No offense taken, I didn't see your post as sarcastic.

And what caps? :D

For point 1: I agree that threads should be descriptive, but there is no way to enforce that. So let's do this: If you see a thread that lasts, and generates useful discussion, either PM me or use the "Report Post" button and ask that the thread be retitled. Please suggest a title too.

For point 2: I also agree that people who take the time to post a good thread/question, REGARDLESS of whether it's been asked before or not, should not be told to "Do a Search!" Unfortunatley however, there are individuals on the forum who seem to think someone appointed them the "newbie police" and their kneejerk response is to say "SEARCH" automatically. Ok, so maybe newbies should search more, but the fact is, most don't till they've been here a while. Shouting at them or berating them doesn't do anything other than to **** them off and/or make them leave. A far more effective approach is to briefly answer their question and suggest a search. But some people will never learn - or they get off on bashing noobs.

For point 3: The same people that gleefully shout "SEARCH!" I mentioned in point 2 will disregard this, so it's a good idea but probably won't work.

The moderating staff here is very active, but we have to pick and choose what we address as we cannot be everywhere at all times. So what really works best is for the more "moderate" members of the community to answer and guide the noobs, and to ignore (or even chastise) the self-appointed newbie police. If this goes on long enough, they'll eventually find some other cause to crusade about, or go elsewhere.

 

Here's a better idea. We turn off all new post capability, but allow people to type in their comments to be posted. When you hit "Submit" what it really does is activate the search function based on intelligent parsing of your post, then immediately takes you to the thread with the best match. Since everything possible that can be said about the '8 has already been said, there's no need for any new posts anyway. If you want to rant about noobies, it just takes you to a thread where someone has done that before, and you can just read all the cr@p they already said about noobs. If you wanna diss Ike, it takes you there and you dont' have to go to all the trouble. Sound like a plan?

 

I run a site that gets 140k page views per day, page rank of 7, and a forum. If I notice ambiguous topics in threads, I freely edit the subject line to be more descriptive. It is in everyone's best interest to accurately describe a topic.

 

A small tinker in the web site can improve this. If you notice when you respond to a post, the Post Subject text entry field has a "(Optional)" string. When you start up a new thread there is no such string since the field is required. Can we add a string there that says something like "(Please provide a search-friendly description)" or "(Must describe topic)".

Most offenders probably don't realize that they taking away from the value of the forum when they do that. A hint to make their subjects relevant might take care of 75% of the offenders.

 

I was glad to see the new rules provide that topics should be descriptive. I'm moving on...

 

I just think its funny that the title for a thread about having more accurate thread titles starts with "Could Forum Subjects Should... "

Could they or should they?:p

This title has an identity crisis!