by AndiS » Wed May 28, 2014 4:28 pm
I know what you mean, Phil. But consider this: In a recent case, where I was pretty sure that my typing was a waste and I only kept going through the whole explanation to avoid telling the original asker that he was highly likely to fail anyway, suddenly another person, whom I had down as member of the intelligent, wrote "thanks for the detailed explanation; I gave up on that before but will give it another try now". And I am sure that there are many who think something along these lines. This is the great thing about public forums. There are many who read and benefit. And if you are clever enough, you don't need to ask. This is not to say that those asking are not clever. But there is a certain amount of missing bits an upbeat, exploring reader will fill in. And then they succeed by only reading, never asking and rarely ever posting, because many are not registered or too shy or just not part of the "me too" & "oh wow" culture. So, as long as the thread title makes sense to people looking for a similar solution later on, or your own answer contains the right catch words, people will find your help later on, asking Google or forum search without you noticing.