ExpressionEngine CMS
Open, Free, Amazing

Thread

This is an archived forum and the content is probably no longer relevant, but is provided here for posterity.

The active forums are here.

Thoughts on forum etiquette

April 04, 2008 10:20am

Subscribe [20]
  • #16 / Apr 07, 2008 7:23pm

    wiredesignz

    2882 posts

    I too have recently encountered anal Administration practices while posting on another forum, needless to say it leaves a bad taste and a reluctance to contribute.

    The Derek’s rock as Admins and really are the foundation of the CI Community spirit. 😉

    Is my nose brown yet? :lol:

  • #17 / Apr 08, 2008 12:14am

    Edemilson Lima

    241 posts

    Well, sometimes we must take a deep breath and not send some newbies to hell… 😛
    So instead, we can give him a list of the threads where the answers was already posted, with the following message:

    “Dear fellow, if you have done a proper search before, maybe you could find the threads above. I hope they can help you.”  :coolsmile:

  • #18 / Apr 08, 2008 12:50am

    wiredesignz

    2882 posts

    `Dear fellow`, hehe… lynch them all I say. :lol:

  • #19 / Apr 08, 2008 10:08am

    Elliot Haughin

    147 posts

    I actually think that we should have 1 or 2 forum areas that are locked down to those members with over 100 posts or so. Allowing anyone to read, but 100 posts+ to write.
    It’d help provide a place where most of the answers are going to be somewhat educated.

    But, it’s just an idea.

    I don’t mind helping newbies, heck, some of them even email me directly with questions.
    We should be tolerant of them, and not get all high and mighty because we know CI better than our girlfriends… wait, we don’t have girlfriends, that’s why we have CI!
    But, you get the point.

  • #20 / Apr 08, 2008 10:15am

    Tom Glover

    493 posts

    We should be tolerant of them, and not get all high and mighty because we know CI better than our girlfriends… wait, we don’t have girlfriends, that’s why we have CI!

    lol, True, just because we know CI better than them doesn’t give us the right to ignore / not help newbies.

  • #21 / Apr 08, 2008 11:36am

    pickledegg2

    157 posts

    I actually think that we should have 1 or 2 forum areas that are locked down to those members with over 100 posts or so. Allowing

    I don’t agree with that approach, theres enough ‘us and them’ in real life, without introducing it on CI.

    Sorry bud just my tuppence.

  • #22 / Apr 08, 2008 11:41am

    Andy Harris

    958 posts

    One of the single biggest reasons I stuck by ExpressionEngine was the fantastic forum they have. I’ve posted a few silly questions on there in my time, but every single one was answered with respect.

    Now I see people asking the same thing, and I’m happy to help out because I remember that I’ve been there (and indeed am still there in a lot of cases).

    Having a laugh is one thing, but there’s never a need to be rude.

  • #23 / Apr 08, 2008 11:44am

    Tom Glover

    493 posts

    One of the single biggest reasons I stuck by ExpressionEngine was the fantastic forum they have. I’ve posted a few silly questions on there in my time, but every single one was answered with respect.

    Now I see people asking the same thing, and I’m happy to help out because I remember that I’ve been there (and indeed am still there in a lot of cases).

    Having a laugh is one thing, but there’s never a need to be rude.


    The same here is true about CI for me.

  • #24 / Apr 18, 2008 3:16am

    Michael Ekoka

    98 posts

    I actually think that we should have 1 or 2 forum areas that are locked down to those members with over 100 posts or so. Allowing anyone to read, but 100 posts+ to write.
    It’d help provide a place where most of the answers are going to be somewhat educated.

    I’ll have to disagree, you can’t judge a CI power user on the amount of posts he/she has.

    On the other hand, I would be in favor of a special section where newbies are free to ask their questions (any question) without being subjected to the (increasing) sarcasms of more experienced users.

    It appears to me that the counterpart of an emerging and friendly community like CI is the rise of a certain elitism once some members get comfortable with each other and with the tool.

    I know a lot of newbies ask questions that appear obvious to “gurus”. My answer to that is: so what? What’s the big deal? I, personally, have never felt the need to be rude to anyone, because they chose to be lazy and use the shortcut of asking a question, instead of using the search engines. If someone chooses to wait for an answer rather than use his time to search, then so be it. I’ll be lazy as well and let the next newbie who has the energy to do so answer the question. After all, that’s why we are a community. None of us here owns the burden of answering all the questions. If I didn’t have a problem when I was a n00b when someone asked a noobish question, I don’t know why that should change now that I don’t have any use for the answer.

    On occasion I might feel helpful and suggest a more in depth search, or point out that the question is not clear enough. I can do all that without playing Mom and be patronizing.

    BTW it’s not cool to make fun of non english speakers either.

  • #25 / Apr 18, 2008 5:24am

    Ingmar

    29245 posts

    I’ll have to disagree, you can’t judge a CI power user on the amount of posts he/she has.

    This is particularly true for this site… I have 7000+ posts on the ExpressionEngine site, but know relatively little about CI. Would I be welcome there, then? I mean, I’m not going to ask stupid questions (I hope), but you see what I mean.

    On the other hand, I would be in favor of a special section where newbies are free to ask their questions (any question) without being subjected to the (increasing) sarcasms of more experienced users.

    That has some merit actually, I think. Say “Newbie’s Corner”, or whatever, and those tired of the FAQs just don’t go there. I like the idea.

    I know a lot of newbies ask questions that appear obvious to “gurus”. My answer to that is: so what? What’s the big deal?

    Well, there’s no need to be rude, but there is little excuse to not using the search, either.

  • #26 / Apr 18, 2008 5:45am

    George Ornbo

    272 posts

    Coming from the EE forums I think there are less “I can’t be bothered to search” questions here. I’ve started to hang out here a bit more as there is less fluff!

    That said I do make an effort to answer posts where I can help by pointing users to documentation of wiki entries. When I first started out I’m sure I did the same a few times.

    It is a tough one - building a friendly helpful community is really important but it is frustrating when people don’t RTFM!

    Perhaps there should be a sticky thread encouraging users to search before posting a new question? Keeping things polite yet firm is important too IMHO.

  • #27 / Apr 18, 2008 5:49am

    xwero

    4145 posts

    I think we all asked stupid questions so that is nothing to worry about. It’s better to ask a detailed stupid question than a vague complex question.

    I still stand by my point from a few months earlier when the question was raised about splitting up the forum in a lab rats and lab people, you got to love the new names 😉, sections. Let the newbie questions come, it’s possible they can shine another light on things gurus consider obvious.

    This topic made the forum more friendly agian and stopped the flame war starting questions like “CI is bad but i don’t say why”. I guess once in a while some people need to be shown to their place so that we can go on being our friendly selves.

  • #28 / Apr 18, 2008 6:50am

    Tom Glover

    493 posts

    Yesterday I asked one hell of a stupid question. It was ‘How you do you know my name was Tom as I haven’t posted it anywhere?’. Well they soon told me that it was in my signature. So I had posted nearly 235 times.

  • #29 / Apr 18, 2008 6:56am

    George Ornbo

    272 posts

    Please don’t stop asking questions like that! I just spat coffee all over my desk!
    😊

  • #30 / Apr 18, 2008 7:04am

    Tom Glover

    493 posts

    Hopefully I won’t need to post questions like that again.

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

ExpressionEngine News!

#eecms, #events, #releases