Consistently Repeated Lazy Requests

[leehack]

Hi

To those of you who form the foundation of this forum, i take my hat off to you for your patience. The amount of requests that nowadays are coming from people who are practically demanding an answer is becoming a joke in my opinion.

A huge percentage of these people are also far too lazy to search for posts and want to just sit there clicking "refresh" for 45 minutes waiting for an answer to be posted.

I propose to create ONE thread that can hopefully get stickied and this will have the problem areas of actinic broken into sub sections and then have the threads listed underneath. i.e.

Actinic Version 8

Post and Packaging, Shipping

Thread 1
Thread 2
etc..

Layout Requests

Thread 1
Thread 2
etc..

Error Messages

Thread 1
Thread 2
etc..


I try to add to the foum when i can, however my knowledge is far less than some others on here and maybe if i manage the above thread and include links (from recommendations) then we will have a far more user friendly forum.

It will take some time, however i think it is worth it, the time spent directing people to use the serach facility or providing links, should be reduced somewhat.

Any posters who have clearly not bothered to read and cannot be arsed to try and solve it themselves could be easily directed to the stickied thread at the top of the forum?

Whats everyone think? If you think its a goer then give me some ideas on what sub sections we should have.

Cheers

Lee

[chris ashdown]

While it would be nice to have a indexed forum to that level, I doubt that Chris Dixins or the others have time to go through each and every message and index them

Maybe lessons on how to phrase the Title would be more benoficial as this is the weakest point on quick searches in that the title is meaningless

Also the advanced guide is there to solve most popular questions

[leehack]

I am on about doing it. "Lee include this thread etc.." style.

It will be a good referral point for all of us.

[RuralWeb]

I intend to ignore posts that I know the answers to are contained in the forum, knowledge base or the help files. I agree we are not an online help facility for people who cannot be bothered to do some work for themselves - I am particularly concerned about the recnt increase in the numbers of people coming on the forum and demanding help - these are exactly the posts I will now ignore.

I have my doubts about producing a indexed list - most of the info requested is already available for V7 certainly and V8 is quite well documented now. Site builders need to understand that once you stray from the standard Actinic setup the workload increases for the site owner NOT me.

[completerookie]

there will always be a major problem with posts that stray from the topic in hand ( I may be one of the guilty posters) and I fear that very quickly you could end up with people wanting to post things on the thread that strays from the point.

having said that, the tread about the AUG does seem to work.

[leehack]

I intend to ignore posts that I know the answers to are contained in the forum, knowledge base or the help files. I agree we are not an online help facility for people who cannot be bothered to do some work for themselves - I am particularly concerned about the recnt increase in the numbers of people coming on the forum and demanding help - these are exactly the posts I will now ignore.

I totally agree with this personally, however there have been quite a few occurrences lately where someone is directed to use the help or the search facility, only for someone to jump in (who must be having a nice day) and feels like helping the person.

The original poster then looks like a mean so and so and the overall process starts again. Still people do not understand that this forum is 95% voluntary and it's quite clear that it is peeing people off lately as i have never seen posts stating this before.

Although the mods do not have endless time, it seems quite simple and quick to provide a stickied thread saying "FIRST TIME POSTERS PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE POSTING" thread which clearly has links to the various resources and mentions on how to use the search facility. I have seen this work very successfully on other forums and cannot see a problem. Threads posted off people who have clearly not done this, should be ignored IMO. However, unless the forum does it as a whole, it will never work.

I reckon there must be at least 20% of wasted posts in this forum, these only serve to make the forum larger and more difficult to find what you want. I find it is far easier to try and recall who wrote the post that you are looking for that try and search for it. The search facility is poor and could be easily improved. Posts called "Actinic Import Error" instead of "ARRRRRRGGGHH FFS Layout trashed" would always help i guess.

[leehack]

there will always be a major problem with posts that stray from the topic in hand ( I may be one of the guilty posters) and I fear that very quickly you could end up with people wanting to post things on the thread that strays from the point.

having said that, the tread about the AUG does seem to work.

