Suggestion: Community Quick Questions Thread

[Vrai]

Big Whoop. So what if it looks messy up top.

The argument is that there's a point that there are so many sticky threads that people just glaze over it, not the just the fact that it looks unprofessional. And honestly? Think of it like this: it's not that we're sticking Quick Questions under the "Where do I post this...? / Where is this...?" thread. It'd be more like making a whole new Quick Questions thread, where questions like those (obviously, asking where something belongs is a quick question that requires only one or two answers) would fall under. Don't make it out like it's going to be one bigass confusing thread because if it is implemented it won't be.

Nothing's going to be perfect and we can't expect people to search through the -forum- itself to see if questions have been asked before. Why do you think people would bother searching through a thread? I dunno, I think a QQ thread would be a good idea, but we're going too far here trying to talk about preventing people from asking repeat questions in the first place because there will always be those people that just stumble in and ask regardless.

I dunno, I just think it'd be in everyone's best interest to expand the "Where do I post this...? / Where is this...?" thread - and if it doesn't work as planned, oh well. I just don't see why there's any reason not to, tbh.

 

[Melody]

My point is that if we subdivide it well enough, people will be able to look in the right thread and see if their specific question has been asked before with little effort. It'll keep previously asked and answered questions from getting too stale and becoming difficult to find because you'll only have to navigate a single thread, not an entire forum. The more we can compartmentalize each type of question, the easier it gets to find the answer in the sticky. Especially good answers are indexed in the first post.

We already have an un-dismisssable notice atop CQ&F, surely we can explain in which thread you can ask certain types of common questions briefly. One big QQ thread would be just as chaotic and difficult to find things in as CQ&F is as a whole. It wouldn't organize anything...it'd be like stuffing it all into the closet.

If we're trying to organize and make things easy to find, we should separate it into categories at least. Perhaps we can expand on the "Where do I post __" thread concept and add a "Why did the mods do __ to my __?" or something common like that. Or a "Rules Inquiry" thread where it's in the notice that "All inquiries about Policies, staff actions and rules go here"

 

[Guy]

I was under the impression that if a Question and Answer thread were made, then questions would be asked repeatedly. I had no expectation that every member ─ or most for that matter ─ would honestly search the entire thread for their own question. It's far simpler and much faster to just post it again and have someone come up and answer it. That is, after all, the overall purpose for having one. This way, the common simple questions that arise aren't cluttering the lower board where more important questions, suggestions, and feedback can be given. To be honest, if you're expecting it's going to be a mess, then you're over thinking it; like Vrai said above.

It'll also be far easier to just expand the current "Where do I post this...? / Where is this...?" thread, which was suggested a few times above, myself included.

CQ&F is gonna be a rats nest anyway, and using the argument that n00bs are too stupid to get it is weak and tired. There's always going to be a clueless noob or two, that's where staff is supposed to step in and deal with.

Also, I never said that, so please don't put words in my mouth. I only stated that people overlook stickies, and to have too much of them in one place, it'll only cause people to overlook them even more.

Combining it into one thread makes it a headache to read through to find answers. If we split common questions into different classes, it might be easier to find the same question asked and answered before. I'm trying to encourage a more easily indexed and searchable system so even a clueless n00b can find something manually, assuming they know nothing of how to search or scan for it.

If that's the case, then it's better to suggest looking at the FAQ instead. It's organized, addresses individual questions as well as similar grouped questions together, and includes a search function of its own right at the top.

Reading your most recent post; We did have a sticky letting members know about ROM Hacking questions and where they belong. As you can see, that never actually worked out well enough and a permanent notice was put up instead.

 

[Vrai]

My point is that if we subdivide it well enough, people will be able to look in the right thread and see if their specific question has been asked before with little effort. It'll keep previously asked and answered questions from getting too stale and becoming difficult to find because you'll only have to navigate a single thread, not an entire forum. The more we can compartmentalize each type of question, the easier it gets to find the answer in the sticky. Especially good answers are indexed in the first post.

We already have an un-dismisssable notice atop CQ&F, surely we can explain in which thread you can ask certain types of common questions briefly. One big QQ thread would be just as chaotic and difficult to find things in as CQ&F is as a whole. It wouldn't organize anything...it'd be like stuffing it all into the closet.

