How to help first-time posters

[Joe4]

These folks (along with the "I need help" topics) need to have thier posts deleted and be sent a message to try again when tey learn to communicate their needs more effectively.

There are others forums out there that operate that way, this is not one of them.

Sounds rude, but there is waaayyy too much traffic on this board.

You speak of "traffic" on the board like it is a bad thing? Our goal is not to reduce traffic.

We would like people to make better posts, but we aren't going to threaten them with post deletion or banishment if they don't. Tracy has attempted something to see if it helps. Will everyone use it? No. But if some do, than I would consider it successful.

I think in most cases, nature runs it course and takes care of itself. People who post bad questions often get little help. Most either learn and start making better posts, or they eventually give up and stop posting because they are not getting help.

 

[Rekd]

There are others forums out there that operate that way, this is not one of them.

You speak of "traffic" on the board like it is a bad thing? Our goal is not to reduce traffic.

That wasn't my intention. I'm an admin for a forum called CNCzone, which has slightly more users than Mr. Excel so I was just equating my experience. My intention was that there's too much traffic to be able to sift through all the incoherent posts.

We would like people to make better posts, but we aren't going to threaten them with post deletion or banishment if they don't. Tracy has attempted something to see if it helps. Will everyone use it? No. But if some do, than I would consider it successful.

I think in most cases, nature runs it course and takes care of itself. People who post bad questions often get little help. Most either learn and start making better posts, or they eventually give up and stop posting because they are not getting help.

Never said anything about banishment. No need to put words in my posts.

Nature won't run its course in this case. It is getting to be worse, actually. Letting the habit continue does not eventually stop/slow it, it will encourage it.

You'd be doing your regular members (like me) a favor by eliminating the incoherant posts and requiring slightly more thought to be put into them, kind of like the thought that goes into helping them.

I guess it's like being at school and having a small group of kids off to the side asking radom incoherent questions that distract from the real lessons.

 

[Joe4]

Nature won't run its course in this case. It is getting to be worse, actually. Letting the habit continue does not eventually stop/slow it, it will encourage it.

Are you basing that statement that it is getting worse based on the 7.5 months you have been a member on this board?

This is how we haven chosen to Moderate this board. We do not read every single thread on the forum, we are all volunteers. We have no interest in going through all the threads and "deeming some questions unworthy".

We liked to think that part of our popularity is due to the fact that we are more laid back than many others Excel forums. For those who do not like the philosophy of this board, there are a variety of Excel forums out there with less traffic that Moderate their boards differently.

 

[Rekd]

Are you basing that statement that it is getting worse based on the 7.5 months you have been a member on this board?

Um, no. Just trying to help and there's no need to get testy.

I'm basing it on my experience over the last 7 years of building up CNCzone from nothing to something the size of MrExcel while limiting the number of useless posts.

This is how we haven chosen to Moderate this board. We do not read every single thread on the forum, we are all volunteers. We have no interest in going through all the threads and "deeming some questions unworthy".

You CAN'T read every thread in the forum, there's too much junk to sift through! And it is not that they are unworthy, it is that they are unreadable. You are putting more words in my post...

That's my point and, as luck would have it, the point of this entire thread. I'm trying to provide a solution (that worked already) and you're giving me a hard time about it.

We liked to think that part of our popularity is due to the fact that we are more laid back than many others Excel forums. For those who do not like the philosophy of this board, there are a variety of Excel forums out there with less traffic that Moderate their boards differently.

MrExcel is popular because of SEO. Same reason CNCzone is popular.

How you deal with that popularity is going to dictate the direction the forum takes. Right now it's headed down the road to a cluttered, un-organized pile of Excel posts where users searching for data have to sift through pages and pages of junk to get what they're looking for.

Like I said, I'm just trying to help. If you want to ride my *** about that's fine, I'll stop trying to help.

 

[diddi]

whilst i dont condone deletion of posts, i do see merit in Rekd thoughts.

i made a post elsewhere, which i cant find right now, the gist of which was 'i feel like there are a lot less interesting OPs that i want to investigate further'. there has recently been for me, a clutter of 'delete this row based on the color of the users shirt', finding duplicates, 'help me i cant read the prompts in Insert>Function' sort of OPs, which is fine except that ive already looked at 100 others the same.

as i said earlier, we are the victim of our own success.

can we detect without mod intervention bumped posts and target them with some possible reasons why they have not been replied to. recently, there was an obscure post which i had no idea about how to help, and after a while i posted to the guy, some reasons why OPs get skipped, but that in his case because it was a quiet time of day he may need to come back later and ask again when other members with different skills are about. he thanked me and i saw him back at another time.

in getting people to change behaviour, there has to be a 'what's in it for me?'
if people dont see that they will benefit from change, they wont.

