"Jimi" wrote in message
...

"srazor" wrote in message
...
It seems that in 90% of all posts on this newsgroup. someone tells the
poster

to contact the pros. Well, I fully agree.


0 for 14 today. All advice given was on how to address the issue.

That is because, in my opinion, people are too quick to jump all over a
guy and flame him if he says anything out of the norm. "Call a
professional"...is like "DUH". There is a freaking professional for every
topic on the NG. Most of the reason why this stuff is asked on a News
Group is so they can bypass the professional and save a few bucks. Using
the phrase "Call a professional" is like saying "okay, I've said my piece
here so am covering my ass so .......Call a professional"
Hell if I wanted to remove my own apendix and got on here and
asked "I need to remove my own apendix" ....I would much rather have
someone say 'Here's the url on that...good luck and use a sharp
knife"...ha ha...Not "call a professional"....of course I would be
"Off-topic" and would have to go to the Alt.rec.apendixremoval
News group.
That one is right up there with '"check your owners manual".
That's another good CYA phrase.
I would hope the person has exhausted some of these obvios
questions before asking on a NG? Just me venting here on a Saturday
morning..Merry Christmas...Jimi...

....I was still steaming so had to add.............


I gotta add to this rant please.... another few good ones is a guy has an
electrical question and he gets a reply "Check with your local electrical
supplier" Well DUH! If you don't know the answer, why reply with that at all
and waste bandwidth ? Do you not think that the guy typing his post has not
thought of that?
Another is phone problems with a reply saying "Well contact your phone
comapny"
Or a guy wanting help with a cut on a piece of plywood and he gets "Go to
your local lumber yard and ask them"...what a waste of bandwidth! Does a
person posting such a reply actually get a sense of accomplishment by
replying with such an obvious answer?.... okay...feel free to rant
back...flame away...just my thoughts here....JIMI

but sometimes unlucky posters get no responses at all with incomplete
questions. we all will sometimes forget to include the minimum
information with which an expert might form a brief response.
who-what-where-when-why-and how may all be needed for a brief response.

example: first-time furnace mechanics sometimes get lucky enough when
reminded to find a free download of a setup or installation manual that
may even show how to adjust the pilot light to properly engulf the old
flame sensor; and the manual also has opening pages of basic safety
stuff to read, like turn off the electricity and gas to the furnace
before working on the gas. local pros and suppliers also know what
depth of water pipes to avoid freezing, and local mandates for wire to
bury to your garage for electricity, and how the last owner may have
modified your home. and as much advice is available worldwide still
won't tell us whether putting a bathroom in a local basement in your
zipcode is permitted at all since construction varies widely; with
climate and drainage and water tables there may be no answer except
from a local pro. there are some powerful helpful links in many answers
that will bring a faster answer to the next person who reads the
posting. and always search google groups with some keywords for
previously answered questions.


Jimi wrote:
"Jimi" wrote in message
...

"srazor" wrote in message
...
It seems that in 90% of all posts on this newsgroup. someone tells the
poster

to contact the pros. Well, I fully agree.


0 for 14 today. All advice given was on how to address the issue.

That is because, in my opinion, people are too quick to jump all over a
guy and flame him if he says anything out of the norm. "Call a
professional"...is like "DUH". There is a freaking professional for every
topic on the NG. Most of the reason why this stuff is asked on a News
Group is so they can bypass the professional and save a few bucks. Using
the phrase "Call a professional" is like saying "okay, I've said my piece
here so am covering my ass so .......Call a professional"
Hell if I wanted to remove my own apendix and got on here and
asked "I need to remove my own apendix" ....I would much rather have
someone say 'Here's the url on that...good luck and use a sharp
knife"...ha ha...Not "call a professional"....of course I would be
"Off-topic" and would have to go to the Alt.rec.apendixremoval
News group.
That one is right up there with '"check your owners manual".
That's another good CYA phrase.
I would hope the person has exhausted some of these obvios
questions before asking on a NG? Just me venting here on a Saturday
morning..Merry Christmas...Jimi...

...I was still steaming so had to add.............


