Newbies, beware.

mfpcopine

If the people who have been on here for awhile are seeing the same things posted over and over, who cares? Don't respond to it. Just move to the next posting, and let the people who actually care to help others do so.

I've already started to ignore them, especially since I started knowing more about fitness and nutrition than many of the people new to this site. I was explaining what I imagine is the attitude of some people.

I do care, if I didn't, I wouldn't bother. There's no great honor or reward in anonymously dispensing advice. I provide what I view as the accurate advice.

I stopped reading the threads on the Fitbit site because 10 times a day there was a post on How Do I Set Up My Fitbit? There have been 100 threads on that and it's in the FAQ for heaven's sake.

MFP has helped me because logging my calories was important. A couple of groups, like the one on Intermittent Fasting, are helpful and actually tell me things I don't already know. In time, I'll probably quit MFP except maybe for the IF group.

I can't read another post on how if you skip a meal or drop below 1,200 calories you'll starve to death, or how if you are not losing weight the FIRST thing you should do is eat more without running screaming from the room. I must say that reading post after post like that has opened my eyes to the delusions that have allowed many people to get seriously overweight and obese.

What about the successfully lean, healthy, strong, and fit crowd who keeps pushing for for the undereaters to eat more and get out of their ruts? Are they playing a practical joke?

I assume it's well intentioned, but many of the people to whom the advice is pitched are not losing weight because they're not at the fitness level where the need to eat more calories to keep up their energy and muscle composition would really be an issue. They're being made to believe the problem is more complex than it is. Common sense should tell you that if you are obese or overweight that you should be looking to see if you are underestimating consumed calories and overestimating burned calories before you think about eating more.

It's no skin off my nose. I know how to maintain my weight, and lose weight. If I'd followed some of the advice I read here, I'd be morbidly obese.

bradthemedic

It's human nature. People are nasty and there's some sort of psychological joy people get out of shooting others down and making them feel awful. They get a rise out of it. Don't ask me why - but I'd say it's way more common than you'd think.

northfresh

hardly a shoot-down
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/585774-what-s-the-best-excercise-for-your-tummy

Not very nice though.

I don't know if we're clicking the same link and getting to two very different threads or not, but there was a lot of help on that thread. Very confusing to me.

What I've seen a lot on here in the time I've been here is that people ask a question and don't give sufficient information and then get mad at people for answering it because they don't want the answers to be the ones they're getting. I see a little bit of that going on. Then they set themselves up as the victim of all these mean people, and in this pattern I see the "victim" was the one that was getting huffy at everyone else. Often they start a thread then to talk about how they were victimized,

The result of that pattern that I've seen over and over and over in the past year, is that people who've been here get tired of being called names and yelled at by people they are trying to help.

So my constructive suggestion to Newbies, is to not ask a question until you really are ready to consider the honest answers you receive from others. If you ask for help, particularly with caps and !!!!'es and then argue back at people who try to help, you're just making this a worse place, not a better one. There are some really cool people here who remain happy to help, but they don't like getting yelled at and called mean either.

Also, were there deleted posts in that thread? There seemed to be gaps...

quixoteQ

I like how this thread is already five pages long. At least you know people are listening to you, even if you are new :smokin:

Steven

In my rush to deal with the hurt feelings in this thread, I missed a major point I should have made much more clearly.

There's no problem at all with users pointing other users to available resources: we have an official help resource: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/help and an amazing unofficial source http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/457-unofficial-mfp-faq

The point I should have made more clearly is that responses to repeat questions on the order or "holy crap, not this again, didn't you search?" or "it's called google.com" are discouraging and are contrary to the guideline regarding "belittling others for posting a repeat question."

It's completely within the guidelines (and greatly appreciated) to introduce folks to available resources, provided it's done without making the OP feel like an idiot for asking. Responses like

"Great question. You can find a thorough response here..."
or

"I had a similar question when I joined. There's a ton of information at http://www.myfitnesspal.com/help "

are terrific responses. But the following is NOT a terrific response:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/help

nor is posting an screenshot showing a circle around the "search" tool. That's just cold.

Please engage with and encourage users even when you are diverting them to existing resources. That's the spirit we'd like to see on the boards.

I hope that clarifies our position. Let's make folks welcome, k?

Steven

InnerFatGirl

In my rush to deal with the hurt feelings in this thread, I missed a major point I should have made much more clearly.

There's no problem at all with users pointing other users to available resources: we have an official help resource: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/help and an amazing unofficial source http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/457-unofficial-mfp-faq

The point I should have made more clearly is that responses to repeat questions on the order or "holy crap, not this again, didn't you search?" or "it's called google.com" are discouraging and are contrary to the guideline regarding "belittling others for posting a repeat question."

It's completely within the guidelines (and greatly appreciated) to introduce folks to available resources, provided it's done without making the OP feel like an idiot for asking. Responses like

"Great question. You can find a thorough response here..."
or

"I had a similar question when I joined. There's a ton of information at http://www.myfitnesspal.com/help "

are terrific responses. But the following is NOT a terrific response:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/help

nor is posting an screenshot showing a circle around the "search" tool. That's just cold.

Please engage with and encourage users even when you are diverting them to existing resources. That's the spirit we'd like to see on the boards.

I hope that clarifies our position. Let's make folks welcome, k?

Steven

^perfect.

serenitymay1995

This is just another sect of society,,,no matter what I have ever participated in in life,,,,there are wonderful people and not so wonderful people. I've learned that I cannot change the world or anyone in it, I can only change myself. If someone has the ability to spoil my day,,,,they own way to much of my power. So I try to maintain my own well being and I often have much compassion for those that are emotionally sick. It's so sad to live like that but don't waste your good energy on not so good energy.

monty619

hardly a shoot-down
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/585774-what-s-the-best-excercise-for-your-tummy

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Ruebsss

Just flush the negative. It's like anything else on the internet, everyone has something to say and it's not always positive.

Feel free to add me to your friends. I'm always up for positive encouragement, answering questions etc.

This is good advice... adding as first friend