A bit of thought(and advice) for the ignorance in Answers, etc...

Hello iFixit,

I have a feeling most of you have noticed here my activity had dropped on iFixit to a standstill as of late, and because it pretty much dropped to what I consider how people who have a job, kids and a family pay attention to their Facebook account(in other words, very rarely), I this at least warrants a explanation. The section on Answers and guide ignorance is going to be extremely blunt due to the nature of the problem, and I ask this not be softened.

Just to make it clear: it has nothing to do with IT or making money fixing other people’s problems and getting paid, or even freebies from upgrades. I have no problem with helping people if they want it and I certainly will so secrecy isn't a reason. I will often take these from people replacing it, because most of the time it's "too old" for them or it's an easy fix and it's going to be in the landfill, but at the same time I will help someone fix it if they want to at least see if it's viable. I mainly got in this to build credibility since I lacked any certifications but now that I have some I really can't say this is the reason. I still do, but the certifications help the credibility problem and this is a nice extra to fall back on. I also kind of did this to prove my weight in this too, especially back in the HS days when you were laughed off for being "too young and dumb". My primary reason for walking away was the ignorance of Answers. I just couldn't take it anymore. It was a combination of the lack of response in Answers I dealt with for years, the lack of reward for my guides and the fact there hasn't been a effective solution yet.

Okay. School had a role in it, but I was also doing dual enrollment so I couldn't make time for iFixit that easily so there was a reason.

As of 2016 iFixit has made small progress on the issue but I still think that it's not much better. Even though I fully think this and back it I will give them credit for making progress.

I am going to go over all of my reasons individually, and explain what I plan on doing with these issues and for the Answers ignorance, a free solution that I think will work. :-)

• First problem: How nobody marks answers on iFixit for whose answer solved the problem. This has been a problem for years on end, so this isn't all that new. It's a rather old problem. This is more of a member fault, if anything. They will ask the question and ditch it, never returning.

There's many names you can use to describe this opinion. Greedy, crazy, impatient or simply not giving enough time to solve it. I don't think this is greedy or crazy, and this opinion is warranted and I have been patient for years on end so I also am not clling it because of one question. This has happened many, many times over. All I really want is to get acknowledged if my solution did it, but if it didn't I think the question owner should at least come back and mark it. This does not happen, and it gets tiring. Usually, this is resolved by a community acceptance because they gave up on the owner coming back, so eventually the question is "solved", but it's at the expense of getting tired of getting ignored and it sitting unresolved for years. I would like to think the problem has gotten better and it's less community flagging but I don't see this getting better anytime soon.

If you were rational, would you accept this? Probably not. You'd walk away and wait for a solution or walk away for good. I certainly feel this is a valid argument to defend my choice to walk away and let the problem fix itself before I come back. I'm not going to deal with this problem. If my time isn't appreciated, I'm out. I don't think it would hurt the person asking to just come back, yet somehow they don't.

As of 2016, I have noticed a diminished amount of community flagging. From what I can tell, it's probably not because the poster left the question but the main problem questions have been worked on years ago, and now most of it is junk questions that are simply beyond answering or community answer accepting. This is at least progress to reducing the "dead" questions.

Also as of 2016, iFixit has also attempted certain things to fix this low accept rate. Is it help? Maybe. As of late I have been focusing on guides, and dealing with my older guides that are best retired permanently and deleted and fixing the ones that make sense. I will have to spend time in Answers to form an opinion in this respect. Right now, I'm staying neutral.

In respect to guides the reason I very often don't get to them promptly is because of low read rates, and as a result low return for the effort for the work I put in. I just think this doesn't make sense. I make the guide, get ignored and realize I made it for nothing. One example is the Photosmart Premium printhead cleaning guide. This guide was 4 years old at the time(now 6) and the reason I have not really done much until recently is this ignorance problem. I just did not see the point for many years. If the guide was appreciated more visibly then I would have gotten a printer sooner.

As of 2016, I have made strides in this project. I have the text finalized, so all I need to do is remove a printhead from a printer since the pictures I need to take are so unique. One of the other small, but other reasons for this delay is acquisition problems, since I no longer own this printer(printhead failure beyond help). One reason is money. I am not paying for one of these things. People want way too much more often then not, for a Inkjet printer no less. Anything more then $5-8 is too much. People don't get this, and think they can get $50 for a printer that's many years old. I might be better off sourcing out a newer model that's very, very similar and simply working from scratch. In this case, all I care about is this:

• It's 3-in-1 (Print/Copy/Scan)
• It uses HP 564 ink tanks
• It uses a 564 printhead I can remove

As long as it meets that, I literally DO NOT CARE how new it is. It can have ePrint for all I care. In regards to money and expanding on it, any of us in this field probably know how much of an offender Goodwill can and will be. They want a lot more then I consider reasonable ($5-8) but not as insane as the Craigslist sellers ($10-25) are. Not only that, but that's probably for a printer that needs work to boot. No thanks. This leaves Goodwill out, so that only makes it worse. A lot of them also need ink, so I factor ink into the risk factor. Ink is always 10x more then the printer. Physical head failure is another concern I'd have. If the head is a lost cause it's $80 to replace. I'm eWasting it if the head is bad. eBay has heads at $20-40, but they're almost always used. Those can leak and fail, and if it fails so soon you wasted your money, so the risk doesn't make sense.

