Why are people asking the same questions over and over again? (Or the Regulars' Chatroom) šŸ¤·

Oh I didā€¦ I refused to chime in on it, but I was sitting here laughing like ā€œdudeā€¦ take the hint already!ā€ lol

Which one, which one?

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/can-a-nested-automation-trace-the-original-trigger-event/707653

He was trying to manually trigger automations that had dummy triggers because scripts were too hard or unstable or something, so he wrote multiple of these automatons because a single automation was unwieldy. And it took multiple NOā€™s for it to finally register.

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And the attention of not one, but two modsā€¦ lol

Getting back to possible guidelines for answering questionsā€¦

If Iā€™m going to answer or get involved, I try to stick to facts, options, and questions.

I try to avoid stating: ā€œyou should doā€¦ā€ and instead say: ā€œWhat has worked for meā€¦ā€ or ā€œI have found that x,y,zā€¦ā€ or ā€œI would tryā€¦ā€

I am also ok stepping back if someone else wants to jump in or the OP isnā€™t getting it (I can be more of a problem then helpful :slightly_smiling_face:)

And Iā€™m ok pushing back on, or flagging, misinformation, rants, or worthless opinions but this can be tricky.

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How to help us help them - or How to give a good answer

Before we beginā€¦

This forum is not a soapbox

You donā€™t work for Home Assistant, thatā€™s an open source project. You are volunteering your free time to help others. You donā€™t have to respond to their rantsā€¦

Moved this post to Community guides, since this thread seems to have gone off on a tangent.

Still a wiki - keep on adding to it! :grin:

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I must admit, sometimes I rag on the ranters when Iā€™m in the moodā€¦ kinda for sport. I donā€™t get offended by them and I have no illusions that I will convince them of anythingā€¦ bad me. no scooby snacks.

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Was being edited, wanted to add this

:one::one: Donā€™t be afraid to back off, go silent & get a MOD involved

If you are offended, or the COC or other policy is violated, click the flag button. Thatā€™s what itā€™s for.

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That was fun, how did I miss that one!

itā€™s never too late!
:duck:

I read the OP, Tomā€™s answer/solution and missed everything after that as well. :man_facepalming:

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I fail at this so often.

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Great initiative.

I donā€™t want to edit before getting more opinions: I actually think videos should be avoided as much as possible. Iā€™m not saying thereā€™s no value in them, but there are very few good quality videos that will stand the test of time. I suppose itā€™s true for written content too, but that is easier to edit or comment on.

Iā€™m not saying complete avoidance, but rather to state the implications of posting a video.

Iā€™ll sit down later and draft a point. On mobile and just quickly responding.

BTW, thatā€™s another disclaimer I often use. Sometimes I try to give quick help with a pointer or two, while I am able to write a more complete answer, but since Iā€™m on mobile at the time, it woild be too tedious.

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I was wondering how come you were so quiet on a post like that

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Had the same argument this weekend with someone who kept complaining that there wasnā€™t a video for whatever they were attempting.

Explained to them the unmaintainablity of video guides and pointed them to an excellent written step by step as well as a thread for troubleshooting.

Well, they still got it wrong & twisted the fact that the thread had 700 replies was because there was no video guide. That was my cue to walk away.

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Asleep at the wheelā€¦

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I ones saw a respond from an OP, which maybe felt ā€œinsulted/misunderstoodā€
Canā€™t remember it wordly, or in which Topic, but was something like.

ā€œHey, Maybe you should think about the generation who grew up with (A click on a button, to install an App from Google Playā€ ) and then 2-3 click to create an Automation in that App) , And now with HA, I have to install maybe 3 different Apps( I think he mend, HA +Integrations +Cards(etc) and writing code, to accomplice the same, itā€™s complicated ! )

I do somehow ā€œfeel pityā€ for those generations, one of my last assignments was as ā€œteacherā€ in a IT-Gymnasium ( 15 years ago )( Private such, where prime goal was to satisfy stockholders and ( public assigner/Goverment) ( So approval of students and easy (cheap and basic level) education materials, was one of their prime priorities, to fulfill the ā€œrequirementsā€ for their ā€œBusinessā€ ! )
In short, If a person had i.e Gaming experience and knows howto replace a Ram and/or a Graphic card ( handling a screwdriver )( And know howto install an App ) , they were considered having the competence as qualified ( and considered them self as such ) ā€¦

I know i do , from time to time forget ( or being mislead ) into a state where i assume, people have ā€œdone their homeworkā€ , or they give the impression that they know/done more than they actually do/have, so i assume they have done( in my opinion ) the most basic i.e troubleshooting steps.
Lately im trying to not ā€œexpectā€ that some people in fact havenā€™t done anything before they open a Topic, or they pick the first and best Post in a search, to post a question

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I donā€™t know about everyone else, but when I started out with HA I found the documents to be pretty difficult to use. They tend to run on the principle that you already know things like structure, syntax and naming conventions, and a lot of them arenā€™t self contained, meaning that they can tell you things like states and triggers, but not provide you with the information that you need to put them into practice.

Likewise, with existing threads, new users read them but donā€™t really understand how to put what is in them into practice in their specific circumstances. Iā€™ve gone through a few troubleshooting threads and found that people are suggesting doing things, but arenā€™t giving any clues on how to do them. So itā€™s often easier and simpler to ask a new question and then get an answer thatā€™s specific to you.

Iā€™ve also found that quite a few threads contain multiple variations on the same code, someone asks something, someone puts in some code to do that thing, and someone else puts in a slightly improved version, or a version that does something slightly different. When youā€™re a new user thatā€™s a little overwhelming, especially if the thread refers to something thatā€™s been changed since the thread started.

Iā€™ve come across several threads giving instructions that are no longer current, so the way of doing something is different, or where my screen no longer looks like the screenshots.

This is supposed to be a community resource, and I donā€™t think that itā€™s really reasonable to expect everyone to engage with it in the way that we want. If someone asks the same question as someone else just pass it by, leave it for someone else to answer if you donā€™t want to do it.

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No one here is expecting beginners to pick up this information instantly. This is a forum where you seek help from more experienced users. Thereā€™s also no rule for asking the same question. People here are just venting, they are allowed to vent. Just like youā€™re aloud to ask the same question thatā€™s been asked a thousand times. As long as everyone is nice to each other, then all is well. The code of conduct explicitly informs users what is right or wrong on the forums. The FAQ is a loose guide meant to guide people into asking good questions so they receive good responses.

I think one of our (and I include us all here) bigger issues with starting out, is we just dive in and have a look get stuck then search for the answer on whatever medium we choose.

The best thing for all would be to read the docs about getting started which do go through the naming and concepts stuff, but how many of us have read them?

So how do we encourage people to read these docs before asking questions?

I for one over the last few years of using HA have learnt to start by reading the docs then progressing to other forms of information. I certainly did not start out that way.

The other issue is there are often many ways to solve a problem, all work and will solve the problem. How do we choose the correct answer for each user. We canā€™t.

The whole reason HA exists is to enable all smart home ecosystems to work together on a local level, this is always going to provide many ways to achieve the goal.

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