Some changes (reverting back to old rules) to forums

Prisoner,

Was there a question about the action taken ?

I thought the thread was good and that one single idiot post didn't warrant the thread being closed and, I thought you felt the same way -

I just passed my thoughts on - Violator banned, post edited -

The conversation, based in the depths of space, dealt with what one wouldn't do to become a Mod. Absolutely nothing to do with Babylon 5, a fair proggy but I liked the First Generation myself (lol)

Pete

 

Definitely no scams wanted. We get enough of those outside AD. Good work in pointing out the offender to the mods there Pete.

 

Well I don't have any p'ticular reason to be here on this thread other than to say that I regularily read many of the Afterdawn discussions and I love the place. I haven't posted in awhile tho ...

Rob
Of the North

 

I'm very sorry in advance for this post which may force this thread at least partially back on topic, but I was concerned about something I read up top.

'i.e. "don't show discussion threads started by newbies and with no replies" '

Umm...with all due respect, I have a small problem with that. Seeing how I am a newbie, I would like the senior members and members to read my posts before another newbie posts to it. Alot of legit posts would go unanswered if you let members filter out all previously unanswered noob posts.

I mean, if us newbs have to view a splash screen; the members could at least view all the posts.

 

pandymen! Welcome to AD.

I've seen some excellent threads started by newbies. They were well thought out and had potential for growth. Alas there are also those who come here looking for answers and rather than make use of the information already available here at AD they start a thread for the sake of a single question. fter 2 or 3 posts their question gets answered and the thread becomes abandoned, useless. I've seen some who have started the same thread in more than one forum area for the same question.

This is a selfish use of resources because it only serves the person who asked the question. I think that there should be a small waiting period, say five days before a new member can start a thread. It would still be a newbie thread but by then the person will have had time to read the forum rules and made an effort to find the answer to their question in another thread.

 

There are other forums that have a waiting period and I for one didn't care for it -

HOWEVER,

About the splash screen - the way I understand it, it would have the rules and links for guides but it should stay there for a brief time to encourage the Newbie to read it.

My thought would be that instead of a 5-day waiting period it could work on a 5-time login principle. If you had an important question you could login 5 times in say, 5 minutes and then post.

My reasoning:

Say you needed aid in correcting a drive that just stopped working - waiting 5-days would create a hardship so you could conceivably get your problem solved in short order by posting 5 times (watching the same splash/ rules screen for the 5X 30 seconds each time). After the 5X of watching the screen they would, if nothing else, know our rules.


Whatta ya think ??

 

I didn't like the 5 day waiting period for posting either but for starting a thread it might just have some merit. I think that anyone should be allowed to post as soon as they're members.

 

I was thinking like a Newbie when I gave that example and not thinking of the way things are actually are -

Topics change within threads all the time here -

A question Sophocles, why make them wait until they are members ?? Besides creating a hardship for them, what would be the purpose ??

Should we make them wait for a week before they can post for the first time ?




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The “old man” Pete (ö¿ô)
Compaq 8000, Pent 4 CPU 2.84GHz, 1024MB RAM, 520GB HD.
4 Drives, Pioneer 107, 8X R/W , Nec R/W ND-1300A, JLMS DVD ROM, AXV CD/DVD-ROM. GeForce4 Ti 4200-128MB,
OS– XP [/small]

 

It is a difficult situation, on the one hand we have a batch of posts by Newbies that have been answered hundreds of times. If they learned search before post a lot of time and space wouldn't be expended. On the other hand, I wasn't happy with the waiting period imposed on me by one of the other forums. There needs to be some system in place to control the needless abuses and have the Newbies learn the rules. One idea would be to allow privileges, but if abused, they would go on a 3 day period where they couldn't post. That would allow the privileges and encourage the Newbies to be on their toes. It should be kept in effect at least a month. That way they wouldn't fall back into bad habits.

 

Some good ideas, but some newbies are the best source to solve problems. thinking back to why I signed on was because a question I aswered in person 5 times that same day I saw was here without an answer. So I login and posted. You might loose new members with some of the limitations here.

I currently like the way the site is setup. IF it were possible to have a text screener, that would be cool. As in you type a comment like this and if it contains certain words or phases the REPLY button will not work.

 

Pete I was'nt suggesting that they wait until they're members for anything. Let them post right away first day but have them wait five days before starting a thread. Give them a chance to become familiar with AD that's all.
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In every dialogue and discourse, we must be able to say to those who take offence, "Of what do you complain?"

Pensees Section III: of the Necessity of the Wager[/small]

 

So, no one seemed to think the priveleges with abuse penalty idea had any merit, eh?

 

Bear,

The enforcement of that type of a system would tax our system beyond it's resources unless there were 100 full time Mods to police the forum.

With the attrition rate the way it is, everyone would be a Mod at some time no matter what his or her abilities.

This then would not be a place I'd ever want to come to -

 

Pete

All we'd need is Praetor's twin or perhaps a doppelganger.

Pete

If we restricted starting a thread by a few days and nothing else, we'd reduce the effort needed by mods considerably, the one time posters would go someplace else for their quick fix, and the truly interested would hang with us for five days and beyond.

We may need to be a little more realistic here at AD. We need to realize that not every person is a perfect candidate, some of us are S-Y-K-E-S, and some us are Vurbal’s, or Praetor’s, and also the rest of us.

Everyone should be given a fair chance to prove their genuineness through the sincerity of their acts, their desire to contribute. Everyone should be allowed to voice their opinions, but I think that before they can start a thread they should understand its purpose, and that its worth is to share knowledge, not to start threads for a simple close ended question that ends in a dead end.

Sure some of us will start threads that won't fly, but it's our expereinces and intent that seperates our attempts from pointless dead end threads.

_X_X_X_X_X_[small]

In every dialogue and discourse, we must be able to say to those who take offence, "Of what do you complain?"

Pensees Section III: of the Necessity of the Wager[/small]

 

Pete
Possibly it is an idea without a lot of merit. But it wouldn't require all Mods. Even now members and Seniors do a certain amount of policing of the forum. Note the manner in which scammers are treated. The Mod does the job and members do the policing. Often it is not the Mods that tell the Newbies where they erred, but the members. So why couldn't annoying infractions be reported and action taken then? These are just rhetorical questions and don't need an answer. But in the end, the system may just need to be left well enough alone. The cure may be worse than the problem. Now where did those beer cans go? )

 

Hi guys, The newbie post problem has come up on several threads as I'm sure you are all aware of. On one of the them about newbies starting new threads I suggested a message or splash screen be added saying something like:
HAVE YOU TRIED THE FORUM SEARCH FEATURE FOR AN ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION?
This could show up whenever start a new thread is clicked on. This way the newbies would at least see that there is a search feature on here. I guess my suggestion never went anywhere. It was worth a shot.

Jerry

 

Or you could force a search screen before allowed to create a new thread. So a search count of atleast one one needs to be registered before they could post.

 

Hmmm...a mandatory search count of one would be a good idea.

 

A_Klingon

It was a pleasure to see this jackass blown out. I will now celebrate with a Guinness.
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In every dialogue and discourse, we must be able to say to those who take offence, "Of what do you complain?"

Pensees Section III: of the Necessity of the Wager[/small]