What is the appropriate amount of time to wait before helping a new member?
Will there be a day where no more posts are allowed because all questions have been answered? Perhaps this should be a wiki instead of a forum? You could make an all encompassing sticky wiki to replace the entire forum.
I certainly did not tell anyone here that they had to wait for any period of time before helping a new member and I'll ignore the sarcasm coming from of the rest of your post.
If someone wants to help a new member, feel free to post up. I'll do the same thing from time to time depending on the question but after over 11,000 posts and answering the same questions over and over again from new members, I've grown weary of doing so. Granted, a lot of good information is already here that will answer most all of those questions but it can be difficult to sort through because of all the thread derailments and vague thread titles that are an inseparable part of this forum.
So if someone indicates they've looked around here and couldn't find the answer they're searching for, I understand that and help when I can. The new members who within a hour of their registration, first post something like "I just bought a Q50 and I want to know the best (insert mod here) to buy and where to get it." It's obvious to me (and to other veteran members) that the new member has spent zero time reading anything here and just wants someone to spoon-feed them what they're looking for. They don't tell us the year or trim level of their car, any options they have, any mods they've already done or even their location. All of which are necessary when answering questions. Why should I feel motivated to spend my valuable time digging up answers for someone who hasn't lifted a finger to do so themselves?
Judging from the number of members who still don't put their vehicle information in their signature field or their location under their avatar, it would seem to me that new members (and older members for that matter) either don't read the New Member sticky or do read it but don't appear to give a sh1t about complying with what is being asked of them. They aren't rules but rather guidelines so no one is going to get their pee-pee whacked if they don't do so. Still, answering questions is a lot easier if some modicum of information is provided by the new member. I remind new members from time to time about the sticky but I'm pretty much ignored anyway so perhaps you can see why it gets frustrating.
I'm with the Spud on this one. If you want me to invest my time in helping you, show me that you've at least tried to help yourself first. I spend too much time here as it is reading every single post, hunting for and banning spammers, moving threads to the proper sub-forums and keeping the peace in addition to helping others.
How does the old saying go? "God helps those who help themselves"? Here, it's "The forum helps those who help themselves".
www.infinitiq50.org