If we're trying to organize and make things easy to find, we should separate it into categories at least. Perhaps we can expand on the "Where do I post __" thread concept and add a "Why did the mods do __ to my __?" or something common like that. Or a "Rules Inquiry" thread where it's in the notice that "All inquiries about Policies, staff actions and rules go here"

I don't know when this became "making things easier to find" because a Quick Questions thread is obviously not going to be making things easier to find. Look at the Simple Questions thread in Emulation, etc. If you're trying to come up with ways to organize and make CQ&F easier to search through etc then you're arguing it in the wrong place, because in no way will a simple questions thread be organized and make searching for anything easier.

Point is, people don't care enough to search no matter how easy you make it. Turning the 'Where do I put this?' thread into a QQ sticky won't solve that issue either, but I only see positive benefits from doing that - at the very least, hopefully it will cut down somewhat on the threads made that only require one or two simple answers and get twenty replies, most of which say the same thing in different ways. At the very worst, people won't notice the sticky so much and they'll make new threads that get merged into the sticky anyway. It'll hopefully cut down on a little bit of clutter and hopefully leave threadmaking for bigger, more important issues and suggestions.

edit: I take too long to type. :(

 

[Melody]

I know people won't search. The point of my argument is to make a thread for each common inquiry type so people DON'T HAVE to search nearly as hard.

Look at the "Where do I post __" thread. Notice how it's only 3 pages long and rarely gets replies? That's not always because noobs are stupid and just post a new thread, it's because when they LOOK through those 3 pages, they find a question very similar to theirs already asked and answered and end up not having to post! Because the thread is short, it doesn't take searching through, or any massive effort to find the answer. The work is already done by the presence of the thread itself, and most of the variations of the question in the thread's title has already been asked. If one needs to ask a variation on that question that isn't answered, someone can post in that thread and helpful members will answer it. It's not an intimidating 1000 page thread that no one in their right mind would read in it's entirety. By dividing the common question forms into threads we get small threads like this that are easy to read through without spending too long on.

In a thread like that too, those answers don't get stale and don't need to, they always hold true, until someone rearranges the forum, which is a very rare scenario.

TL;DR

Point is, people don't care enough to search no matter how easy you make it.

That is false. Make it easy enough and they will come to the information. Staff members can appropriately handle the few idiots who ARE that lazy, and they are by no means a majority. They only seem like the majority because they're the only ones who post new threads. Most sensible users have already found the answer by searching. If someone is too stupid or dense to do a little searching for the answer, then they are on the wrong path anyway, and probably didn't read the rules in the first place, in which case the staff will end up infracting them out or getting their attention enough to make them care about the rules.


The idea is to discourage strays yes, by making it drop dead simple to find an answer. It's not a cure, no idea ever is. Noobs will be noobs. The simple idea is to make it even more easy to find, so we have fewer simpletons to deal with.


Combining all simple questions into one thread? You'll make it to 1k+ pages in a hurry and that doesn't solve the problem of answers being repeated redundantly. That is the root of the problem. Either you tolerate things the way they are or you facilitate ways that ensure that good answers don't have to be parroted every time. I guarantee you any Simple Questions thread will suffer the same problem individual threads do. Being answered by several people. So If that's the problem, then make sure people know that's not cool. If you must do like NU/W does, then do it.

Don't get me wrong, I hate the NU/W rules, but if it solved the problem there, why not? If you require answers to questions to differ appreciably or add more depth to an existing answer then that's just fine by me.

 

[Charizard★]

I don't know if this belongs here or not, but I didn't feel it was necessary to make a thread about it. Could someone delete my soft deleted blog entries? I've had it done before, so I was wondering if it can be done again?

 

[Nick]

Physically removed your soft deleted entries.

If you (or anyone else) would like an entry removed, contact me or another h-staff, preferably me, though! :)

 

[luke]

...only see positive benefits from doing that - at the very least, hopefully it will cut down somewhat on the threads made that only require one or two simple answers and get twenty replies, most of which say the same thing in different ways.

Yeah it really sucks when someone comes into a thread and repeats what 12 people already said in the thread. *cough* *looks up 3 posts*

Regardless, the whole point of the CQ&F forum is for any legit question about the forum - no matter how big or small. There is no reason for a QQ thread. No if's, and's or but's. It would be nice if certain members disappeared again and stop arguing with others just for the sake of arguing.