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Don't reply "just Google it" (lemmy.zip)

submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by sith@lemmy.zip to c/fediverse@lemmy.world

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It is clear that the signal to noise ratio of the WWW is getting worse. It's much harder to find good content when using a good old search engine. And if it's good it is usually hosted on Reddit or Stackexchange.

So remember, even if it's easy too Google something (well, it isn't nowadays), we want to create a fediverse of good content that helps people (I hope). So, it's always better to write a real answer if you have the time and energy. Please help boost the SNR and reverse the AI fueled information degradation loop.

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[-] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago

For the last decade, the vast majority of helpful results for obscure things has been reddit posts of users asking the exact same question. Usually the person answering knows some context that the person asking isn't aware of needing to include in their question, which is why they couldn't find it on their own. Heck, a lot of the time I was missing the same piece of information!

Without someone answering the 'easy' question, there wouldn't have been any results that were clear answers to those questions.

[+] lol@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

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[-] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

When asking about the Beatles, are they asking about those still living or all of the founding members? Sice many bands have changed members over time, could they be asking about the time in the band or their age in years?

Suse, this was easy for the Beatles since they had a single lineup and are popular enough that all of that is easy to find. But it is a good example of a simple question that could be asking different things based on context and even if they get an answer it isn't necessarily what they are looking for, but they didn't know how to ask. Follow up questions are possible when interacting with others who may point out missing context, but not for search engines.

Also, kind of funny that you are an instance with 'discuss' in the name and you are opposed to discussion about easy to search things.