Where to Ask if not Ask Slashdot?

Rick the Red asks: "It seems that 3/4 of the Ask Slashdot articles are met with "Ask Google" answers. So, where do you go for answers (besides Google)? Advice (besides Dear Abby)? Opinions (besides ePinions)? If you want to know how to network one of those 4-in-1 printers, how do you find someone who's tried it? If you need help with some discontinued merchandise, who do you ask? If your pet project hits a snag, what do you do? Come on, all you "Ask Google" critics, fess up -- where do you think people should turn instead of Ask Slashdot?"

Start with ars, end with ars

[ferratus]

I'd suggest Ars technica [infopop.net]...it's a great place to ask questions and the search gives you access to a bunch of older questions.

Google is another good one of course.

Tom's

[Apreche]

The forums at Tom's Hardware or anandtech are some of the best places to get answers to tech questions. Especially if its a question about which hardware to buy.
Another good way to go is to find a slashdot user who will probably have your answer, and check their journal/e-mail.
And of course usenet is great. And you can use google for that too!

Best places

[travail_jgd]

I've had nothing but positive experiences asking questions at Anandtech Forums [anandtech.com]. Even if you don't like the articles on the site, the forums (and FAQs!) are a great source of technical help. Posting requires free registration, but is relatively painless. The forums cover just about everything involving PC tech, plus "off-topic" and "hot deals" categories. They are fairly tolerant of newbies as well.

Google is probably an overlooked resource too. Most of the time I can find answers to my Linux questions by searching for "linux howto topicname" (without the quotes). And I have bookmark folders full of sites devoted to one or two specific topics (networking, MP3's, beginner-level Linux, CD-RW's, etc).

Re:GOOGLE!

[Gudlyf]

It does cost money

Not if you check the answers to questions already asked [google.com] and find what you're looking for there.

Usenet / Google Groups

[north.coaster]

Usenet has for the last twenty or so years been a place to ask questions and get advice. Google Groups [google.com] has a wonderful search feature where you can query past Usenet discussions, which includes almost all of the questions that others have already asked. Let's face it, it's very likely that someone else has already asked your question.

I use this for all sorts of topics (computers, home remodeling, appliance repair, cars, etc.). I almost always find some useful information.

And if all else fails, I can submit my question to an appropriate newsgroup (again using Google Groups).

/Don

IRC

[dalutong]

I rely heavily on IRC. particularly irc.openprojects.net...

sometimes my questions are OT, but the people in #debian are very nice. #wireless helps me with my wireless problems. #gnu helps me with my political questions. etc.

Develop troubleshooting skills

[ctr2sprt]

Seriously. It makes me sound like a jerk, but it's true. With a little knowledge and good skills, you can troubleshoot and solve most problems in less time than it takes to explain them to someone else.

Effective troubleshooting is largely a process of elimination, and as such it works best if you are extremely orderly about it. For example, let's say a lamp "just stopped working," "for no reason." Well, first eliminate the bulb as the possible culprit: put in a new one, or test the old one in a lamp that's known to work. At the end, you should be able to say with certainty that the bulb works fine.

So now look at the lamp. Is the bulb socket corroded? Is the bulb making contact where it needs to? Is the lamp actually plugged in? Is the switch working? Again, at the end of the process, you should be able to say with certainty that the lmap is not the problem.

The you'd look at the wiring and whatever else might be involved. 99.9% of the time, you will find the problem well before you run out of places to look. It's exactly the same with computers. NIC isn't working? First swap in a NIC that's known to work. Then test cables that are known to work. Then you would probably do the same from the other end of the connection. Monitor isn't working? Try it on a different computer, or try a different monitor on your computer. Try a different video card. Different cable. And so on.

The other useful part here is that narrowing your questions like that greatly improves your chances of success with a search engine. Putting "my NIC doesn't work" into Google isn't going to help; but putting "my NIC transmits, but won't receive" probably is. Putting "permission denied" into Google is going to get you thousands of pages back, but putting "linux ifconfig permission denied" is probably going to put your answer at the very top. And so on. And, if you still are stumped and have to ask someone for help, at least you can provide a detailed explanation of what you have tried, which improves your odds of getting a qualified (and correct) answer back.

Because of this, I very seldom have to ask any questions. When I do, I usually ask either knowledgeable people I already know, or I post my question on USENET. This is primarily a question of competence, unfortunately; most web boards, IRC groups, and so on are full primarily of ignorant people who think they are really smart, and misleading or inaccurate replies can waste hours of my time if I don't correctly identify them as such. (Plus, they cause the knowledgeable people to get lost in the noise.)

Also, this was really long.

The best help...

[singularity]

I follow about 30 Usenet groups daily, and see some great help (with a client capable of doing some filtering, the signal to noise ratio is better than almost anywhere else on the net).

As a result, anytime I have a question, the first place I will hit is Google Groups [google.com].

With the right search terms and narrowing it down to the correct groups, the help can be fantastic. Chances are that if you are having a problem or question, someone else has had the same problem.

When I seach for Mac problem, for example, hitting comp.sys.mac.* with a search will give me quality results about 99 out of 100 times.

The other nice thing is that there are questions and answers for almost any subject you can imagine, from networking a four-in-one device [google.com] to turning left on red. [google.com]

[Yes, so maybe it is part of Google. But I am guessing that a lot of people submitting "Ask Slashdot" questions are not hitting that before they submit.]

Goto half-empty

[tkrabec]

half-empty.org might not have as much technical depth as /. but we do asnwer questions to the best of our ability.

-- Tim

Search Usenet

[wdr1]

A *great* place to start (even better than Ask Slashdot, IMHO) is Deja^H^H^H^H, er I mean, Google's Group, which is basically a search on Usenet.

-Bill

Re:Develop troubleshooting skills

[shyster]

Hmm...you have the right idea, but you may want to think about prioritizing your methods. You really need to weigh the probability of success of your troubleshooting steps vs. the amount of time and effort to perform that step to be a good troubleshooter. Also, keep in mind that your steps aren't ONLY to try and solve the problem, but also to get clues to the problem. If your checking a printing problem, then try printing from a different program and to a different printer to see which is causing the problem.

In your first example (lamp not working), it would have been much quicker to check that the lamp was plugged in FIRST (unless it's a plug hidden behind a large desk or something). THEN replace the bulb, as it is quite likely that that is the problem. A quick cursory examination of the power cord and lamp socket should be tried after that (unless you have rats or leaking roofs in your house, in which case you may want to check those items before the bulb), and then verifying that the outlet/switch works.

In your second example (NIC not working) why would you go thru all the trouble to shut down a PC, pull it out of its hiding place, dust it off, open it up, replace the NIC, and load new drivers as a first step? It's much more logical to check the patch cord, the link light, TCP/IP and the hub/switch port (usually in that order) first. That should take a total of 2-5 minutes to eliminate all of those possibilities before having to replace the NIC (which rarely fails compared to the other items).

Also, you should ALWAYS be thinking 2 or 3 steps ahead of yourself. If you're checking TCP/IP, you should already know what your next 2 checks are going to be based on the results of that test. If you succeed at fixing the problem at that step, the next time you encounter a similar issue you'll already have a flowchart in your head of the steps to follow. Very rarely (though it does happen occasionally) do I get to the end of the flowchart in my head or need to stop and think about what my next step will be.