Forum Moderators: open
Regards,
AW
I have no problem with posters revisiting a topic that has been covered previously once they are comming in with a new angle of some sort, or have at least spent time reading similar posts first. I have also no problem with people who are confused wanting clarification on a particular issue.
Unfortunately sometimes I feel posting a new thread is the first step for people...
menton
Second, how about promoting the senior members to junior moderators. I know that the current wonderful and outstanding and over the top magnificent ones are doing a great job, but some additional help from the top users may help. For instance, if the forum program can handle it, let the junior moderators tag posts that are questionable, or totally off subject. Make it easier for the real Moderators to find the stuff that should be removed or moved.
Just some random $0.02
'Has any "real" news about Dominic come out since I last checked 3 days ago?'
Who has time to read all the threads? Not me. So I don't. But if I posted that question every 2 days I'd get blasted. If the significant stuff were in a sticky thread, I wouldn't have to ask.
So the suggestion is selfish, but if many people's interests intersect, it would benefit the whole community.
Greed is good (just kidding).
Mack.
Aproach it as an SEO job: what are new users looking for? Answer their questions right away and slowly guide them further into the site/FAQ.
New posters are looking for answers to their questions, not guidelines how to contribute to the board. A lot of the answers are in the FAQ (but by no means all!) but they are buried in the bottom pages of the FAQ.
One relatively easy way to accomplish this is to add an 'questions about the Google algo' or 'commonly asked questions' section on top of the current FAQ.
Hope this helps :)
[webmasterworld.com...]
There is revisting an issue that may have changed or requires more thought/discussion and there is the mental posting of the same types of stuff.
"Google sucks"
"Google smells and they dropped my site"
(......blah de blad de blah)^n
where n = some massive number
The poor admins and mods in that cat forum must not be able to earn any money as they have to spend their entire existance reiterating what has been said or splicing topics togther.
Dont get me wrong I mean nothing personal with this post.
:)
Mack.
Often, we don't have time as opposed to 'can't be bothered' searching for answers to a questions previously posted.
Equally new members such as little me and may be more than half the posters to this thread may be able to provide some fresh input into stale question.
Clearly there are many FAQ's that could or should be read before posting a new question.
Granted, but some threads of almost exact clones of others that are in the firt few pages of the forum.
Premoderation as Brett mentions is going to do the forum a service I suspet and hope.
Regards
I was thinking more of a question that may have been asked some time ago, as opposed to a clone of a very warm one.
I suppose if we went around full circle all questions would seem to be new ... again and again and again.
It certainly would help the forum to have a 'sticky' kind of FAQ but I wonder how many people would treat it like most of us treat software terms and conditions .... scroll down, yeh yeh yeh ..okay I agree - click!
Often, we don't have time as opposed to 'can't be bothered' searching
Hey peewhy, you really poked a raw nerve when you mentioned this! :)
[shameless rant]
This really steams me! What makes you think your time is more valuable then mine?! Why should I have to wade through your redundant question (waste my time!) because you're too busy to search?! Why would I waste MORE of my time answering someone inconsiderate enough to waste my time with their redundant question?!
The bottom line is that this is simply rude, inconsiderate and unprofessional behavior. "News and discussion for the advanced web professional"
From TOS #19, "Since this is interactive, and everyone who participates in Webmaster World.com is "in it together", please treat others the way you wish to be treated." I just don't like it AT ALL when people decide their time is more valuable than mine and I never will!
[/shameless rank]
I'm VERY pleased with premoderation, it's made the Google News forum usable again for me. But I've been here forever... ;)
Sorry about that raw nerve, I heard the screaming!
[shameless response rant]
Q - "Why should I have to wade through your redundant question (waste my time!) because you're too busy to search?! Why would I waste MORE of my time answering someone inconsiderate enough to waste my time with their redundant question?! "
A - You don't, if you want the headache have it. It would only be a redundant question to you, it would be very valid to me and many other newer members. You chose your role as Mod ... did you want to sit on a rock with your legs crossed awaiting disciples to beg for words of wisdom? LOL
You said "The bottom line is that this is simply rude, inconsiderate and unprofessional behavior."
So some poor guy in urgent need of help and advice should steer well clear of this forum or take the wrath of Mods who feel he is abusing the system, when in reality he only wanted a solution?
You also said ..."From TOS #19, "Since this is interactive, and everyone who participates in Webmaster World.com is "in it together", please treat others the way you wish to be treated."
I don't think not having time (as opposed to can't be bothered) is in any way treating anyone unfairly.
