Why are nearly all the "orphan" questions technology questions?

Shows how much people really know when it doesn’t concern their opinion.

Not saying I’m any better though, by far. I study pathology.

But I suck, so please don’t ask me anything about it.

i don’t bother with the orphans cause it doesn’t matter if someone answers them. they just get on top of the activity but get lost again pretty quickly so no point in answering them

But the point is, why did they become orphans? Why do so many technology-related question get zero responses when it seems like there are a lot of people around who are knowledgeable in those subjects?

Why are nearly all questions about orphan questions pointing out that they are about technology? hmmmmmmmm?

Most of those tech questions go beyond my boundaries of knowledge. Really, some of those are really… technical.

*Edit: eep, someone call an official from the Redundant Committee of Redundancy.

Because computers are some of the most complex and frustrating devices in existence. The problems they have come out of nowhere sometimes with no reasonable cause. I’ve had computers malfunction completely for no apparent reason; computers drive me INSANE sometimes. The problems that people have are not something that can easily be fixed, in other words. If it’s not about a problem, often the questions are very specific and while many people here are tech-savvy, there are thousands of fields and programs to be interested in within computers and not everyone has knowledge about every single one of those fields and programs. I can fix basic computer problems and have what I consider adequate knowledge for what I like to do. But I’ve never heard of a ”.xib” or “BBEDIT” or what have you. Some of the questions are about very specific programs that not everyone owns or has much experience with, let alone knows how to fix problems in.

The few times I have posted computer questions, I haven’t gotten many responses.

For example, I want to know how come every time I start up Google Earth, the “disk drive” symbol appears on my desktop and then won’t leave. This didn’t happen on the other user profile, now it does. I always end up putting it in the trash, but it just keeps coming back every time I start up Google Earth. WHY?!!!

@Jeruba—Things about computers and all are complex, and it’s something you can usually find online that’s already written. I’m thinking that people like Jerv, who knows everything about computers, already know that. If the person asking really needs help they’ll look for it.
Not saying Fluther can’t help, but I mean, don’t people come on here after work, and want to relax? Who wants to write entire essays, or repeat what they just did for eight hours at work?—

I think some of the questions are orphans because people are trying to do things that can’t be done the way they want them to, at least not without a lot of trial and error. Many are very specific to certain types of software.

A lot of us can answer the beginner/average tech Qs. Hell, half of those can be solved with “reboot your computer/delete your cache and cookies” etc. But when it gets really technical, then there truly are very few of us who can help them. Also the truth is when a question becomes that technical, it usually requires a lot of back and forth between the asker and answerers before any sort of solution can be reached. So even if you think you might be able to help, you realize you will have to commit more time to that question than the other ones where you can usually answer once and not look back ever again but still be helpful. By that point, it’s just easier to go to the nearest tech store and speak to someone.

All that said, Fluther still needs more tech geeks. In my opinion, the questions that are easiest to answer (at least for me) are the relationship ones and obviously the opinion ones. But when a question requires expertise in a certain field, that question always receives lesser to no responses. Bottom line, let’s go find some smart grad students from all sorts of fields, get them hooked to this site that part should be easy so they can answer our questions =).

This is not to say that Fluther doesn’t already have some truly brilliant and skilled people in its userbase. I am just saying we could always use more and that we do need more.

Many are so specific that most technically savvy folks don’t understand the questions!

A lot of technology questions require detailed, specific information that question askers frequently fail to provide. While it is possible to elicit information from them, it seems like someone wanting help would try to provide basic information to assist us in assisting them.

Some of the questions could be solved by answering “contact software support”. But that seems too obvious.

Speaking from the point of view of a computer technician and amateur web designer, I don’t answer tech questions because they are either boring questions of the type that I answer frequently enough to make me sick of them, or because they are so targeted to a specific device or application that I can’t be of much help (computer techs usually have a very wide and varied set of knowledge, but specific hardware and software applications have to be studied and played with before a problem can be understood and resolved). For example, I can use many models of digital cameras quite well, but ask me about how to change the shutter speed on a Canon Powershot 1100, and I can’t answer that off the top of my head. Another example is building computers. I’ve built many, many computers in my day, but ask me about the RAM bus speed on a Soyo P5Y335 motherboard, and I don’t have that answer.

Some problems are difficult to answer without actually being there and playing with it in person.

In every subcommunity in the tech world, its Q-and-A forums pass around this document, “How to Ask Questions the Smart Way”: http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html . If a user having trouble obviously has not read the doc, he is mostly ignored. It ought to be required reading for every Fluther user, too, especially so the tech questions we’re talking about right now won’t go orphaned. But lusers will always bee stoopid and ignurant, which shows in they’re questions and their generall lack of netiquette.

It’s not that they’re bad questions really.
It’s that they’re too specific. They’re single problems with specific programs, usually. While there may be a dozen people on Fluther who are familiar with that program, there’s very little chance they’ll be familiar with that problem with the program.

XD I don’t know.. I asked the same question a little bit ago and I’m not sure I figured it out yet.

They are way too specific. An example would be one question recently about a Spanish radio webpage that did not seem to be working for a particular Flutherite.

Limited audience. How much mileage can you get in riffing on an overhead framezoid with a whoziewatzy.