Lost in Translation??!!

[dave walsh]

This keeps coming up Edward [at least two recent threads-mine was "I've just bought a Record Player"] and there does seem to be more of it happening.
I suppose it's easy to be uncertain on a Forum that's new to you but it only seems like good manners to reply if people respond. It wouldn't happen face to face would it? t

Dave W

[AC/HL]

The "problem" is more prevalent with the vinyl brigade. To someone used to CDs and DVDs, all of which are quite modern and are so easy to use, a record player is either old technology, or misty eyed nostalgia. Plug and play doesn't work, they're likely to have stood idle for decades, and they bite. That bright idea suddenly looks not to be so bright any more. Then it needs a new cartridge, costing more than they paid for the player. Oh, and they don't understand a word of the advice either.

On the other hand, we do get quite a few who do persevere and make a good job of it, we all had to start somewhere.

[Radio Wrangler]

And the few who do persevere are the ones who make it all worthwhile...

David

[joebog1]

It is, AND they are ALL worthwhile!!! I was an absolute pest as a kid, and really did "hang about" outside the radio workshops of the Snowy Mountains Authority.
Most of those old fellas are since passed over, but even when yelling at me, always spent 5 minutes explaining what I had just removed from the garbage sack!! ( No skips back then).
Their lack of patience with me at age 10 was understandable, My lack of real knowledge hasnt changed, even after 7 years at Uni, and 35 years experience in the field.
Also what hasnt changed is the love of the knowledge that I do have, and the wish that somebody else can benefit from it. Im not fazed by those that come and go, Im not immune from sending "care packs" to those that take my fancy in their requests for help and inspiration. WE are ALL a dying breed, or at least can grip a screwdriver!!! That is a far cry from today with the answer "it needs a muvver bord!! " .
Are ya gonna cash your knowledge in at "passover" ?? (with respect to the yanks, as I dont really know what passover is) Without our knowledge and collections of dusty brown magazines the kids today would ALL march blindly on!!
The people that taught you, didnt just "tell you what they knew" a great many REALLY were teachers, people that took great pride in the fact that they could give something that could be universally used. Do not let this, our "wisdom", be diminished!!!

Sorry fellow brethren, The sermon is now passed ( Thanks be to God )

Joe

[AC/HL]

We do try to help everyone, witness the long threads that seem to meander before getting anywhere. The point in question was the disappearing posters who bite off more than they can chew.
I also started by scrounging from the local TV shop, once wheeling a console TV half a mile home, then going back for the missing valve. It did work, but I can't remember it's history after that, probably a pile of bits like many after it. I did keep at it, eventually getting City & Guilds and working for that shop for a while.

[Edward Huggins]

Many thanks for all these replies and comments to my original post. I found this all most re-assuring, especially to learn that others feel the same way. Edward

[Station X]

It's not just record player newbies who disappear without trace. Take a look at this thread relating to a simple electric bell:-

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=121012

The OP last logged in on 15 November 2015 so it's reasonable to assume he read all the replies. I wonder why he never posted again. Did he fix the fault but couldn't be bothered to report back and say thank you? Was he overwhelmed by information? Was he too embarrassed to admit he'd bought the wrong sort of bell? I guess we'll never know.

[peter_scott]

Originally Posted by joebog1

I think those that leave or don't say a thank you are good riddance. If some people here are upset by that, I think perhaps you are too sensitive. This is the internet after all!!.

This is very true but I am very sympathetic to those who are left wondering whether the person seeking advice was contemptuous of your reply or whether they never came back to read it having otherwise solved their problem.

On another forum (not radio related) I decided not to reply to one poster who frequently seeks advice but never acknowledges any replies I sent him. It bothered me every time I saw a new request from him and I knew I could easily provide the information he required so I thought I'll test him again and this time he did respond with thanks.

This cleared the air for me and tells me it's better to take Joe's approach and respond without expectation of any response.