The simple solution would be that it is one post with a number of links included (as per my example) and any posts added to it would be deleted, keeping it neat, clean and easy to use. I think they can be locked for example.

[RuralWeb]

provide a stickied thread saying "FIRST TIME POSTERS PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE POSTING" thread which clearly has links to the various resources and mentions on how to use the search facility

This is a very good idea and should be implements ASP by the mods - it should be part of the registration procedure that people agree to read and abide by it.

[Duncan Rounding]

I think new users join the forum in waves and at this time of year we reach a crest, especially with the release of V8 and the new design front end. IIRC I think last year it was similar. (I was one of the newbies then I guess)

To be fair very few new posters are like you describe - it's just a small minority who don't appreciate that this is a peer forum and not Actinic support, which to be fair isn't very clear when you arrive at the forum. The forum search is not the best either.

I think that when you are very active on the forum you tend to remember previous posts and thus know the correct keywords to use to find the answer you want - newcomers don't. That said there have been instances where I haven't replied due to the manner of the post.

What you're proposing Lee may help but I think maintaining such a list would be very difficult. I think the AUG is the key to everything which seems to be building up into a very useful document.

[leehack]

You could be right Duncan, i just think that it can be improved and it can be debated til the cows come home, but unless you try things you will never know. I also disagree slightly on the amount of new posters who cannot be bothered. I understand this can be accentuated at the moment, however i have not seen as many demanding or abrupt posts and associated replies before.

Maybe we should try the "FIRST TIME POSTERS PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE POSTING" thread with links to all of the useful resources Actinic has to offer included and see how it goes.

[Duncan Rounding]

Maybe we should try the "FIRST TIME POSTERS PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE POSTING" thread with links to all of the useful resources Actinic has to offer included and see how it goes.

That's certainly a good idea.

[Bun]

I think Malcolm’s idea above is the fair option......and he's right, you don't to reply to posts. Just pointing someone in the right direction is all they need....I know that's how I work. I'm quite prepared to put the leg work in....just point me in the right direction and off I go :-)

[MASTERforge]

I thought I would add a post to give a newbies view of this problem.

When I joined the forum I read every single page of posts and jotted down anything that may be relevant. I read the AUG, Knowledge base and getting started guide. Again jotting down anything that may be useful.

When posting I try to make the topic title as clear and concise as possible so other people can find the topic. I try to condense the post to be exact and to the point so its easy to understand and also know if its relevant to your problems.

I can understand if this may seem that I am demanding an answer, I just try to be efficient. Believe me, without you guys who give your free time I would have been f**ked trying to build my site. I am very grateful to you all.

My biggest gripe is when people haven't even read the getting started guide or they post a topic titled 'help me please'. I still have to read it to see if there is anything of use.

I have been able to post a little help to some users, and I am pleased I can give a little back to the forum.

I think most new users on here are extremely grateful for your help.

I think the forum needs a major cleanup so all the useful information is separated from the chatter. The useful information could then be added to the knowledge base developing an online encyclopedia. This would be easier to search.

I must admit I find the knowledge base limited. The AUG is useful, merge this with the forum info and knowledge base and it would form quite a large source for answers. This could possibly be the basis for a reference guide book to be published.

Everybody who contributes help, please do not feel undervalued we really appreciate all the help you have given.

[PaulGrimshaw]

Maybe somesort of user involved actinicwiki could be used for a knowledge base?

More structure than a forum, but less static than the knowledge base/AUG.

Paul.

[bluenewt]

This is my first post for the simple reason I've never needed to post before 'cause everything I've needed has already been posted by someone else.
I'm sure there are a lot of other people also in this position who haven't felt the need to post unnecessarily - but of course you then don't hear about them.
Basically, the work you've all already done has been very much appreciated ... please don't get disillusioned. As a newbie I need your generosity!

Thanks for everything so far!