JonCooper wrote on Dec 30^th, 2008 at 3:43pm:

Perhaps you would like to contribute more often, with numbers that are not "useless", of course.

Maybe you can provide working alternative numbers without any information.

Dave wrote on Dec 30^th, 2008 at 5:06pm:



nah, my posting style wouldn't fit in with the prevailing attitude

JonCooper wrote on Dec 30^th, 2008 at 5:15pm:

I have amended the wording in my signature from:

Quote:

to:

Quote:

I am limited in the number of characters I can use for it. If you have any further suggestions, please post them or contact me via private message.


The need (for want of a better word) to read and act on the instructions/guide is a pragmatic one. Providing information gets us to the position of an alternative number.

Therefore, those requests which don't offer any information leave others to find it or may well not get a response. Furthermore, there may be several steps to getting an alternative. For example, one member finds some information which he/she posts and someone else then finds a second piece of information which leads to a suitable number being posted. This does not mean that the one who posted the number is "the only one to actually help" because the other member didn't offer a number.

Any suggested alternatives are provided without warranties. It may be that the number is not a direct alternative. For example, it may be sales or switchboard when the request is for customer services. It's down to those requesting the number to see if they will help or put them through from the alternative.

Saying that a suggested solution is "useless" is confrontational in itself. It's much a slap in the face for whoever helped find it.

Providing feedback on whether numbers work or not helps others with the same or similar query. This is the point of the website. Everyone helps one another. Hence the database is a compilation of numbers which have been found by the efforts of many people.