I've done a lot of forum reading lately because I have wanted answers as to how to make software work. And so I am going to take the horn by the bull and tell you why forums are worthless.
First of all, they are not written in gramatically correct English. Sorry, Charlie, pigeon English doesn't cut it. And so both the questions and the responses are cryptic or ambiguous or worthless. Take your pick.
Questions should be written so responders understand the question. This means you have to furnish documentation. You have to identify the form where the problem occurred; you have to say exactly what you wrote; you have to say exactly how you got there. You have to identify alternatives you have tried and that don't work and you have to suggest alternatives. Yes, I know it takes time to write the background for the question. But look how long it takes to finally get an answer. Tell the whole story in the beginning and save yourself calendar time. The questions indicate the writers, including myself, have no idea how all this internet programming actually works. Which ought to give the responders a clue as to how to write a response.
When you read the answers, it's pretty obvious the background to the question wasn't given adequately. It's also pretty obvious that some responders are simply responding off the top of their heads and many haven't the vaguest idea of how to solve the problem. The key point, for those who are qualified to answer the question, is they have to leave their techie language behind and write in plain old fashioned English. The hard point to comprehend is the response is not an opportunity to show off how smart you are; it is a time to communicate the answer to the problem. And so it has to be written in plain, old fashioned grammically correct English with no technical words. You have to tell the questioner how to click through and fill out forms to solve the problem. That's something he canunderstand.
Yes, I know. You really didn't want to hear this. But until the writers of the software want to step up and respond and as long as they let us users, who really don't have their knowledge, respond, us users got to learn to do it right. How do you like that for good English?