What the Internet does really, really well is what it's really good at.

[MineralMan]

48. That's true enough. Still, doing an initial Google search

is always a good idea before asking someone on a discussion forum. The other thing that I've noticed on discussion forums that are dedicated to some particular thing is questions that don't include enough information. I help out on a forum about repairing outboard motors sometimes. A common thing is for someone to post something like, My Evinrude won't start. Any ideas? Of course, there are many reasons an outboard won't start, so the process begins of prying the necessary information out of the poster. First, you have to ask what year and horsepower, then the exact nature of the problem, like did this just happen suddenly, and what was the outboard doing before it wouldn't start. You have to ask, "What have you tried?" and "Have you done anything to try to fix it?"

Often, the exchange will go on for a long time, trying to get the information one thing at a time. Despite a pinned post asking people to provide a full description when they have a question, it's a daily occurrence that someone just says, "My Evinrude won't start." The cycle begins again daily. It's a source of frustration for everyone who is trying to help.

On the other hand, one guy wrote a similar post on that forum that had the entire forum rolling on the floor for days.

All the post said was, "My Johnson doesn't work."