Sample popup: (for crit and tearing to pieces ) wording is moot

Why doesnt anyone answer my question?

Hi from MrExcel, we see that your question has not been answered and we would like to help you get a better result.

There are different reasons why questions don't got a reply:
* We cannot understand the question.                (see help.html)
* Nobody has the skills to help right now.  Try asking again later
* You where rude.                                           (see etiquet.html)
* Something else                                             (see morehelp.html)
* You asked a very common question.                 (see ournewindex.iwish.html)
* You posted a link.                                          (see idontdoexternallinks.html)
* Your posted 245000 lines of uncommented code  (see getalife.html)
* More reasons

@ snowblizz
thread is still going! (for now )

 

[Jaafar Tribak]

... Right now it's headed down the road to a cluttered, un-organized pile of Excel posts where users searching for data have to sift through pages and pages of junk to get what they're looking for.

I totally agree with the above.

It also disourrages visiting the forum to answer questions.

 

[repairman615]

I love this board, it is easily the website I visit most and spend the most time on! Please don't ever change the colors of the forum.

For diddi and anyone else who would like to improve searches to find threads and more and, even specific by poster.

I came across this awhile back and to may dismay, I could not find this thread again...even though it was right under my nose. I tried using the advanced search using a variation of NateO 's name, without finding this link below. Yesterday I found it and after reading this thread here, I thought somebody could benefit if the did not know this.

I love MrExcel's website!!! (I can admit it.)

http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=174000
Hope the above helps any searches go smother.

Thanks NateO for taking the time to write this and sharing insight.

 

[diddi]

if regular users can't find things (that they themselves posted to) then how do we expect newbs to do it?

 

[MrKowz]

if regular users can't find things (that they themselves posted to) then how do we expect newbs to do it?

It is quite easy to find your own posts through the User Control Panel or through the Advanced Search. However, the more you post, the harder it will be to find that post... and that is true for ANY forum. If you find a post that you feel you will refer to a lot, or if it just stands out... bookmark it.

I have no problems with the amount of posts on the forums here. I actually find myself bored around 12pm-3pm CST when the forum comes to a screeching halt! However, I think that we have covered this topic pretty extensively, and some good AND bad ideas have stemmed from it. Hopefully some things have been taken note of and we see an increase in first-poster quality.

 

[Jon von der Heyden]

My view is that if we can do more to encourage members to make more effort to describe their problem, and if we can assist them, then we should do it. There have been plenty of good suggestions here and as you can see admin have taken an active interest so that's a good thing.

When I first started posting here some members had a few tips in their signatures. Like most, I never *really* explored the guidelines. I first discovered the code tags because of PCG's signature. In fact, before my current signature, I pretty much just copied Domski's. Now, after adding a few more links, I like to think that my signature helps others improve their posts.

So, whilst this is a good discussion, there are some members involved in this discussion that could do the board service by publishing a link to the guidelines in their signature, or some other tips that are helpful.

One of the big attractions of this board, for me, is that I know whenever I logon there is a question waiting. I like this board because of its’ popularity. I know how to search out answers on this board and the quality of the posts returned is largely due to the quality of the search criteria (I tend to use google and then search this site). I think applying draconian rule here will deter new posters, and I think it will also be off-putting for many of the big-hitters. I like this board because I know that when I post a problem, it is likely to be seen by one of these big-hitters. There are a number of MS MVP's that post here. Many tell me this is their favourite board. When I ask them why they say it is because of the fast pace and because of the friendly nature. Stricter enforcement might deter them away. These are the guys I really learn from. These are my mentors. If we lose just one of them, then that is a big loss to all of us. Of course there are other big-hitters that aren’t MS MVP’s, and the same applies…

Of course not everyone shares my view. And not everyone wants to participate in a fast pace board. I also agree that perhaps the volume of badly-constructed first posts is slowly on the increase. If any member has a real problem with this, then I think the answer is to just skip that post. There are plenty of other interesting discussions to join.

But the point I made in the beginning is that everyone can do a little bit to improve this board. We are all volunteers here, we make this board what it is, and the quality of this board is determined by us.