I've been a member of this board for only about a year and a half now -

It's amazing/surprising/interesting how some of the same topics come up again and again -

Examples:

To wash or not to wash fabric before cutting
To starch/size fabric before cutting
Which way to press seams - open or to one side
What kind of batting to use
What kind of thread to use
To make the first cut with the lengthwise grain or with the crosswise grain


How big is your stash
What kind of iron to buy

Any other topics that you can think of that show up again and again?

And the answers seem to be : whatever the person doing it wants to do is the "right" way

Isn't freedom wonderful! I LOVE being able to do things MY WAY! :lol:

It's the same on the horse forum.

How do you feed?
How do you wean?
How many horses did you buy?
What's the best way to get tails white?

:lol:

get tails white?

I'm part of a German forum and going with the stereotypical German attitude, many answers to those duplicate posts are very direct. A "how did you adjust to life in the US?" or "what vacuum cleaner is the best?" is often answered with "why don't you use the search function - we've already answered that a gazillion times!"

Makes sense to me too, but then I talked with a newbie in person who reminded me that not everyone is computer-literate, not everyone understands the "common sense" rules of a forum, and sometimes phrasing those seemingly easy questions is a way to enter a forum group without committing too much.

Answering in a direct way can be very affrontive and push the poster away and make them shy away from posting again. Not answering is kind of rude too as the poster obviously wants the question answered. One option is to link another thread or to simply answer and see if the topic takes off.

As one of the TV commercials said when the summer reruns were starting:

"If you haven't seen it before, it's new to you"

which is how I view all these posts - it's that old learning curve - if one doesn't know, it's good to ask -

after all this time, there still seem to be no definitive answers to some of the questions - nor would I really want there to be

my sewing room,buying a machine,wanting free fabric or pattern, rotary cutter information and so on.