Found this on another forum (mountain biking) and thought it was spot on. Laurie, how about a sticky
" Asking for advice:
1. Do a search. You don't know whether to buy a Fox 40 or a Boxxer WC? Chances are someone else has already faced the same conundrum and created 40 or 50 threads about it under a variety of usernames across a period of several years.
2. If your search finds nothing, search again, and this time type in relevant terms.
3. Should it occur that you can't actually find the answer you're looking for, start ONE new thread in the appropriate forum. Not five across random forums including Stolen and Off Topic.
4. In this thread, be as specific as you can. Don't ask "which is better" without defining what "better" means to you. Give as many details as you have available about what you want from the product/s and what you want to know about them.
5. Don't type like a dyslexic blind kid who's trying to punch his keyboard into submission. Real sentences and real words are much appreciated. Otherwise people will treat you like an idiot or give you vague, useless responses, probably because other idiots are attracted to illiteracy like moths to a flame.
6. Choose a title for your thread that makes it obvious what the thread is about. "Anyone help" doesn't tell me that you're looking at various options for chainring bolts, it tells me that you can't think more than half a second ahead and not to bother helping you.
Giving advice on the internet:
1. There is only one rule to this: NO MORE BULL****. If you haven't used a product first hand or if you don't have a real, valid reason to have an opinion on it (technical reasons, verified weights, prior experience with other products with similar characteristics, or you actually saw somebody break something first hand, in the flesh, for real, and know how/why it happened, etc) then just SHUT THE F**K UP. What "looks" better means absolutely nothing. Haven't used it? Don't post. Don't know the real weight? Don't post. Don't have any valid technical reason to back up speculation about it? Don't post. Can't type your own name without misspelling it? Don't post. Just a carpark test? Don't post. And if you do decide to post, don't just go "BUY A GLORY TEHY R TEH BEST", actually put give some reasons and justification for it. It's not rocket surgery, just THINK about what needs to be said. If what you were going to say doesn't need to be said, don't post!
And a quick call out to everyone else out there - do everyone a favour and call people out on useless, sh!t-talking posts where the poster clearly has no valid input but tries to pretend they do. You know the ones I mean. Give people the benefit of the doubt but next time your neighbour says someone should buy 40s because they look bigger than DJ3s, you have my permission to slap them. Either in person or via the internet. BUT - don't be a dick about it, point it out politely! I should have emphasised this more to begin with but oh well.
[}:)]
