The last thing I want is to be counter productive to a field which I love, I will remove this and am sorry if anyone was offended by it.
Since I like to voice my opinions pretty openly, I was wondering how other people on the board feel about the same members coming on the forum and basically asking everyone to do their case for them.
They take a few classes buy a copy of FTK or Encase and then every single case they get there is a how do I do this how do I do that. We all know that just because you have a degree from a college, or a cert from some group, that doesn't make you a good examiner.
I thought this was part of the "forums" atmosphere. If someone had a question they were not able to find an answer to, this was a good place to post. I personally conduct searches on the forums and the web, search through a few reference manuals, and then if I am still stumped, I post here.
Is it really that hard to use search for a topic like is there a college that teaches CF, how do I get started, DD imaging, etc.
I agree, people should at least search for an answer before asking a question, but as a long time forum user I know this doesn't happen all of the time. In some forums, the members simple create a post in the thread asking if the person has searched for the answer or recommending they do before they answer. Especially if the member knows the question has been answered prior.
I guess I took your post to heart seeing that I was the last person to post a question here on the forums. If this is not what the forums were intended, then accept my apologies.
armresl,
I understand your frustration. This is not the only forum I run and basic lack of netiquette (such as searching) makes my job harder than it needs to be.
With that said, over the years I've come to realise that some degree of this behaviour is just the price you have to pay for an open forum which encourages participation, including participation from people new to this field. Looking at the site's stats I suspect that there is in fact a huge number of people who do come here and search for what they need (and hopefully, find it).
As you're clearly someone who appreciates plain talking, let me say that I feel posts such as yours are entirely counter productive and likely to discourage a lot of people who might otherwise join this community and become active in the forums. This is a fast moving, detail-oriented sector where knowledge is at a premium and it's not always easy, even for experienced practitioners, to admit their ignorance and ask for assistance. I have tried to make this a welcoming, all-inclusive community where fear of ridicule for asking (what to others might be) obvious questions is of as little as concern as possible and I still feel that the price we pay for that approach is worth it.
With regard to the situation in Louisville, again I can understand your frustration but I'm not sure what purpose is served by bringing it up here. Some people don't listen, some don't reply - it seems to me that's human nature rather than a particular deficiency of these forums.
I do welcome comments on all aspects of this site but in some cases - and I think this is probably one of them - such comments might be more appropriately addressed to me privately, if only out of courtesy to the role of forum moderator.
Jamie
I understand some of your frustration armsreel, especially regarding the endless repetition of the same 'how do I get into CF?', 'what course should I do?', type graduate questions. I also agree that people should use the 'search' function more often before posting - but that is an issue across all forums.
Regarding people asking simple questions - "how do I do this, how do I do that" as you put it- everyone has to learn from somewhere. What about people who are tasked with a CF case for the first time and have no/little experience in the field or colleagues to ask for help? I've found the advice from the forums on Forensic Focus to be invaluable in the past and I'm sure it will prove to be as useful the future too. It'd be a shame if people were put off from asking questions however simple - this is already the case on other well-known forensic forums and they suffer because of it.
armresl,
I'll admit being concerned at times with some of the questions that are posed, presumably from someone working on a real case. Makes you wonder how some of these things turn out doesn't it? In the end though its a question and answer forum. Don't feel obligated to respond to every post.
I thought your request for service was very clear. If I'm not too busy I'll travel for work, but I didn't give your's a second thought.