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A piece about forums in general, but mainly this one.
Please note this is a long rant, but I'm in that kind of mood.
I have been active on this type of forum for many years.
I started out on the excellent WHQuestion, now dead, and have been active on alot of other sites.
Overall I have had alot of fun and games and met some very fine people and had to put up with many idiots, flamewars and general stupidity.
What really gets me is the apparent inability of some users to follow even the most basic rules of etiquette when interacting with other people.
Small things like common courtesy, manners and respect are some of the things that come to mind. After all we all give our time and effort freely, but to be derided by, mostly forum newbies, is just plain bad manners.
While I’m on the subject of rules, simple ones like correct places to post. How hard is it to find the board you want and post a question? After all, the main index page has a whole list of available subjects.
Back to forum newbies, why is it that they feel that the use of English and punctuation are an optional extras.
This isn’t a chatroom, speed isn’t an issue, so why use chatspeek. Are they really so thick that a basic grasp of English is beyond them?
OK you can forgive grammar and spelling, we are all guilty of that one at some time, but the out and out laziness of chatspeek is beyond me.
It really doesn’t help their cause or get their question resolved any quicker, as we have to spend time in translating their drivel into useable English. Some of our foreign users have a better grasp and it’s a second, or even third, language to them.
Last couple of things I promise.
The ability to read what has gone before your post, both previous responses and mainly the posted dates. The most annoying thing is when an ancient thread is reopened by someone posting a response. How difficult is it to check the original date and whether the user has been online since? OK some feel they are helping, but please how does posting a response to two year old question really help.
While on posting, do they really believe that repeating the same question on ten different boards will get their question answered any quicker!
Bugger lost my train of thought now. Amuse yourselves for a moment while I try and regain it. Normal ranting will be resumed shortly.
I remember now, hackers, spammers and scammers. Come on are we really going to buy the next wonder penis enhancement pill just because you post it twenty times in two minutes. Are we going to send you our bank account number because you can give us an unlimited overdraft. Are we going to help you retrieve your webmail password just because you say it’s your account.
Come on idiots what planet do you think we are from???
Rant over you may now return to real life.
A final thing to think on: Why is Common Sense so uncommon?
So what really bugs you abot these kind of forums ?
There is no way this could be a rigid rule. I would never advocate that. But if it were made a guideline it might make some people think a bit about how others view this practice and the damage to their reputations if they continue it.
What do you mean by reputation? Isn't it enhanced in cases like this, http://www.askmehelpdesk.com/showthread.php?t=21214 Doesn't every approval mean a happy customer? Or do you mean the respect of the good people here and people coming for help? I am not here to kill time or make friends. I doubt the people abusing things here care what you and I think of them.
The consensus I see from these discussions goes as follows:
1) If a question is technical in nature, once it has been answered adequately others should not repeat the answer. Instead they should add a comment supporting the answer.
2) In the above case, one should add an additional answer only if it adds substantively to the previous answer(s).
3) In a non technical question, additional comments supporting previous answers are more welcome. Since such questions are more a item of opinion, multiplicity of opinion is welcome.
Scott<>
Scott those are very good points maybe get some kind of forum Etiquette there are lots of people here that already use these rules, but there are also those that don't and play the system.
I've recently found myself posting to a thread but when its submitted two other people have already posted that can get confusing has any one else had this problem?
It happens several times when one is still writing a post and others answer at the same time but are shorter and quicker in submitting. I guess I just get long-winded a lot and have to accept it. Sometimes 'short and sweat' is OK, but I like to take time and pay attention to my responses to benefit others - hopefully.
What do you mean by reputation? Isn't it enhanced in cases like this, http://www.askmehelpdesk.com/showthread.php?t=21214 Doesn't every approval mean a happy customer? Or do you mean the respect of the good people here and people coming for help? I am not here to kill time or make friends. I doubt the people abusing things here care what you and I think of them.
after reading that thread again and again, I see where you're coming from. The person asking for help apparently did not know how to use the 'comment on this post' system - you are the first one who gave a detailed suggestion in that one - IMO.
But this should not stop you from giving your advice to help other's - some people will slowly catch on and they do appreciate your input.
There are many other posts that were commented with a 'thank you for responding' which does not, IMO, count as a rating, but it should not stop any of us from trying to help.
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