I wish there was an easy way to filter these repeated post out and delete them...

Sungrove, people have complained about this sort of thing before. Did you search before posting this thread?

/looks around.

What!?

/gets coat.

...

Being serious though, although I am not particularly active on these forums, I am elsewhere (on a different topic) and I completely understand why the "active helpers" here feel the way they do. When you answer a question for the twentieth time, or as I sometimes do - cut and paste your response from the previous thread - it is hard to maintain the cheerful and sunny disposition, especially when you get the occasional rude poster who seems to think that it is your fault that they cannot do what they want to do.

I know that ideally we should maintain a frequently updated FAQ, indexed and searchable on the most commonly searched keywords, but that's an awful lot of work for people who actually are just like you and me, have day jobs, lives, social lives and want to get on with enjoying them.

Unexpectedly, this actually turns out to be an excellent and useful thread :-)

I would like to add something that hasn't been reminded to newcomers yet : encouraging members to a) search before posting and b) use descriptive titles when they create new threads, are in a way the same thing.

When you need to find something buried in two year's worth of accumulated posts, it's sometimes difficult to find the right keywords. Even then, if those keywords are not very specific, there can be a lot of "noise" mixed up with the useful hits.

One of the best ways around this is to use advanced search and first search in topic titles only : if your keyword(s) appear in the topic title itself there's a much better chance the contents will be useful to you.

Of course, that only works if the topic creator went to the trouble of composing a meaningful title for it. Otherwise, the info you need may be hidden inside a "help me!" or a "Strange problem!" topic, and you will have a harder time finding it...

This IS the answer. Somebody need to pick up the job. Some of us that willing to donnate the time and effort. Before that, just like any public forum, the 'ruder's can continue to be rude, and although offering help that may NOT even be appreciated, and the newbie continue to post the way they are, and put the 'ruder's in ignore file . The forum is like a phone, you can either ignore it and let it ring off the hook or picking a fight. Finally, I do not know the purpose of helping others in a forum. Your only reward is,
1) I am a good boy scout, I help somebody.
2) Somebody appreciates my help and get less trouble.
3) Spread knowledge

ALL three purposes defeated by being rude. Think about it, please. I have seen many repeated questions, I answer them or ignore them depends on my time schedule. Telling people posting here to use the search function does NOT help. You really think an average joe walking on street will know how to post in a forum and registered and find this particular forum? Whoever post in this forum are pretty seasoned computer users. It just drives newbies away and INCREASE bandwidth. OP put in a 20 lines discussions on thread #9, I agree totally, things can be learned easier if explained from a different angles, several times sometimes. FAQ should solve the problems. Where are you?

bun

I'm, pretty new to ITT, and have found it a valuable resource for learning more about my N800, the OS, accessories, etc. The learning process can get frustrating at times due to the large number of same topic threads, non-descriptive titles, off-topic replies, etc. Having said that, I have found the answers to most of my questions via the excellent responses and how-to's of the Members of this forum. Thank you.

Self control is pretty hard to excercise in forums such as these - it's just too easy to type a new thread without bothering to research first. The old saying "Listen twice as much as you talk" comes to mind.

I know that the topic of moderators came up a while back. Is this something that should be revisited?

It is surprising how often someone says "you can easily answer your question by searching," and then it turns out that the question the user actually has has anomalous characteristics that mean it is NOT covered.

Also, from my examination of thousands of threads, I would say that many, many of them don't end up in a clearcut, unconfusing fashion that would be understood by a newbie. There are all kinds of extraneous details that a search will bring up, all of which will confuse many users more than enlighten them (I'm going partly by my eight years as an electronic support manager for a major corporation, now defunct.)

On the subject of titles, I agree with those who protest. It's like someone who drives up at 5 a.m. in your neighborhood and honks their horn fiercely, because they want to get the attention of the person they are picking up. The problem is, they also get the attention of everyone else in the neighborhood, many of whom would like to sleep.

A vague title is almost as rude, because it beckons everyone to "please help!!!!", even the people who don't know anything about the problem the poster goes on to describe.

By the way: where is the internet tablet FAQ? Why aren't we referring those duplicating questioners to the FAQ, like people do on most similar forums? Instead of saying "you idiot, try to learn search," you could say "see item 5 on the FAQ".

I have said this before and gotten shot down... But I think we should use the wiki more, have a nice collection of directions to get stuff done, or a list of working GPS units. I just think that would be an easier place for people to find beginner stuff and it could be a little more organized than a forum.

Yes, everyone agrees that is the right solution. Now all we need is volunteers to write those FAQs in the Wiki :-)

As a newb here:

Please don't tell us to just search. Actually taking the time to tell people to search instead of providing real help does read like FOAD.

Just say nothing, give us some search terms that you know work, or provide a link to an old thread that answers the question.

Or better yet (pretty please): answer the question just one more time, but put that answer in the wiki instead of a thread post.

Aren't you forgetting the beer and the shoe-shine ? Or are we getting away easy ?