[Rahmat1]

Looking at the number of views vs. replies in this forum gives me an indication that this forum sucks and nobody is getting answers so I call it waste of time

[Guvennergiz]

Here is your answer.

It is a forum, not a technical support department where you create tickets for your questions.

[aerosayan]

Originally Posted by Rahmat1

Looking at the number of views vs. replies in this forum gives me an indication that this forum sucks and nobody is getting answers so I call it waste of time

Looking at number of views will mislead you.

CFD is difficult, and many of the people who visit the forum will not be able to answer many questions. So even though 100 people might've viewed the post, they might not know enough to answer some questions.

So even if you get 2-4 answers, consider it a success.

I have been here for like 2-3 years, and I had a good experience asking questions here.

[LuckyTran]

to be fair the vast majority of questions follows a recipe of

please sir I have a homework/assignment/project due, can you please look at all my files and subsequently uploaded to some obscure ftp link that every professional knows never to click because it might be a concealed social engineering attempt. I have numerous professors, advisors, and colleagues but I'm not willing to swallow my pride and ask them for help, I'd rather risk it with randos on the internet. All of this is of course knowing full well that there are dedicated forums for the respective software packages, on top of the vendors (Ansys, Siemens, etc) having their own dedicated support chains. Although I generally want to give posters the benefit of the doubt, they have to at least put in some effort to not sound like a bot. And if what you need is therapy then you will indeed be wasting your time here.

In classic internet fashion they go and make the exact same post 10x in every subforum and send pm's to everyone they can find. If they receive their answer in a pm then they are satisfied and never go back to delete their 10 posts (because they can't) and also never update their posts to include the solution and lo-and-behold after decades you now have a forum with tons of views and no replies to posts

I will say that every legitimate inquiry or technical challenge I have ever had, I have found answers to or at least someone has been able to highlight where are the gaps in my knowledge, and only once did it take more than a week. And honestly, this is way faster than any journal editor has ever responded to me and so I will so the quality here is not unacceptable

Most people come here thinking they want help from experts when really they just want to have a conversation with ChatGPT

I recently responded to an OpenFOAM inquiry where the error message clearly indicated a line was missing. Of course the person did not understand but they proceeded instead to vent all their frustrations to me. I'm not an OpenFOAM developer nor am I a therapist... There's nothing I can do to help them.

[poly_tec]

Browsing OPs history, he is an embodiment of the problem. Entitlement abounds.

[sbaffini]

Originally Posted by Rahmat1

Looking at the number of views vs. replies in this forum gives me an indication that this forum sucks and nobody is getting answers so I call it waste of time

Let me play the devil's advocate: you are right!

I am very appalled too by the fact that very few people actually contribute here.

I know a lot of people good at cfd, and a lot of other people I don't know directly also have their site with a specific link to this site. Yet, none of them has ever wrote a single line here.

I can't speak for others, but I know that if it wasn't for this site, my b.sc. thesis would have been a dead end with no help even from the official support of the code I was using at the time. That's why I stayed.

So, first of all, you are right, but do you know alternatives? Every now and then I look around to other CFD communities but, honestly, I only see aneddotical or casual competence. Most researchgate answers are even plain wrong.

Which, in my opinion, is also the reason why most people then, in the end, ask help here.

So, my take is that, despite being barely functioning at times, this is still your best chance to get some help in CFD.

Now, let's see this from the side of people actually contributing here (and also those not contributing yet but waiting to). Besides what LuckyTran has already mentioned, there are additional reasons:

- people always ask the same questions, possibly with answers in an user manual. For example, I simply decided to not contribute anymore the Fluent forum (where I was most active) because I couldn't handle the amount of identical questions again and again, all of which always had a manual entry as an answer.

- people do overly complex things. More than 90% of things I see here are really complex stuff. It seems everyone here is doing supersonic multiphase combustion with moving meshes: well, good luck then, you certainly are on your own there. In general, anyone doing very specific things should understand that the chances to get any help are very low indeed, which is natural

- people have a too low understanding of what they're doing. I still fall on this now and then, but I noticed that the most frequent contributors here have learned to exactly avoid those people that eventually suck you down into an endless spiral of missed points. Most of us then are able to spot those cases and simply avoid them. They won't understand in any case, so it's just a waste of time.

- this is personal but, exactly because of the very few active contributors, sometimes I feel it is better to leave answers to others. If I find myself being the only one answering over 2-3 days, I will just stop.

- there is a very specific kind of post that gets attention and, I know it may sound absurd, but that's exactly the type as described in the forum guidelines, which are basically the same in every technical forum since more than 25 years. Roughly speaking, it is when op has tracked down his problem to a question that doesn't seem to have an answer anywhere or he simply doesn't understand that answer. Any other post is not about op problem but op learning basic technical stuff or thinking, and most people who see that will simply pass

Summing up, assuming someone using CFD is somehow a technician, most questions here are embarassing or, better, cringe af, for their wording, topic or simple lack of understanding of basic forum rules. How can someone not understand the fact that a Fluent/OF/etc. related question goes into the respective forum is honestly beyond my understanding and yet, it happens almost every day. Will that person get any help? Very unlikely.

If you add all of this, and compare this with other platforms, my humble opinion is that it is a miracle that some people still answer questions here

[sbaffini]

Originally Posted by poly_tec

Browsing OPs history, he is an embodiment of the problem. Entitlement abounds.

Exactly!!! He actually got answers to anything he posted and never cared to actually give a damn feedback

[LuckyTran]

Specifically regarding OpenFOAM... Tobi is a frequent visitor and elevated user at this forum... Tobi maintains tons of OpenFOAM tutorial material via blogs and even recently put out full blown youtube videos. Tobi also works for ESI. You legitimately have unabated access to a hybrid OpenFOAM support professional & hobbyist here, among many others.


Still, I won't open your case out of principle. If you can't describe your issue then I can't be bothered.

[fluid23]

This is my new favorite thread.