I gotta add to this rant please.... another few good ones is a guy has an
electrical question and he gets a reply "Check with your local electrical
supplier" Well DUH! If you don't know the answer, why reply with that at all
and waste bandwidth ? Do you not think that the guy typing his post has not
thought of that?
Another is phone problems with a reply saying "Well contact your phone
comapny"
Or a guy wanting help with a cut on a piece of plywood and he gets "Go to
your local lumber yard and ask them"...what a waste of bandwidth! Does a
person posting such a reply actually get a sense of accomplishment by
replying with such an obvious answer?.... okay...feel free to rant
back...flame away...just my thoughts here....JIMI

for beginners, see also:
http://groups.google.com/support/bin...2348&topic=250

Jimi wrote:
"Jimi" wrote in message
...

"srazor" wrote in message
...
It seems that in 90% of all posts on this newsgroup. someone tells the
poster

to contact the pros. Well, I fully agree.


0 for 14 today. All advice given was on how to address the issue.

That is because, in my opinion, people are too quick to jump all over a
guy and flame him if he says anything out of the norm. "Call a
professional"...is like "DUH". There is a freaking professional for every
topic on the NG. Most of the reason why this stuff is asked on a News
Group is so they can bypass the professional and save a few bucks. Using
the phrase "Call a professional" is like saying "okay, I've said my piece
here so am covering my ass so .......Call a professional"
Hell if I wanted to remove my own apendix and got on here and
asked "I need to remove my own apendix" ....I would much rather have
someone say 'Here's the url on that...good luck and use a sharp
knife"...ha ha...Not "call a professional"....of course I would be
"Off-topic" and would have to go to the Alt.rec.apendixremoval
News group.
That one is right up there with '"check your owners manual".
That's another good CYA phrase.
I would hope the person has exhausted some of these obvios
questions before asking on a NG? Just me venting here on a Saturday
morning..Merry Christmas...Jimi...

...I was still steaming so had to add.............


I gotta add to this rant please.... another few good ones is a guy has an
electrical question and he gets a reply "Check with your local electrical
supplier" Well DUH! If you don't know the answer, why reply with that at all
and waste bandwidth ? Do you not think that the guy typing his post has not
thought of that?
Another is phone problems with a reply saying "Well contact your phone
comapny"
Or a guy wanting help with a cut on a piece of plywood and he gets "Go to
your local lumber yard and ask them"...what a waste of bandwidth! Does a
person posting such a reply actually get a sense of accomplishment by
replying with such an obvious answer?.... okay...feel free to rant
back...flame away...just my thoughts here....JIMI

On Sun, 17 Dec 2006 00:06:48 -0600, "Jimi"
wrote:

"Jimi" wrote in message
...

"srazor" wrote in message
...
It seems that in 90% of all posts on this newsgroup. someone tells the
poster

to contact the pros. Well, I fully agree.


0 for 14 today. All advice given was on how to address the issue.

That is because, in my opinion, people are too quick to jump all over a
guy and flame him if he says anything out of the norm. "Call a
professional"...is like "DUH". There is a freaking professional for every
topic on the NG. Most of the reason why this stuff is asked on a News
Group is so they can bypass the professional and save a few bucks. Using
the phrase "Call a professional" is like saying "okay, I've said my piece
here so am covering my ass so .......Call a professional"
Hell if I wanted to remove my own apendix and got on here and
asked "I need to remove my own apendix" ....I would much rather have
someone say 'Here's the url on that...good luck and use a sharp
knife"...ha ha...Not "call a professional"....of course I would be
"Off-topic" and would have to go to the Alt.rec.apendixremoval
News group.
That one is right up there with '"check your owners manual".
That's another good CYA phrase.
I would hope the person has exhausted some of these obvios
questions before asking on a NG? Just me venting here on a Saturday
morning..Merry Christmas...Jimi...

...I was still steaming so had to add.............


