Why do I need to search for my question?

Question

I have noticed you keep asking me to search for my question before I ask it. How do I do the search, and what is the point?

Answer 1

The reason why you have to search for you Question is to make sure that the Question has not been asked before on the forum.

Answer 2

Whilst robjenn is not wrong to say that searching is to make sure that the Question has not been asked before, there is more to it than that.

Personally, I do not like it when the same question gets asked over and over again, but every question is an opportunity for someone to share their knowledge. If popular questions get asked many times, then it gives many chances for helpers to increase their expertise.

However, it is not the best opportunity to learn. If you type your question into the search box before you type it into the question box, you will get access to much more information. Also, you will get access to it immediately, rather than having to wait for a helper to come on line, read your question, research the relevant knowledge, then prepare and submit the answer.

So, by searching first, you get more information, and you get it faster. Both these help you, but you can also help everyone by being a responsible community member, and doing the search first.

If you do find relevant answers in your search results, it means you have the opportunity to make your question much more specific. You might ask about an existing answer by clicking the "ask related question" button. You might ask about a specific page in the knowledge-base that does not give you all the information you need. Either of these will tell the Freedly experts that the information can be improved.

If you do not find relevant answers, you can make a note of this in the explanation for your question. Again, this tells the Freedly experts that information is missing.

And why would you want to help the Freedly experts? Because, one day you will want to be one yourself, so that you can build expertise, share it, and sell it for your own benefit, or to help good causes.