"Read the Manual" - is this comment/response always helpful?

[Viathelens]

If you get so irritated, why are responding at all...?? As already pointed out, the manual(s) are a starting place as there is no real context in them. As far as searching the forum, it is extremely difficult to locate the subject matter you are looking for as you DON'T KNOW precisely the term you should be looking for..Then you have to wade thru 44 pages of irrelevancy not what you were inquiring about..Nor should the questioned asked be predicted of all the steps taken before asking...If its "What Camera should I buy?" . I get it, just move past it...There seems to be some sort of arrogance of "Well Known Members". Sorry, just how it looks to me....

Hi Barry, as you are new and I've been on this forum from the start I want to let you know that this is the absolute best forum available to learn more about wildlife photography from many experienced members who are usually very glad to help out. This forum is well-monitored by Steve and others and they are always on the lookout for "bad actors," who are quickly removed or spoken to. Your comment about "There seems to be some sort of arrogance of "Well Known Members". Sorry, just how it looks to me...." is really not applicable to this forum and I just have not seen that same thing, although there are always a few people on any forum who might be reacting to something before that first cup of coffee in the morning! Everyone I've interacted with has always been very willing to help and very nice about it and I hope you find the same thing.

 

[Ken Miracle]

From someone who worked ~30 years in the documentation business (user guides, reference guides, owners manuals, etc.):

No, RTFM is never useful and usually rude for several reasons, but here are 2 that should be enough:

• Camera reference manuals are pretty dry reads, giving only the function and brief parameter descriptions without a lot of conceptual 'how to' text to help people wrap their brains around it
• When you tell someone to RTFM, you may not be considering that persons reading or comprehending abilities in your arrogance.

There are several better ways to hand this, such as:

• Just move along and say nothing if you don't intend to help. Leave it to others.
• Giving a bit of description with examples and/or screen shots for clarity is helpful in ways that go beyond the dry reference page. This is true for the software we use (Adobe, C1) as well as camera gear.
• Give that help, but (as mentioned by someone else) give the page number in the owners manual, maybe a screenshot of the page. When you do this, you're already pointing out that there's a manual with the information — there's no need to add "read the manual".

Chris

Well said.

I used to be a marketing manager for a farm machinery manufacturer. So I worked a lot with those in and out of our company in the documentation end of things and we frequently had different needs and it was tough to meet both needs with one document.

I think one of the interesting improvements that came along with the Z9 has been the much larger amount of information with more conceptual how to text than I have ever "noticed" from Nikon. There is an amazing amount of information beyond the users manual (the least useful for me) in the Reference Guide, supplementary firmware update manuals, available roles for custom controls, Settings Guides for sports, auto capture, wildlife, video and various technical guides. However Nikon's marketing side has not done a great job of letting customers and possible customers know about it.

My photography has a very strong wildlife, mostly birds since I am a birder, bias. That is how I discovered @Steve and his amazing videos and books back in the days I was using D4s, D500, D850 and D6.

 

[BarryR]

Hi Barry, as you are new and I've been on this forum from the start I want to let you know that this is the absolute best forum available to learn more about wildlife photography from many experienced members who are usually very glad to help out. This forum is well-monitored by Steve and others and they are always on the lookout for "bad actors," who are quickly removed or spoken to. Your comment about "There seems to be some sort of arrogance of "Well Known Members". Sorry, just how it looks to me...." is really not applicable to this forum and I just have not seen that same thing, although there are always a few people on any forum who might be reacting to something before that first cup of coffee in the morning! Everyone I've interacted with has always been very willing to help and very nice about it and I hope you find the same thing.

Because of your four year longevity to my two years (well actually a tad bit more), I am not new here....I am here because of Steve and the non-product bashing on this forum and the excellent advice that comes from here....I didn't say bad actors nor am I complaining...If the poster wants to curse at a guy/gal (RTFM) for asking a question so be it, if he knows the answer to the question and make that remark it is arrogance.. (I know the answer, but not telling)..Its just manners.. Ill end it here..Again, sorry for rant, was not complaining about a Well-Known Members badge nor most of the wearers..(If that's a word, I'm not looking it up !! )