[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Questions & Answer] Binary100100:
It's threads like this one that annoys me:

http://xdaforums.com/tmobile-s7-edge/help/best-twrp-root-t3491778

Yet I believe that I handled it pretty well.

Regarding "search policing", it becomes counterproductive to feed the members that don't want to search or read for themselves because those same members will continue to want to be fed information instead of finding it for themselves. They'll post a thread and wait days for the answer instead of spending 10 minutes to find it themselves. They half-ass it and next thing you know they get pissed off because they didn't know that flashing something would wipe their internalsd or they get stuck in download mode or they get stuck with a strange icon (like in this thread) that they desperately want to be rid of. A 10 minute search and 5 minute of reading would have saved time of almost a dozen members replying to this very thread. The OP would have his/her answer and additional knowledge/experience (funny how those go hand in hand) that he/she could not acquire by being given the instructions.

<sarcasm>

In fact, next time perhaps I'll just quote an entire OP for the next person to inquire. It'll be much faster for them than giving them a link to click on. That might make it easier, then they will be missing out on the comments, replies, feedback, etc that the community has already given. That will also make it better for the OP to get his/her answers. Plus it clutters up the forum which is also a neat thing to do.

</sarcasm>

Bottom line, XDA is a forum of convenience for it's members! They've built a search feature where it helps (not perfect but it IS helpful), threads are stickied, added polls, images, additional links, attachments, you can subscribe to threads, you can vote on their usefulness, etc.

Yet we continue to get posts like:

So naturally it's going to get people peeved. People like me that has spent thousands of hours here in the forum helping people, people like the forum administrators and moderators that sacrifice their personal lives by keeping this forum "newb friendly" and operational, people like developers that risk damaging their own devices for the sake of XDA's members then spend an hour making a thread with as simple as possible instructions (often with pictures for those that need them) just for a lazy member to post a new thread asking for all of it to be given to them.

So naturally, it pisses some people off.

See my point?

I'm not defending or condoning being rude towards the members but I honestly do feel that pushing them to do some work for themselves should be expected because otherwise they become a burden and can end up causing more harm than good towards the community (moral wise) and even to themselves due to the lack of knowledge (and experience) which can and often does result in damaged/bricked devices. If I'm not mistaken XDA is a forum where we try to prevent that, not encourage it. So my warped way of thinking is that if we "give" them the method to do something instead of "teaching" them it'll be like a students going to school without tools to learn. 100% lecture. No books, guides, visual aids, etc. Crap... in that case, we might as well have our teachers take the students tests for them too! After all we need them to accomplish their goals, right?

But if I'm wrong then I'm wrong. I'll just set up a PO box and have members send me their phones and I'll do everything for them (for a fee of course) so it'll make it easier for them. But that would probably catch on unfortunately. :(