Dealing with "idiots"?

[MavicMikeMinh]

Most people are just completely clueless, we all started at some level.
There may be the occasional idiot, for those this rule might help:

Never argue with an idiot,
first they drag you down to their level,
next they beat you with experience.

(I know, not exactly new advice)

 

[drjulian]

 

[WARRIK]

A co worker of mine says he is surrounded by idiots. I have asked many times what he is doing to educate them. No one came into this life knowing how to fly...or anything else for that matter. We learn by asking questions. This forum is full of new members with many questions. Help when you can...or don’t...it is up to each of us to make a difference. That is why I joined....

 

[harle83]

Do you guys have a magical ability to deal with people who ask stupid questions?

how far will it go?
how fast will it go?
how high will it go?
how do I point my antennas?
what does RTH do?

I've seen so many conversations on various sites / groups where people are asking the same questions over and over and they are all in the manual.

Ten minutes later they'll either argue the toss with your reply or they'll have a crash that is totally DJI's fault.

i admit I asked a few questions before I had the drone and I've tried to learn stuff as I go but I've read the manual thoroughly!

I am a very visual learner, I have been most of my life. I believe a lot of it comes from the fact that I have had some serious hearing issues most of my life. I wear hearing aids from dawn to dusk and sometimes it's still not enough. So I have always been drawn to visual, I watch faces especially lips, most of the time I do fine. That being said I still to this day have problems with words, was in speech therapy for a long time as a kid. The little tiny room where they dealt with kids"like me". It was a really hard climb and I still get called a bigot all the time because I have problems with South Asian Tech/Customer Support. Funny thing is I spent my working life as a on Air FM DJ. AM in the later years on late night talk. So music smashing my ears for so long that didn't help either. I have no issues answering questions for people, don't mind. If I dont answer that makes me and others look bad. We are a good community and should always be good good citizens first, be it a curious onlooker or a noob asking. We make the difference. Choose wisely, never know who you might be helping.

 

[RCWatchman]

I read a few of these replies and I have to say as a community I am quite proud of the attitude most of you have shown to this thread. I am sure when I first started if someone had called me an idiot for the questions I asked I may have cashed it in. I am an older pilot, self taught, and for a long time was in need of experienced help. I got that help on forums just like this one. So for all of those that put up with me when I got my start, I say thank you its been a fun ride. Please lets never make people afraid to ask, we all loose then. Fly safe...

 

[syzygos7]

Being a help to others even they dont read manuals which many doesnt, it its to just share some Ideas that might help them avoid scenarios.

 

[Maviac]

Hmmmm, I’ve seen this question come up before [emoji848][emoji51]

The best way is to post a few relative search results, if they specifically answer the question well.
Sometimes questions need a more up to date reply, but teaching people about how good the search feature is gives them a good pointer for future use.

This is not a bad answer, and I don’t mean to attack it because we should all use the search function when we can. But all too often a new member, obviously eager to learn, has been hit with an immediate “you should have used the search function“ response. I’ve seen a few who never posted again. Maybe they wouldn’t have anyway, but they certainly didn’t get a warm welcome (I’m not referring to MAvic_South_Oz here, but I’ve seen condescending responses from others).

This is a forum, not an FAQ site. It’s here because people want to communicate, not just look something up. And in the case of less experienced folks, they may not even know exactly what they are asking to be able to run an effective search. I spent about 20-30% of my time in my line of work on the phone or on email helping people with what are very easy (some might even say stupid) questions, at least to me. It’s worth it because many of those people end up being clients, referral sources, and friends.

 

[Deleted member 94047]

The fact that this thread has garnered so much response is a testament to this community. While I honestly don't condone people not doing a little searching and researching before asking questions, the fact that a lot of questions are asked and answered is what makes this forum a treasure trove of knowledge. Despite the emphasis placed on the importance of RTFM first, there are a thousand things the manual won't tell you which people with experience can. I read the manual from back to back several times over, and watched several hours worth of video on YouTube before I started flying. And even then, there were many things I wouldn't have known had it not been for this forum. Even after nearly a year of flying, I am still learning.

So a big thank you for everyone who has asked a question and every one of you who have taken time out of their busy lives to answer them.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

This is not a bad answer, and I don’t mean to attack it because we should all use the search function when we can. But all too often a new member, obviously eager to learn, has been hit with an immediate “you should have used the search function“ response. I’ve seen a few who never posted again. Maybe they wouldn’t have anyway, but they certainly didn’t get a warm welcome (I’m not referring to MAvic_South_Oz here, but I’ve seen condescending responses from others).

I agree it’s not good to just post a forum search results list from a typical search.
I like to post replies with any search result posts, and tend to check which threads are most up to date and relevant to the OP.
The good things about decent threads is there are usually a great variety of replies, often tangents the OP may appreciate learning from too.
Many times it’s a combination of a suitable link and some finer personal reply.
This is probably the best and most helpful example If such a forum you could find anywhere, but sure sometimes replies can seem smug etc, the written word is often very difficult to interpret versus the way it was intended.
The internet has those little people icons, to help others know the spirit in which something was posted, if it might be a bit vague.
My favourite is the little grinning guy [emoji51]

 

[NealJ777]

I like the forum format (like this forum) much better than that of a group on that well known social media platform. On FB, the posts are not organized and are easily lost. Yes, there is a search function, but that's often ignored. You get several of the same posts, sometimes within minutes of the last one being posted.

 

[Duggy]

Grow up. You are the “idiot “. We are only looking for good advice from professional drone pilots. You obviously don’t come into this category!

 

[heyengel]

Do you guys have a magical ability to deal with people who ask stupid questions?

how far will it go?
how fast will it go?
how high will it go?
how do I point my antennas?
what does RTH do?

I've seen so many conversations on various sites / groups where people are asking the same questions over and over and they are all in the manual.

Ten minutes later they'll either argue the toss with your reply or they'll have a crash that is totally DJI's fault.

i admit I asked a few questions before I had the drone and I've tried to learn stuff as I go but I've read the manual thoroughly!

You can wear this t-shirt.