forum you have to give the following information, so that not to curtail the wrath of the upgrade police

Personal info
Name, age, dob, weight, height, pre-tax earnings, expenditure, surplus cash available

Bike info
Make, model, size, full specification of bike, including individual components weights

Once all this information has been formalised by the upgrade police, only then will they allow you sufficient advice on upgrades that have passed all their scientific algorythms of justification.

Or you can ignore all the b***s*** given to you by the scientific algorythm justifying google searchers and buy what you want

 

[Drago]

That's my first smile of that day right there!

 

[Wafer]

Don't forget quoting expected Strava time improvements resultant from said upgrade.

 

[Citius]

Or you can ignore all the b***s*** and buy what you want

Excellent - so the mods can shut down 90% of the discussion forums then. That will save them some admin time...

 

[Drago]

Can I also ask that prospective posters ignore the 40lb of excess blubber around their midriff and are all advised to spend 90 quid on 2 x Dura Ace bottle cage bolts for the segment time improvement?

 

[yello]

I tend not to offer advice because, in all honesty, I know jack sh*t! Fortunately, there are others here that do know their stuff and can be relied upon.

It's difficult, I appreciate, from the newbie position to tell the difference between good advice and blox. All I can suggest is to ignore anything that comes across as 'know it all' (because invariably the poster is just 'big upping' themselves by trying to make you look stupid). People that are sure in their knowledge through years of experience rarely have the need to prove themselves, to themselves or anyone else.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

I think you are exaggerating and a few of us know exactly what you are getting at. You are of course on about the wheel debate and the "usual planks" (your phrase), calling the OP's bluff.

When someone is genuinely asking for advice, the question is usually posed as looking for a solution to a problem rather than an opinion on, say, colour. Advice on the aesthetics is called opinion and that's a personal variable. I have not seen a single fight on that one. The problem arises when advice on aesthetics is justified by posing a bogus problem for which the solution must conform to the OP's prejudice, hidden preferences and distorted motives.

Without understanding the problem, it would be mildly unethical to give advice.
Without describing and outlining the problem, you cannot expect proper advice.

By disguising your desire for an opinion and opportunity to tyre-kick and banter as seeking advice, you are opening yourself to exposure, as happens here all the time.

If one then takes the "question" on face value and start to quantify the alluded-to benefits, the likes of you call foul. You could argue that we're just shooting fish in a barrel but most of us have better things to do and nicer debates to partake in than that. Why should we not be honest with our advice and base it on sound scientific principles?

Many questions are so poorly phrased and written with such poor grammar and punctuation, that one wonders whether to bother with attempting to understand the problem and even try and help in the first place.

Perhaps these people deserve the flippant answers they get from you, such as your meaningless Novatech suggestion in the very thread you are alluding to here.

 

[roadrash]

Many questions are so poorly phrased and written with such poor grammar and punctuation, that one wonders whether to bother with attempting to understand the problem and even try and help in the first place.

it may come as a shock to you but not all who post here have the same grasp of grammer and punctuation as you do.
surely anyone with advice to offer others shouldnt seek to withold it based on a spelling mistake or a poor understanding of punctuation, instead ask them to try to clarify what they mean , ie HELP them.

I have seen you reply to many questions with depth and knowledge but to refuse based on the above is just silly

 

[jowwy]

Mod Edit: post deleted.

But its ok for you to make comments on peoples, size and weight, laugh at jokes made by others about TT times and troll my name into posts, when i have niether made comment or remark ( as pointed out to you by other posters)

Obviously my post hit a nerve

 

[winjim]

There seems to be a trend towards starting threads with the express intention of launching personal attacks on others. We have the Cunobelin helmet thread, and now this, which although it mentions no names, is pretty clear who it's aimed at. I find it rather childish.

I tend to keep an eye on the various wheel threads, mainly because I recently built my first wheelset, with the aid of Roger Musson's book and some good advice from this very forum, and it's an area in which I'm looking to improve my knowledge and understanding. Personally I like to know the technical reasons behind any advice I'm given and how it may improve my riding or be a pointless waste of time, money and Planet Earth's finite resources. Just saying buy xyz with no rationale behind it is meaningless to me. Occasionally I interject to try and point this out, maybe somewhat sarcastically but usually with a serious point behind my posting.

If advice is needed for a specific technical query, then specific technical questions need to be asked and specific technical problems addressed.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

it may come as a shock to you but not all who post here have the same grasp of grammer and punctuation as you do.
surely anyone with advice to offer others shouldnt seek to withold it based on a spelling mistake or a poor understanding of punctuation, instead ask them to try to clarify what they mean , ie HELP them.

I have seen you reply to many questions with depth and knowledge but to refuse based on the above is just silly

I don't have a particularly good grasp of grammar and language and I'm communicating here in a second language so I am certainly not perfect and don't want to claim superiority there. I overlook most errors where I understand the context. However, that does not preclude me from trying to be clear.

On the internet we routinely tolerate typos, the odd spelling errors and the like. We know that some devices do automatic word completions that we don't pick up and that as long as the flow of conversation is not interrupted, errors are OK. It does not however, mean that we should suffer through long, badly constructed sentences without any punctuation or capitalization, the use of Texting abbreviations and weird colloquial terms. I look at some of the questions here and can't help thinking that this person wants to know something, but can't be bothered to show either dignity or respect by taking a little trouble over his/her use of language.

It is easy to spot a foreign-language user in an English forum. We have our Spanish and Portuguese chatters here and they have a particular style that identifies them as non-vernaculars (word just made up, I think). That's OK. But my hackles tingle when I see gr8 instead of great.

All of this doesn't preclude me from sometimes trying to help someone from embarrassment, such as when there is a glaring error in the subject heading. Wear instead of where, comes to mind in a recent, live discussion. Break and brake, peddle and pedal are regulars here. These are not typos but genuine misunderstandings and there's no harm in pointing them out when appropriate.

 

[Citius]

But its ok for you to make comments on peoples, size and weight, laugh at jokes made by others about TT times and troll my name into posts, when i have niether made comment or remark ( as pointed out to you by other posters)

Obviously my post hit a nerve

Obviously if you feel any of these posts contravene forum rules, you can report them. My question (which you have thus far avoided) still stands though.

 

[jowwy]

Obviously if you feel any of these posts contravene forum rules, you can report them. My question (which you have thus far avoided) still stands though.

As i will continue to, as i have no need to justify my forum activity to you or any other cc poster

 

[Citius]

As i will continue to, as i have no need to justify my forum activity to you or any other cc poster

So others have to justify their actions - but you don't have to justify yours. Correct?

 

[MisterStan]

That's my first smile of that day right there!

Mrs Drago obviously needs to up her game then.....