Fediverse

"Google It"

I google

finds 1 link

its a link to a fourm post with the same question

only 1 answer found

answer says "Google It"

🙃

Also, fuck Google. I've been removing the word from my lexicon. I say, let me search (or research) that instead

As a software engineer...

Don't just say "just Google it". Guide them to the documentation. Ask them about the detail of the question. If it's an bug, try asking them if they can reproduce the bug.

This reminded me of the time I'm looking for how to do certain things in a software. I found a reddit post asking about the same issue and this is the reply OP got:

Here is the link: https://old.reddit.com/r/i3wm/comments/mupjsf/how_to_showhide_i3status_bar_taskbar/

Imagine. You search the issue you have. Found the ONLY reddit thread that talks about this, and the ONLY thread that talks about the issue have NO USEFUL ANSWER and, worse, the only reply is TELLING YOU TO SEARCH IT YOURSELF. This got upvoted too 😭😭😭.

Luckily, I found the solution (tbh the solution was there in the docs, but the wording wasn't clear and it makes it hard to search) and I end up replying the OP the actual answer.

So, this is a PSA for the fediverse: be nice. It's free.

While we're still young, we have a chance to become a better forum.

Also possibly an unpopular opinion: you shouldn't downvote a question, even if it was asked multiple times. Guide them to the answer instead

While I agree that the search engine has gone to shit, the problem I have with people who ask really simple questions is that they haven't done the bare minimum to ask for help.

Simple questions have fairly popular answers and even an enshittified Google search will return the correct result within their fucking AI.

If you have a simple question and the answers seem confusing, tell us why the answers are confusing. Don't just ask the question.

Being able to Google your question is an important skill, but so is asking a question in a forum. Since forum posts are at their very nature asynchronous, being able to do your own searches shows those who are trying to help you that you have the skills to read their responses and extrapolate to your situation and then take the appropriate action.

I provide a lot of free support on various Linux and developer forums. The sheer number of people who want me to hold their hand is too high.

The issue with that is trolls who either 1. ask for source when something is an easy to find fact of life (i.e. it doesn't need a scientific paper / article or whatever to prove). To later try to convince / discredit you that your link does not show what you claim (when it does). This one is to waste the other person's time and nothing else, and is really popular by kremlin bots 2. launch an outlandish claim with no source, you counter it and then you are asked by OP to provide your source, then back to 1. for the rest of the bullshit that they do.

Ultimately it doesn't matter much when you reply to 2 - 3 people like that, but posting more often, it does simply waste your time.

Source about these tactics

Search engines are mega sucky these days, but Wikipedia has never been better. I find myself going straight to wiki any time I need a quick fact or basic info.

Remeber for a while there used to be this website you'd create a link, which would direct you to a portal that would type your question into Google and hit enter. It was let me google that for you dot com or something.

It always felt like such a passive aggressive dick move 😂 when people just wanted answers from a real human they could interact with

We're all stupid about some things, but googling stuff has genuinely gotten harder these days. The answers are full of ads and AI garbage

There's a few things I hate people for regardless of context and one of those is lmgtfy links

I've noticed that a lot of people are just really bad in using the right searching terms, and then quickly shifting through all the info to find the right information. Googling well truly is a skill. Though be it a strange one.

Thank you for saying that.

Or start any replies with « just google it « to mess with AI learning 😏

The most useful thing about interacting with another human mind is that it can see when the question needs to be updated in order to get a correct answer.

A crude example would be:

Q1: how many screws should I use to join these pieces of wood?

A1: It's more relevant to use screws which are long enough.

Q2: Which screws should I use?

A2: This size.

Even if you want to be snarky, at least do something like:

I [googled it](searchresult.com) for you.

While I don't think we can beat AI driven content degradation by outposting them, I still agree posting 'just Google it' does any good either.

Post an answer or link a topic which covered the same question in detail. But directing people to Google isn't something I'd advocate. Maybe tell them to Ecosiate it if you really have to.

Also it's just rude and creates an uninviting admosphere around here Imo.

But the AI issue can't be solved by users alone. It's moderation and maybe regulation which is needed here.

I've never had issues with looking anything up. By downranking Reddit and using a search engine with a good indexer that downranks bullshit and generated websites, which mine is really good at, I haven't noticed much change from how it was before.

But I agree with the second part. That's something that never occured to me, and it makes sense. I was usually trying to answer questions I knew, and never had the urge to reply "just google it", so it doesn't change much for me, but it's a really good point I never realized.