___/ On Sat 08 Apr 2006 20:41:39 BST, [ Podz ] wrote : \___
I just deleted a thread which had moved from the issue posted to
being personal. The problem was resolved and the thread served no
purpose hence it's removal. But what happened in the thread is
indicative of recent happenings.
I have had more email in the past month about the forums than in the
last year and every one had the same concern - "the forums aren't
friendly".
They need to be.
I don't care if you've seen the same post 500 times, I don't care if
you think they haven't searched - answer them by pointing at a
correct answer or don't bother answering them. You don't _have_ to
answer, so if you do - for any question - please be civil at the very
least.
If the response to every issue that had been posted once before had
been "SEARCH" then we'd not be much would we? Codex.. why bother - we
can search.
Tags can be added, search can be improved - we should be looking to
give at least one model answer which we can then reference, which can
be added to the search form, which can be read by those who never
post but just read (because you made search better), which can be
used by someone to feel confident enough to start answering posts as
well.
Bad news travels fastest and lingers longest - so one shouting match
in the forums can negate the effect of many many more good answers
and experiences. Calling people names ("Troll") also does nothing at
all but to attack and lower the tone. I have never yet seen anyone on
usenet disappear when called that so I don't see why it will happen
here. All this drags the forum down and starts to lower the bar of
what we should expect.
The forums are not our playground. We will all move on at some point
and we should leave an environment into which we would be happy to
post. WP is free and so is our help but it doesn't mean that we
should be anything less than helpful and decent.
The 'modlook' tag is something to be used against spammers and those
wishing to be destructive. It is also a tool others can use to make
sure than anyone's posts can be seen - that includes us. There is a
difference between using tools like editing/deleting/tagging to
manage the forums more effectively and abuse.
I'm not perfect - I know that - but please - if you cannot be polite,
please do not post.
Despite my inarguably mere contributions to the forums, I feel compelled to
comment on the topic. Back when I was participating in the forums, I found
the form of messages (the continuous flow) quite hard to use in a way which
leaves the whole unambiguously polite. It may be fine as an archival
reference page, but the OP can feel like a real pain at times.
Threads are very succinct by nature and nobody signs the messages. At times
I was appending greetings (as I always do in newsgroups), but I felt as
though it was a misfit and was not truly appreciated. bbPress was not built
for it.
My advice would be that more people should be encouraged to append (even
repetitively/automatically) a personal pattern such as "with kind regards",
"hope it helps" (not HTH which is mechanised and has many interpretations),
or "best wishes". Additionally, any short response (such as a link-only
and/or one-liner) would appear offencive, much like RTFM, which stands for
Read The Fine Manuals (where F doesn't always/necessarily stand for
"Fine").
Best wishes,
Roy
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