I also have options when it comes to scanning, since I use Inkjets for scanners most of the time anyway. I can use the AIO that's not mine, but available, get a dedicated scanner or get a used printer. I'd rather go with using the one at my disposal or a dedicated scanner, frankly. I won't not use an Inkjet but it's not my first choice. In short, I have 3 options with scanning.

• Buy a overpriced Goodwill printer, or any other thrift store
• Buy a dedicated scanner that works with Win7 x64
• Use the HP AIO I have available to me

I have chosen the AIO available to me for now, at least until I can get a scanner that's compatible or find a AIO that works. This is probably going to be my solution long term. Problems like that are also why I limit my guides to tasks I can perform in 5-10 minutes, such as the LaserJet 1012 Windows 64-bit setup guide since that was a quick and easy one to make, and publish. I could squeeze that in so I figured that made sense. With the Photosmart guide, not so much. I need to source out a printer, clean the head and then take pictures as I go and then make the guide. I also will probably have to invest money into it. I don't need to do that with SW. The This 10NES guide was no different. For now, until the problem gets better it's not a major priority. I will do it when I see a point to it, at least with guides like that. I see nothing wrong with quick guides that help a lot of people but they have to be little to no cost.

As of 2016 I did get the text done right. I literally just need a printer.

•Second issue: Member ignorance in Answers

Since I have been here for years I can say that as the site got older, less people actually checked as time went on. Very few people check Answers due to the lack of appreciation and questions being abandoned. Even I stopped checking because of it. I do check on occasion but not to the same degree. If it's something I know I will certainly chime in but it's not a regular thing anymore. This is because of how bad the return rate of the person who posted the questions has gotten. I don't like to spend my time in ways that lead to getting blown off, so I naturally decided to cut regularly checking Answers. I sympathize with people who just gave up, but don't completely agree at the same time. My approach seems better. The vast majority of us are volunteers and not staff.

Mayer has also made some good points in the past too, especially with member vs staff designation. It looks like everyone is a staff member with how members and staff are sorted. Something has to be done about that.

As I have mentioned before, the current systems in place now don’t work, since one eMail isn’t enough to get people to check. Even though I'm one of the better ones here, I still do not know everything. Sometimes I have to ask a question too. The problems this create not only affects how much I want to contribute, but it also affects me when I need some help too. Ignorance isn't helping, and it's not a good way to get people to chime in on Answers. Even Facebook groups have a better return rate on answers. There's no "accepted" answer but the person who asked at least acknowledges everyone. This problem was partially why I am dealing with the certifications. In a paid environment, this is fine since you get paid to deal with it.

• Third issue: Tech school(fact-not a issue)

Out of all these factors(and certifications), these are the big ones. I simply did not have the time I did before I dual enrolled in tech school during High School in the position I was in at the time. It's no longer a problem, but it was at one point.

• Fourth issue: Certifications

While not a major role in my lack of time spent on Answers it did play a very small part in comparison to the other issues. I got one of my first certifications in 2014, which can be found here. It's not it, though.

Well, this is it for this what I would call rant at some part. Hopefully this gets taken seriously and the ideas are implemented. I think this will at least solve some of them, but at the same time my ideas may not be the best. I'm more or less coming up with stuff that has a chance.

To fix the accept rate situation, here's what I think should be done

* Send out infrequent eMail reminders to people who don't check their question

* If the person does not check after a certain amount of time, get more and more persistent

If the eMails do not stop, then they can't ignore it. They **CAN** put it in the spam folder, but it still gets sent and shown as a new message and any smart spam filter should know unless it's in the user set spam filter. This is spammy, but it would work.

I have not tested this personally, because Answers is not my major concern these days. At this point, I tend to do more guides. As I said I pop in but not often enough to make the final judgement if this worked or not. I am not the right person to ask.

To fix the member and staff designation

I have attached a crude Paint drawing from 2014. I will also attach the 2016 version. This will make it clear IFixit isn't just staff members, at least.

In comparison to the old version, I like this one. It puts more emphasis on the members then the staff. This was the right way to go about it.