To post or not to post, that's the question

[TLE]

"I'm posting therefore I am" ...or.. "Silence is gold"

No OK, lets get serious.
I'm posting here because I'm hoping to draw on the experience of some of you guys, to gain some insight into the delicate issues of appropriate forum behavior.

The question I'm struggling with is: When do I reply to a post if I'm not sure I can give the complete answer, well knowing that if I reply the thread will loose its "unanswered" status and thus fewer eyes will see it.

Lets take two examples:

The post describes symptoms, that I know can be the result of one of several, say 3, different issues. I know that, I know the solution to one of these issues. Then do I reply, to figure out if the issue this thread describes is the one that I can answer ?
The thread is formulated so vaguely that nobody will be able to help, e.g. "My HD doesn't work what to do ?". Then do I reply to ask this person to elaborate (sort of betting that the problem is so simple that I can solve it, since probably only I will be described to it afterwards) or should I let somebody with larger HD experience do that, so he will see the elaboration ?


So my fellow Ubuntu-forum-enthusiasts. Let me know what you think.
Regards TLE

[spotman]

In my opinion --

I think that part of Ubuntu's success is all about the community, and the amazing way that knowledge has spread because of this community.

No other operating system distribution that I have ever used has a community *quite* like this.

So in light of that, I think that if you have anything that is positive, go ahead and post it.

In either of the examples you gave, I think posting a partial answer, or asking for more information is the most appropriate.

If 40 people look at a 3 part question and all disregard it because they only know 1 part of it, then the question will remain unanswered. If just 3 or 6 of these people all posted what they think could help, not only will it foster further discussion on the topic, but there is a good chance combined knowledge can help the community.

Spread the knowledge, because that is all we really have ;)

Cheers
-spotman

[Klaidas]

Help as much as you can.
If a dude asks 3 questions, but you can only answer 1... well, answer it!

[TLE]

Help as much as you can.
If a dude asks 3 questions, but you can only answer 1... well, answer it!
Well, that wasn't actually what I asked about.

[Engnome]

Both your examples are examples of a user providing to little information, if you feel like helping out ask for more information. If you don't maybe someone else will.

[aysiu]

The post describes symptoms, that I know can be the result of one of several, say 3, different issues. I know that, I know the solution to one of these issues. Then do I reply, to figure out if the issue this thread describes is the one that I can answer ? I think you should reply with exactly what you said here: "Those symptoms could be the result of a number of problems. I know how to solve one of those problems but not all of them. Could you post the output of these commands so that I or someone else can determine what the problem might be?"
The thread is formulated so vaguely that nobody will be able to help, e.g. "My HD doesn't work what to do ?". Then do I reply to ask this person to elaborate (sort of betting that the problem is so simple that I can solve it, since probably only I will be described to it afterwards) or should I let somebody with larger HD experience do that, so he will see the elaboration ? Ask for elaboration.

[TLE]

Well there seem to be an consensus here.
Thank you all for answering :D