True story here, but URLs and subjects changed to protect the innocent.
Tonya needs to find information on actor Mary Sue for a personal project. Instead of googling, Tonya decides to look on Twitter and finds an account ‘MarySueFansite’ and think ‘Aha! They’ll know!’ So Tonya asks them ‘Where can I get info about Mary Sue?’ @MarySueFansite looks at Tonya funny and says ‘My site, http://marysuefans.net, has everything I’ve got on her. Enjoy! But credit us please. Thanks!’ Tonya doesn’t reply, and about 12 hours later ask them again ‘Okay, but I need more info!’ The fansite replies, again, telling Tonya to go to the site and read. Then Tonya asks for URLs. At this point, the fansite is pissed at Tonya and writes up an angry blog post wondering what the fuck is wrong with her?
People, look. This isn’t hard. If you want information on someone, you google. If Tonya had google ‘Mary Sue’ (by the way, don’t), she would have gotten hits in this order:
- IMDb’s page on Mary Sue
- WikiPedia’s entry on Mary Sue
- Mary Sue Fansite (aka http://marysuefans.net)
- Mary Sue’s official website
Now, there’s nothing wrong with Tweeting at @marysuefansite and asking for info, like ‘Do you know when Mary Sue said she hates yak cheese?’ That’s specialized, kinda weird, info. Maybe the fansite replies ‘Sure it was [link]. And by the way, you can search for that at [link].’ That’s pretty nice, I think. Someone is both showing you the fish and where to get more. But to ask the fansite a generic ‘Where do you have info on Mary Sue?’ shows that YOU have done NO legwork. And therefore, you’re a waste of their time.
That’s harsh, but I mean it. You are wasting everyone’s time, and hurting yourself, by not making that extra step to go look something up on your own. Doing that one step is easy, and it makes you smarter. You learn how to think, and not just ask. Asking is fine, for some things, but if you want to really learn something, like how to find information when you don’t know who to ask, you start looking. You need to learn how to do things on your own, at some point in your life. Not everything, like changing a tire, but you need to know how to find someone to change the tire.
In fact, I would argue that the most important skill to learn as a human being (other than how to use your thumb correctly) would be the skill of research. That’s why we spend so much time in school being told to write papers. You learn how to find information, parse it, and (yes) repeat it back in your own words. This is teaching you how to think! The internet makes it easier to find information, though probably not in how to think if recent emails/tweets tossed at me are any indication. Someone actually told me ‘I’m writing a paper on Mary Sue. Tell me about her.’ I told her to look it up, and she could tell her teacher I said so.
Now, if the real secret question you’re asking the Mary Sue Fansite is ‘Can you get me in touch with Mary Sue?’ then you should actually just stop dithering and ask that. Of course, I’d suggest checking the website first. They probably have something on a FAQ or About page that answers that question for you. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to answer the question ‘Is Jorja Fox Pregnant?’ It’s at the point where I actually block people’s emails for asking it more than once. It’s on the FAQ (under how to get in touch with her and above if I met her).
Of course, if you do look it up first, shoot @MarySueFansite a thank you for the awesome site. They usually appreciate it! And always cite your source!