About the Excel Questions Forum

[DocAElstein]

About the Excel Questions Forum
. I’ve not been around Excel Help forums (or programming!) until recently. It seems to me that MrExcel.com is without question the leading board (I am comparing with English and German speaking Forums)...
. In particular the Excel Questions Forum is awesome!. At Peak times it has insane levels of traffic. It seems to Peak in normal working hours. Looking at typical threads I suspect many employed programmers use the forum as a quick efficient way to solve their all-day programming problem. (Occasionally perhaps also to do their work for them!). But all in all it seems to work fine, and people often give back into the forum and “cross fertilization” is a healthy thing!.
. But because of its success and size and in particular the speed, it can be a bit daunting for beginners or Amateurs like me, just working part time or privately. Threads can quickly “vanish” as the Forum moves so fast. I was wondering whether in the future might be worth considering having an extra “Excel Amateurs Questions” Forum for general and beginner questions. It could possibly be a better place to make reference in threads to MrExcel Product, Learning material, Add-ins and the such. I expect most of the users of the current Excel Questions Forum know all the basics and as employed programmers probably have direct means of accessing Add-ins and Software Products, or copies thereof!.
Alan.

 

[MARK858]

I personally wouldn't worry about posts dropping off the board during peak times as there is the zero replies posts button which a lot of regular posters look at.

 

[DocAElstein]

I personally wouldn't worry about posts dropping off the board during peak times as there is the zero replies posts button which a lot of regular posters look at.

Hi, thanks for the reply.
. That's a good point, one I’ve heard a few times now. I have to be a bit more careful not to correct my posts as I did a few times in the past as that makes it look as though the post was read.
. There is however also the problem that somebody tries in good faith to answer but is not able to, or only partially answers, or simply asks for more info to the problem.
. (Maybe there could also be a "only 1 or two" reply button, or a "not yet solved button“ For the "not yet solved" button it could be up to the discretion of the moderators to mark the Thread as solved in the case that the initiator of the thread had not done so, but that in the opinion of the moderator’s enough response had been given. )
. But generally the board does work well, also for beginners sometimes. My suggestion of a Beginner's section was just an idea to make it perhaps even better, by splitting the Excel forum up a bit. I think the volume it gets could justify that. And I think there are some amazing Excel brains there that possibly are Bored by Beginners Questions and would welcome the reduction in traffic which as I said is insane at peak times. At the same time it would help Amateur and beginners like me in answering Threads: I answer as much as I can, but most Threads are too difficult for me.
Alan