Lets be honest and consider the nature of most forums anyway. "typically" speaking, long served members and often new ones, join the forum to learn something or seek advice, once that advice has been gained, and a little chit chat has taken place amgonst members, this whole exercise becomes as much an ego polishing mechanism than anything else. If it was simply intended to be a forum that was ONLY used by sparks to discuss problems THEY are exp during work and jobs (which i imagine this forum originally was) then the screening process to allowing new members to join should be tightened and or reviewed.
Instead, Joe Bloggs turns up and asks which end of a screw driver to use when holding the live conductor between his teeth, breast feeding the baby, everyone just jumps at it to give the most knowledgeable and thorough answer possible
a) to appear to know their stuff
b) to be helpfull
c) some clowns *ahem Geordie* just want to increase their post count
etc, you get the idea. But i think despite the opinions that handing out hard earned advice to strangers will put us all out of work and on the dole argument, is a little far fetched. If they dont get what they need to know here, they will walk into B&Q and pick up a how to pamphlet on "giving your self cardiac arrest due to macro shock to the heart", or better known as the guide to changing a socket in their eyes, but the DIY'er, a proud and feared advisary, will endevour, whatever the abuse, to wire his own garage, to install a 3 phase masturbation device, to built his electric chair if the wife plays up, no matter how much we moan.
I for one, own about 12 Haynes manuals, even for cars i have never owned, but you will not catch me going to the garage for anything less than a 3 spanner job. Not a chance. I will be damned if i wil let some spanner monkey charge me £250 to change a break disc. Electrics and the common man are no different, and let us not forget.... albeit sparks requiring the significant addition of an actual IQ above 91, we as a breed are the SMART ones, but Mr. Joe Bloggs sees "tradesman" as effectively tool weilding idiots, therefore anything we can do, he can do better....until he drops dead
It's better to push in the right direction i believe, then let the DIY folk go about their business making the world unsafe.
