We need ALL the information.

This forum is dedicated to the Live Steam Hobbyist Community.

Moderators: cbrew, Harold_V

Post Reply
David Powell
Posts: 523
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2003 10:38 pm
Location: Pickering Ontario Canada.

We need ALL the information.

Post by David Powell »

A recent thread turned to disaster because the original poster either could not, or would not give details when asked.
Most of us who have some experience are delighted to be able to offer advice, and sometimes even physical help when a beginner gets stuck, doing that pays forward the help we received when we were beginners,
However, in order to give useful advice over the internet we need ALL the details, For instance merely saying "the fire will not burn brightly no matter what I do" is no help without describing your engine and the circumstances in which the fire does not burn brightly. Can you actually get steam up, does the fire burn when the blower is on, what happens when you get moving are the sorts of things we must know before making any sort of a stab at internet diagnosis,
Others please help me here, maybe we could work up a sort of check list of what we need to know.
Regards David Powell,
VGC
Posts: 111
Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2009 3:17 am
Location: Europe / earth - yet in freedom ;-)

Re: We need ALL the information.

Post by VGC »

This is a good idea! Let me start with what we need to know before feeling free to help someone!

So we need to know whether the person asking

- suffers from overconfidence.

- expects us to read his mind.

- believes that being able to help him is our greatest happiness on earth.

- lacks basic rules of conduct.

;-)
User avatar
Dick_Morris
Posts: 2841
Joined: Sat Jan 04, 2003 2:09 pm
Location: Anchorage, AK

Re: We need ALL the information.

Post by Dick_Morris »

In many cases the person asking the question doesn't necessarily know what the right question is. The two way communication resulting from 98% of the initial inquiries usually works pretty well. However, on rare occasions the wheels come off of the wagon. :(
User avatar
gwrdriver
Posts: 3439
Joined: Mon Jan 06, 2003 10:31 am
Location: Nashville Tennessee

Re: We need ALL the information.

Post by gwrdriver »

The first thing to know (if not self-evident), and this has been asked for many times, is LOCATION. Some answers are going to vary with your location, especially for those outside the USA.
GWRdriver
Nashville TN
SteveM
Posts: 7763
Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2005 6:18 pm
Location: Wisconsin

Re: We need ALL the information.

Post by SteveM »

gwrdriver wrote: Fri Jun 25, 2021 7:31 am The first thing to know (if not self-evident), and this has been asked for many times, is LOCATION.
Yes. Sometimes there is someone close by that can look at it and see the picture instead of reading 1,000 words and get the answer.

Another thing that is needed is pictures.

Preferably pictures annotated with comments like "here is where it doesn't fit".

You can easily annotate pictures in the Microsoft Paint that came with your Windows, even if you are on Windows XP.

Steve
Post Reply