Exactly, I have posted and been talked down to and such and do not waste time posting any more. It is not limited to this forum. I use forums for entertainment and info and don't worry about posting as there are more intelligent folks that can do that.
Agreed! I have been on other forums, some for almost ten years and have tapered down my reply's due to various reasons.
I have had numerous occasions where I have spent considerable amount of time attaching electrical drawings and then explaining in detail how a system works only to either never hear from the OP again or someone else puts in a lame solution.
Then there are the know it all's that have to reply to every post where anyone who knows anything about the topic knows they are blowing wind. I often wonder if some people post just to get their numbers up.
Then there are the groups of posters on the forums that only seem to respond or address others in their little group and ignore any posts from others. I have frequently posted where someone else in their group has posted later the same similar solution and the OP only responds to theirs.
One real problem is that there is no way of really knowing the expertise of the person responding to a question where generally in real person to person communication one has some idea. Because of this if the person asking the question has very limited technical knowledge they will take any response as a possible solution.
This is sad in a way since all this defeats the real purpose of these forums in the first place which is to assist others in enjoying and repairing whatever the forum is about.
The above only reflects what I have experienced on other forums and in no way to what I have found on this forum as I have only recently joined.
This is no different than what most people experience in the workplace. I would be talking to an office worker when a third person would come over to ask me a technical question about a problem they were having. This office worker would take over the conversation and since he had the "gift of the gab" was believable to the person asking the question. I would usually just walk away.