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With these kinds of stories there is sometimes a temptation to judge. "How could they not know?!" is a reply we see a lot. Fight that urge. The truth is.. people.com/woman-tells-...

... if you don't have anyone in your life to teach you "dryers have exhaust vents" or "portable generators produce deadly levels of carbon monoxide in minutes," you might never learn until it's too late. If you know this stuff, that's great. But, it's a nation of 300 million people...

... Everyone can't know everything. It's why we do what we do over here. It's why we encourage you to share these messages with people. There's no formal safety training for how to live life as an adult. There is literally just what we help each other learn (through safety memes).

And before you are tempted to judge anyway, when's the last time you checked if your carbon monoxide alarms are working? Do you even have one? These are very obvious safety devices everyone should own and maintain. Go push that test button.

A good habit to get into - any time you start using a new product - take a minute to look up the manual and read through the safety info. Also, if you buy a new product, register it with the manufacturer. This is a good way to find out about product safety issues and recalls.

I always try to at least look over the manual. But these days we mostly don't even get them! It's a QR code. Which means scanning it with your phone, going to the site, copying the link, mailing it to yourself so you can read it on your computer instead of your phone, then remembering to do it. :P

As someone who writes the manuals, these replies are especially ironic because I have lots of first-hand experience in the fact that even well-written, well-organized manuals are not usually read.

One of the most maddening things I have in tech is when I find an error...and support says "rtfm" and I'm like no, between step 15 and 16 something fails and doesn't align with what it says the expected results should be...and they tell me to rtfm again pointing me to the same steps.

oof what a task. anybody ever tell you they love your work on the variable temperature steam nozzle calibration settings from the booklet that came with my iron?

No, I do not typically get feedback from users. I can apply technical communication and information design principles until the cows come home, but the only metric that really counts is user success.

Good design is invisible, as they say! A thankless but really, really important job

Also, you know, sometimes the appliances come with the house and the previous owners didn't leave the manuals behind.

Yep. Or you're renting, I've never had an apartment come with appliance manuals.

A young adult moves into a place with a washer and dryer- what are the chances the manual is still there for them to read? 😂 Almost zero! And, manuals aren’t always clear! It’s time consuming to pour over one! I am a manual-reader, but I realize most folks aren’t!

This is quite true, which is why the manufacturers need to emboss the link to the online manual on the front of every appliance.

You'd be surprised - I have found an increasing number of products DON'T have manuals anymore! Many now expect you to look online or go on YouTube...the Android FindMy official trackers I got were like that and frustrating. And if it gets discontinued or goes out of business, bye bye documentation!