I gotta add to this rant please.... another few good ones is a guy has an
electrical question and he gets a reply "Check with your local electrical
supplier" Well DUH! If you don't know the answer, why reply with that at all
and waste bandwidth ? Do you not think that the guy typing his post has not
thought of that?
Another is phone problems with a reply saying "Well contact your phone
comapny"
Or a guy wanting help with a cut on a piece of plywood and he gets "Go to
your local lumber yard and ask them"...what a waste of bandwidth! Does a
person posting such a reply actually get a sense of accomplishment by
replying with such an obvious answer?.... okay...feel free to rant
back...flame away...just my thoughts here....JIMI


That's what always irks me too. Anyone with any common sense knows
that when the phone is out, you CAN call the phone company, the power
is out you CAN call an electrician or electric company, door is broke
you CAN call a carpenter, the toilet dont flush so you CAN call a
plumber, etc. So why do these people waste bandwidth to post these
useless comments? Yes, there are occasionally situations where
someone is messing with electricity and what they are saying, it's
obvious that they are doing something dangerous, and even I will tell
them they should contact an electrician or anyone else that knows
about wiring. But that's just an occasional thing.

Then we have the opposite scenerio. We have these people that want
prices for repairing their ___(whatever)___. This also irks me,
because how are we supposed to know the price. Even a simple faucet
washer replacement can cost $10 in some rural town, $100 in Chicago,
and $250 in Los Angeles. This is the type of thing where people
SHOULD be calling the pros. Not necessarily to do the work, but to
get their estimate prices. There is no way anyone on these newsgroups
can provide an answer to these questions. The person asking could
even be outside the US, and thats a whole different monetary system.
When I see these questions, I just delete them.

The purpose of this newsgroup, or an auto-repair group, or other
similar group is to ask for the DO IT YOURSELFER to ask opinions and
hopefully get some usable answers. I have gotten many useful answers
on here, as well as replying to others based on what I know about the
subject. Sometimes these answers are wrong, but for the most part, I
think most are useful, if not excellent.

The other day I posted "Pouring cement on an angle". I got some very
useful information and I thank those that helped. If someone would
have told me to get a professional concrete company I would not have
been happy about it, and more than likely killfiled them. Making a
concrete sidewalk is not necessarily dangerous, but I'm surprised some
smart-ass didnt tell me to hire a pro.

I can think of a few instances where I asked advice and when I
finished getting that advice, I realized that this particular job was
something I should take to the pros. In my case this is usually an
automotive repair issue. I am handy with tools, but there are
somethings that are just not practical for me to do, such as
bebuilding an automatic transmission. But at the same time, I will
ask something like "my transmission wont go into Park" This might
just be a simple linkage adjustment and I saved $100 doing it myself.

Jimi wrote:

I gotta add to this rant please.... another few good ones is a guy
has an electrical question and he gets a reply "Check with your local
electrical supplier" Well DUH! If you don't know the answer, why
reply with that at all and waste bandwidth ? Do you not think that
the guy typing his post has not thought of that?
Another is phone problems with a reply saying "Well contact your phone
comapny"
Or a guy wanting help with a cut on a piece of plywood and he gets
"Go to your local lumber yard and ask them"...what a waste of
bandwidth! Does a person posting such a reply actually get a sense of
accomplishment by replying with such an obvious answer?....
okay...feel free to rant back...flame away...just my thoughts
here....JIMI

In future, please abbreviate the word "bandwidth" as "bndwdth" thereby
saving precious bndwdth.

Thnks

Jimi wrote:
"Jimi" wrote in message
....
I gotta add to this rant please.... another few good ones is a guy has an
electrical question and he gets a reply "Check with your local electrical
supplier" Well DUH! If you don't know the answer, why reply with that at all
and waste bandwidth ? Do you not think that the guy typing his post has not
thought of that?
....

Well, actually, I _DO_ think that (the poster -hasn't- thought of it,
that is) in quite a significant number of cases. It is quite common
that the poster will talk of all the work he's gone to to try to find
something (and often obviously doesn't know precisely what it is he
needs), but it's at the local orange or blue borg, NOT the electrical
supply. I'd venture that quite a number of these posters couldn't tell
you the name of any distributor for any trade, so recommending they go
find one for a particular problem often is the best advice that can be
given.

imo, ymmv, $0.02, etc., etc., ...

wrote:
On Sun, 17 Dec 2006 00:06:48 -0600, "Jimi"
wrote:

"Jimi" wrote in message
...

"srazor" wrote in message
...
It seems that in 90% of all posts on this newsgroup. someone tells the
poster

to contact the pros. Well, I fully agree.


