Quote:
Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler
... But you have to make helpful replies ...
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You certainly do David, but perhaps not
everyone does.
A friend of mine and fellow forum member tells a funny story about his first request here. I should say it
absolutely isn't typical, but it did make me smile. I'm being vague about the details because although it happened a long time ago I still wouldn't want the incident or the friend to be identified.
My friend, who has expertise in the area in question, had a piece of equipment with a failed part. The part was rare, and specific to the piece of kit and he quickly realised that UKVRRR was the only place he was likely to find anyone who might have one. So he put a request in the Parts Wanted sub-forum. He got three replies.
The first respondent upbraided him, saying "You're wrong about that. Those symptoms are almost always caused by this instead. Stop worrying that that has failed and concentrate on this. It's an easy fix." Of course my friend had already eliminated 'this' as a possible cause. He'd checked that and it was bust. He needed a replacement 'that'.
The second respondent said "You'll never find that. They're absolutely unique and have been out of production for decades. Every one that still exists is installed in the relevant piece of equipment. Never mind. I have worked out a bodge which will get you out of trouble. It's ugly and a bit unreliable and does involve cutting the original item about somewhat. But it's your only hope because there are literally no spares of the part you want on the planet." My friend was reluctant to cut his piece of kit about.
The third respondent said "I have the same piece of kit as you and I also have two spares of the component you need - one unused one and one I picked up from a chap who was breaking his item for spares. This part doesn't fail often but, as you've found, it does occasionally. So I can't let you have either of my spares because although my kit's currently working fine I might one day need them.".
Three replies, all completely unhelpful in amusingly different ways
.
I do have to voice one note of caution relating to the original post. We can sometimes tend (and I can be guilty of this too) to see a request for help and to think we know the answer. So we post it and we regard the case as closed. He's had a problem and we've told him what to do about it and that's that. Any debate can now stop. I need to remind myself once in a while that my answer is not necessarily
the answer. It's just
an answer. There might be better or more appropriate ones out there and I need to hang onto my humility.
Cheers,
GJ