Peter

[dave walsh]

A little bit of polite interrogation/explanation prior to getting in deep has worked well on some occasions and sometimes posters turn out to be quite y experienced but it isn't at all obvious. As Bill said [post 22], others want to be reassured that no effort will be involved and are sometimes NSA [never seen again]. I agree with encouraging young people. Whatever happened to that young chap Josh was that his names Overall, I would suggest it's the generosity of this Forum that is it's very identity!
Dave W

[glowinganode]

I believe Josh went off to University and is probably concentrating on the important things in life (cars, women and booze), and who could blame him.
Rob.

[Martin Bush]

As a relative newbie with little the technical experience I value the forum highly.

I guess I am still in 'pester mode'... I want to ask about everything, but I lack the time to put things into practice quite often. However I have 'fixed' a couple of things recently that I'd have put in a drawer and declared broken a year ago thanks to help on here. And All the other knowledge I get from here is filed away for when I get time or go to a radio workshop.

Having said all that, there's been some interesting threads I've been reading that have dried up with no follow up from the originator. I find that maddening!

[captainking]

Over the years of login onto various sites this is quite common I have followed several threads on other sites sometimes hoping for that vital last bit of information for conclusion and been left hanging... by a thread!... (pun intended)

Regards
Steve

[Martin Bush]

Sort of like the Hancock show about the last page...

(Martin Bush) I guess I am still in 'pester mode'...

And have the common courtesy to reply, pester away! I often post incorrect replies, they are soon demolished, no one minds and we all learn something.

[dseymo1]

I get the impression that some people ask the same question on as many (vaguely relevant) forums as they can find. Once they have a satisfactory (to them) reply from one place, I suspect they promptly forget about the others.

[Nymrod121]

“O, wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion.”
(Robert Burns)

[bikerhifinut]

In my short time on here I have had a lot of encouragement and really appreciate being able to bounce ideas and problems around.
I undoubtedly will have provided a few chuckles at times with schoolboy errors, but I was once told by an older and wiser man that "the man who never made a mistake has never been born yet". And if honesty is a failing rather than covering up my errors, then "Guilty as charged".
Like most here I also haunt one or 2 other fora (forums?) and I see similar behaviours there also.
I got a bit of flak a good while back (on another forum) by suggesting as politely as I could to a particular poster that he would do well to study a few basics and get hold of a text book or two. And by this I mean really basic stuff like basic electricity and Ohms law etc. I was lucky as it was part of the Physics "0" level syllabus in my day.
Mainly my blood runs cold with the idea that some posters seem incapable of understanding the dangers of playing with mains operated equipment and at voltages that potentially could be 5 times that of the standard mains off the secondaries of valve HT windings.

Andy.

[bikerhifinut]

I was searching for a word and then i remembered it.

Passion!

The stalwarts on this site and members of the BVWS exhibit it and I think it's wonderful.

So they dispense their wisdom and if one particle of it sticks then it's not been wasted.

A.

[bikerhifinut]

Originally Posted by dseymo1

I get the impression that some people ask the same question on as many (vaguely relevant) forums as they can find. Once they have a satisfactory (to them) reply from one place, I suspect they promptly forget about the others.

I noticed that too. Or is it that they don't believe the answers, especially when its not what they want to hear?

[Radio Wrangler]

I find that when I drop a clanger, it gets demolished in a nice, friendly way and I go onwards having gained knowledge not an enemy.

Martin, you may have lots of questions but they're interesting ones and you stick around afterwards. You'll find that people will put real effort into helping you and go that bit farther.

Another point is that formulating something clearly enough to be able to help someone is a good way of getting it clearer in your own mind.

I occasionally do a stand-up technical question and answer thing for radio clubs (The G-QRP Rochdale and Rishworth events for example) and you have to keep on the ball in a wide variety of subjects to be able to do that. But on the other hand you really learn what people are interested in and what is vexing them.

It's very satisfying when you've led someone to the point where they suddenly realise that it's a lot more simple than the thought it was.

David