0 for 14 today. All advice given was on how to address the issue.

That is because, in my opinion, people are too quick to jump all over a
guy and flame him if he says anything out of the norm. "Call a
professional"...is like "DUH". There is a freaking professional for every
topic on the NG. Most of the reason why this stuff is asked on a News
Group is so they can bypass the professional and save a few bucks. Using
the phrase "Call a professional" is like saying "okay, I've said my piece
here so am covering my ass so .......Call a professional"
Hell if I wanted to remove my own apendix and got on here and
asked "I need to remove my own apendix" ....I would much rather have
someone say 'Here's the url on that...good luck and use a sharp
knife"...ha ha...Not "call a professional"....of course I would be
"Off-topic" and would have to go to the Alt.rec.apendixremoval
News group.
That one is right up there with '"check your owners manual".
That's another good CYA phrase.
I would hope the person has exhausted some of these obvios
questions before asking on a NG? Just me venting here on a Saturday
morning..Merry Christmas...Jimi...

...I was still steaming so had to add.............


I gotta add to this rant please.... another few good ones is a guy has an
electrical question and he gets a reply "Check with your local electrical
supplier" Well DUH! If you don't know the answer, why reply with that at all
and waste bandwidth ? Do you not think that the guy typing his post has not
thought of that?
Another is phone problems with a reply saying "Well contact your phone
comapny"
Or a guy wanting help with a cut on a piece of plywood and he gets "Go to
your local lumber yard and ask them"...what a waste of bandwidth! Does a
person posting such a reply actually get a sense of accomplishment by
replying with such an obvious answer?.... okay...feel free to rant
back...flame away...just my thoughts here....JIMI


That's what always irks me too. Anyone with any common sense knows
that when the phone is out, you CAN call the phone company, the power
is out you CAN call an electrician or electric company, door is broke
you CAN call a carpenter, the toilet dont flush so you CAN call a
plumber, etc. So why do these people waste bandwidth to post these
useless comments? Yes, there are occasionally situations where
someone is messing with electricity and what they are saying, it's
obvious that they are doing something dangerous, and even I will tell
them they should contact an electrician or anyone else that knows
about wiring. But that's just an occasional thing.

Then we have the opposite scenerio. We have these people that want
prices for repairing their ___(whatever)___. This also irks me,
because how are we supposed to know the price. Even a simple faucet
washer replacement can cost $10 in some rural town, $100 in Chicago,
and $250 in Los Angeles. This is the type of thing where people
SHOULD be calling the pros. Not necessarily to do the work, but to
get their estimate prices. There is no way anyone on these newsgroups
can provide an answer to these questions. The person asking could
even be outside the US, and thats a whole different monetary system.
When I see these questions, I just delete them.

The purpose of this newsgroup, or an auto-repair group, or other
similar group is to ask for the DO IT YOURSELFER to ask opinions and
hopefully get some usable answers. I have gotten many useful answers
on here, as well as replying to others based on what I know about the
subject. Sometimes these answers are wrong, but for the most part, I
think most are useful, if not excellent.

The other day I posted "Pouring cement on an angle". I got some very
useful information and I thank those that helped. If someone would
have told me to get a professional concrete company I would not have
been happy about it, and more than likely killfiled them. Making a
concrete sidewalk is not necessarily dangerous, but I'm surprised some
smart-ass didnt tell me to hire a pro.

I can think of a few instances where I asked advice and when I
finished getting that advice, I realized that this particular job was
something I should take to the pros. In my case this is usually an
automotive repair issue. I am handy with tools, but there are
somethings that are just not practical for me to do, such as
bebuilding an automatic transmission. But at the same time, I will
ask something like "my transmission wont go into Park" This might
just be a simple linkage adjustment and I saved $100 doing it myself.

The ones that bother me are the technical questions such as:

"How deep should I bury my pipes to keep them from freezing?"
"Can I use 14 gauge wire to ..."

How should we know? We don't know where you live, we don't know what
the frost depth is. The answer lies right down in the local building
inspector department (not the plumber or electrician). The only
correct answer to such question is "go to the source of _official_
information". Local codes and vary.

Harry K