.... and you said: I just don't like it AT ALL when people decide their time is more valuable than mine and I never will!
There was no question of values or importance, I don't think ANYONE who posts feels your way and if you think that new members are abusing TOC and stressing you out, I firmly apoligise now and in the future for everyone who has done it or will do it - and beg your forgiveness (LOL)
[end of shameless response rant]
Hey, its 7.am here, my milk is sour, my kids ate all the toast, all my credit card bills came at once and I just want to know if Google reads javascript links ... or as someone already asked that before?
Have a nice day, hope I didn't spoil it!
Two responses to this. Do you want the answer spoon fed or do you want to know how to find out how to find so to speak.
Well the answer is no to the your question.
But think of it from another way, the second option. it only takes a short while to load Lynx viewer and run your page through it. If you can see it there you should be fine with Google.
True there are times when time is a factor, but not every time.
Method two adds to the forum and makes it a more useful resource as opposed to hundreds of Yes, No repsonses.
>>So some poor guy in urgent need of help and advice should steer well clear of this forum or take the wrath of Mods who feel he is abusing the system, when in reality he only wanted a solution?
There are way to ask the question. Do my homework never cuts it in any fora or workplace. Ask how to learn about it an people will gather round and help out. There is no never ending supply of get fixed quick answers. Save them up for when you really need it, that time will come and it is great when you have leeway in reserve.
Cheers
It was an example too :) :)
Anyway spoon duels are illegal I think.
You would have to make a load of new people moderators just to keep the backlog down. Unless of course there is some way of making it automated.
<rebuttal to shameless response rant>
If we have 5000 active posters and if each "doesn't have time to search" only once per month, we've acquried 5000 redundant posts per month. That's a volume that most members don't want to wade through and it undermines the usability of the board.
"Don't have time to search" is a time management problem that the redundant poster owns. By posting a redundant question, he makes the membership a victim of his poor time management skills, it's inconsiderate and unprofessional.
</rebuttal to shameless response rant>
I enjoyed your response to my rant but you must understand, you're wrong and you've never been so wrong. Don't be discouraged though, you'll probably never be this wrong again! ;)
The big point is that if twelve people want to know the same thing and all start threads on the same thing, it could be 1 person hunting 12 times for all of them or 12 different people hunting - with all of that cluttering up the active list and the forum.
The bottom line is that for those 12 people posting and starting threads about the same identical thing (a conservative estimate) with hundreds following - no matter who or how many people are doing their looking for them - how many dozens or hundreds of people are having to sift through all of that redundancy in the forum and on the active list all day long to get to something that interests them?
There are a lot of people who can suffer loss, some of them having to either lose valuable work time unnecesarily or just not bother, for the convenience of those who just haven't taken the time.
Not to mention that as quality advanced topics become more and more difficult to find, some who would otherwise contribute valuable information and insight for all of us may just not have the time to bother wading through. Their input could be lost and all of us will lose.
I'm personally quite willing to spoon-feed those who legitimately need to be fed that way, and always have been, as are many others around here. But only when it's a legitimate need for some extra help, and that's an entirely different issue from re-hashing the same thing over and over again about fresh crawls or similar topics day after day after day. We simply don't know things like when the next update will be and I'm not so sure how well it would serve the membership to have to read through 100 posts a day asking and guessing.
It would be entirely unfair to expect that the entire membership has to revolve around the lowest common denominator in terms of knowledge level and experience. This is a forum for advanced web professionals and IMHO we can best serve the needs of those who are inexperienced fledgelings by nurturing them up to greater heights and maturity rather than babying them.
First rule of parenting: don't do for children what they're capable of doing for themselves. If we keep carrying them they'll never learn to walk. If we keep tying their shoes for them they'll never learn how to tie their own.
It's whatever best serves the interests and needs of the membership at large and the community as a whole that should determine policy and the course we take.
I feel that many will not read all post to find answers, rightly or wrongly they will ask the same old question dressed in different clothes.
I appreciate that Mods get fed up with the same old questions ... and so do established members, remembering that the question is new to the poster and new to new members, equally some of those newer members could have an answer with a different angle.
So, a quick and simple solution would be to put it into the "Echo Chamber" - where anyone with the time and patience to spoon feed can happily do so.
It also serves to prove just how many of the same questions keep cropping up.
Did anyone answer if Google can follow Javascript links?
Lord knows I don't want to get on her bad side! ;)
You could try a search on that persistent Javascript question... You may find something... :)
Peace
