researching issues before posting

I find myself holding back from making posts because I don't want to add redundant information and noise to this forum.

However I'm not sure that redundancy is even a problem in such a forum.

Also it when researching a topic, it takes a long time to gather all the available information. It usually involves sifting through several posts that are only semi relevant to your issue. If you always hold off from posting until you have researched a topic "fully" you will never actually post.

I need to find a balance.

What do you think.... how much time do you spend researching a topic before posting a new thread in this forum??

It really depends on whether you're geting anywhere or just ](*,)

If you feel that you're not understanding or progressing with the problem then I would post a thread then, but if you've been searching for an hour or so I would post.

But if you've made an effort to get it sorted no-one's going to be sending you away.

The hardest part is deciding if you are reading the right stuff in the first place :)

I've left it weeks in the past - and also have posted immediately when I knew that I needed to.

Personally, I start at the man pages if I know (or have some idea) of what programs my issue involves. If, for example, I would like to figure out how to display, quick and simple, what my system architecture is, and I [highlight]Don't[/highlight] know that uname is the proper command for this, I will be directed to google and will search from there, possibly leading to a post on these forums if I am too stupid to use the correct search terms. However, should I find that uname is the program for this, but the command as it is spits out more than I want, "man uname" is sure to help. A quick glance at said man page will reveal that the -m option is exactly what I am looking for. Problem solved.

However, it could also be useful to post, even in a simple situation such as the one above, because google will come through within a few days and index that page, thereby possibly providing the answer to someone's burning question.

As far as time is concerend, I typically don't waste more than 1 hour on finding a solution to an issue. If the issue is pressing, I'll post. If it isn't, I just let it go, and maybe, just maybe, I'll end up stumbling upon the answer (as is the case in the above issue with uname).