What do you think about asking questions that can easily be answered elsewhere?

If it’s a question from someone who is new to Fluther and hasn’t quite figured out the site yet, then I don’t mind lending a helping hand. Other than that, it gets annoying very quickly.

Well, that example bothers me somewhat, but there are other questions that could be easily answered with a google search, even though they really seem to be good Fluther questions. Those I don’t mind too much, even thought they really don’t meet Fluther standards, they seem to, and people may at least get a little discussion out of them.

It makes me wonder how people tie their shoes.

LOL @Shae. It’s not like search engines are a particularly new idea.

It’s not nearly as much, fun. And questions like this can also open up other avenues of discussion. For example, someone could say the price for airline XXX is so much on average, but they have wicked amounts of leg room. Or the stewardess’ are really hot on Pan-Continental. Or don’t eat the peanuts.

There’s more give here.

It used to bug me, but I’ve accepted that some people just don’t Google. Why? I don’t try to understand anymore. No need to trouble myself.

And there is no shortage of people who love to answer the questions, so it works out.

Also, even a simple question can make a decent thread. The airline question for example. Comparisons of Orbitz vs Yahoo vs Expedia, which flights can’t be found on those sites, strategies and timing for best prices, last-minute sites…

Ya got to represent.
My peeps come first.

Usually, I do a general web search first. Sometimes answers are best answered when practical human insight is applied.
Plenty of answers look good on paper. Here I get the information from the horses mouth.

@ChazMaz Piratical? Sounds like a Jimmy Buffett song lyric.

Damn, @Shae, you took away my next question.

At one time, Fluther discouraged questions to which the answers were easily found through search engines.

I would be interested to hear why the founders changed that. I suspect it is because those often came from new users who then got slammed by old timers and left having a bad experience with the site.

@marinelife They changed that?

“I would be interested to hear why the founders changed that.”
Because, answers are easily found through search engines.

@marinelife That’s exactly why I don’t mind helping new users. I don’t want to sour them on the site just because they don’t fully understand it yet.

@Snarp Yes, it used to be in the Guidelines and has been removed.

@ChazMaz Huh? I think you misread my post. They used to not allow easily googable questions, but now they do allow them.

@jeffgoldblumsprivatefacilities Yes, me too. I saw how people reacted, and I changed my stance (although I still wish people would look around and get a feel for the place before posting a question).

All this time I’ve been operating under the old guidelines. I’m not sure the guideline should have been entirely removed, but it may be a good thing. As @jeffgoldblumsprivatefacilities suggests, new users could easily be turned off by the criticism that was often leveled at a newbie’s easily searchable question, and that kind of thing leads to an insular, tribal Fluther community rather than an open and welcoming one. I prefer open and welcoming.

I don’t think it was very helpful in the old days when many questions were answered with Let me Google that for you.

@marinelife – I understand. “They used to not allow easily googable questions”

Are there any that are not? Except for those deep psychological or personal questions and the ones where we need a stroke or a slap now and then. :-)
I bet I can find them too.

But we cant do this…. Except for here.

@marinelife We never had anything in the guidelines about googleable questions (I just looked through the revisions).

The community had decided that they didn’t like googleable questions—we hadn’t published a position on it.

After my mother told me she stopped using the site because she was afraid she was going to be made fun of, we explicitly stated our position.

@andrew Thanks for correcting that! I looked (but of course could not find) the former guidelines. I just remembered that it was not done, and then it was OK.

Huh, we must have all just heard it from other community members and assumed it was in the guidelines.

Before I heard about Fluther and I was on Y!A, they said that it was good to ask googleable questions because that way when somebody googled it they might see the question on Y!A and it would get publicity. I suppose the same thing goes for Fluther?

@ChocolateReigns That was my impression, also. I used to flag them, but I was told they were acceptable, and I assumed for the publicity value.

It’s also for ideological reasons. Many people really don’t get the google.

And, as in the airfare example, many times people are looking for personal experience, which you can’t get on wiki and is often very difficult to find on google.

I’m not so wild about people abusing the good nature of Flutherites to ask as a first Q “How can my boyfriend and I make a random hookup with a cheap floozy in a strange town?” ... when there are sites devoted to just that sort of thing (and not that there’s anything wrong with cheap sex with throwaway partners) ... but I guess I’m in the minority on that too.