Spoon feeding

From Wikipedia: spoon feeding "often means to present something to a person or group so thoroughly or wholeheartedly as to preclude the need of independent thought, initiative or self-reliance on the part of the recipient; or to present information in a slanted version, with the intent to preclude questioning or revision. Someone who accepts passively what has been offered in this way is said to have been spoon-fed."

When a player asks another how to train woodcutting, he will get what can be termed a spoon fed answer of chopping willows. It doesn't seem to matter the circumstances, only that the fastest and popular method is the correct one. To take this analogy a step further, the original player could clarify by providing more information about his woodcutting, such as "should I bank maples as I cut or drop them", but would likely receive the same answer to cut willows. Even narrowing the choice of trees to "maples or teak" will get the reply to cut willows.

Each player plays differently from every other player. Training methods vary from person to person, yet these pat answers have remained the default for years. Here is a listing of the most common for each skill:

Attack and Defense - use whip

Strength - use d scim/ss

Range - cannon

Magic - high alch

Prayer - gilded altar

Cooking - lobbies to 94, shark to 99 with gauntlets

Woodcutting - willows at Draynor/Barbarian Assault

Fletching - willow longs (u), yew longs

Fishing - fly fish at Shilo/barbarian fish

Firemaking - maples/willows

Crafting - green dhide bodies

Smithing - gold bars with gauntlets

Mining - iron/granite

Herblore - prayer/super restore pots

Agility - Ape Atoll

Thieving - Pyramid Plunder

Farming - willow and pineapple trees

Runecrafting - nats

Hunter - red chins

Construction - oak larders/dungeon doors with butler

Only a small percentage of people bother to find out if these regurgitated responses are right for them. Some like to train a skill to make money and at a method they like rather than what's the most efficient way. If you can't stand fighting for room to set box traps to catch red chinchompas, is it really an efficient manner to train hunter?