BlackBerry Forums Support Community

corey@12mile · 09-30-2005, 07:50 AM

This place really needs it. I would wager a significant amount of money that if we looked at the first few posts from most people here, and looked at users with less than 10 posts we would see an interesting thing.

I bet we would find the same questions over and over, as well as flaimbait posts and a lot of posts that are already answered.

People even admit that they post a question, don't get a response like right away, so they search and find the answer.

There really needs to be some moderation put on the first 5 or 10 posts from a user. It would really help to keep the good information here at the front and get rid of all the BS.

As much as I like to argue, I would rather not have to by not having to read the same stuff over and over again. I would rather see the mods spend some time and filter out the redundant stuff before it goes public than have to confer about what to do about Corey.

Something else that I just kind of thought of too was maybe adding a option to the search button that would directly search the RIM KB as well... who knows... This winter if things slow down for me, maybe I can be of some help to develop something like this, but something needs to be done.

cd.

ScOObydoo · 09-30-2005, 09:29 AM

What about users with 702 posts that tell people to "shut up"? Should we moderate these too?

The one thing ALL bulletin boards have in common is "newbies". You can either tell them all to shut up and do a search, or welcome them, help them, and hope they'll stay and become valued members of the community.

Personally I pick the latter.

NJBlackBerry · 09-30-2005, 09:33 AM

A good friend and long time poster just PM'd me and quit the forum because of you specifically Corey. You are NOT doing any service here whatsoever.

I think you need a time-out.

ventmore · 09-30-2005, 09:53 AM

I would've thought that moderating the first 10 posts for new members would be counterproductive. If I went to a new forum, and DARED to ask a question that had already been answered, and my post suddenly disappeared into oblivion, I would be inclined to form a particular opinion of the moderators on that board, and promptly take my questions elsewhere.

Not only that, but constantly seeing posts answered with "Search" gets just as boring as the repetetive(sp) posts themselves. Also...god help anyone that has to go looking for help on the "Search" feature of their BlackBerry.

gregg · 09-30-2005, 09:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScOObydoo

What about users with 702 posts that tell people to "shut up"? Should we moderate these too?

The one thing ALL bulletin boards have in common is "newbies". You can either tell them all to shut up and do a search, or welcome them, help them, and hope they'll stay and become valued members of the community.

Personally I pick the latter.

You go ScOOby....

NJBlackBerry · 09-30-2005, 09:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ventmore

I would've thought that moderating the first 10 posts for new members would be counterproductive. If I went to a new forum, and DARED to ask a question that had already been answered, and my post suddenly disappeared into oblivion, I would be inclined to form a particular opinion of the moderators on that board, and promptly take my questions elsewhere.

Not only that, but constantly seeing posts answered with "Search" gets just as boring as the repetetive(sp) posts themselves. Also...god help anyone that has to go looking for help on the "Search" feature of their BlackBerry.

Actually I use the search feature all the time to find my previous posts to answer the same questions over and over and over....

ventmore · 09-30-2005, 10:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NJBlackBerry

Actually I use the search feature all the time to find my previous posts to answer the same questions over and over and over....

Fair enough...but not quite what I was getting at

NJBlackBerry · 09-30-2005, 10:03 AM

I know what you were getting at

People don't want to search. If they try they can find the answers to > 95% of the first time postings. I gave up a long time ago suggesting that people search.

corey@12mile · 09-30-2005, 10:04 AM

How about driving all the knowledgable people away from the forum because they are sick of all the repeat questions?

NJB, if your friend quit the forum because of me... oh well... he could have filtered me out.

I participate in many forums where the first 10 posts are moderated... and you know what? They are great forums... there is no BS, no begging, no crying, no idiots... Just good information in *every* thread.

Give me a time out if you want... I don't really care.

By having a moderator approve or disapprove a post doesn't scare people away. If a post is disapproved, a PM can be sent to the person explaining why it was disapproved with a link to a thread where it has already been answered. It's not that tough or scary.

Either way... what is counterproductive is filling the forum with the same stuff over and over.

NJB... who quit? I'll shake their hand.

cd.

ventmore · 09-30-2005, 10:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NJBlackBerry

I know what you were getting at

People don't want to search. If they try they can find the answers to > 95% of the first time postings. I gave up a long time ago suggesting that people search.

Gotcha

It's true that people could find what they were looking for if they tried, but unfortunately they just seem to be too damn lazy......kind of...why should we bother, when someone will just hand it to us on a plate.

However, it has to be considered that some people genuinely(sp) have either searched with the wrong keywords, or are visiting this place as their first ever forum, and simply don't know any better. I would rather give people the benefit of the doubt, and answer their question...maybe also suggesting that they search next time, than simply say "Search".

NJBlackBerry · 09-30-2005, 10:13 AM

Corey has been given a 7 day time out.

stonent · 09-30-2005, 10:15 AM

The problem with search functions on boards like this is, we've all gotten so accustomed to google, that nothing ever seems to work as well.

With all it's faults, I'm still partial to PHPBB vs Vbulletin.

stonent · 09-30-2005, 10:15 AM

However, you can do a targeted search from google by entering a search string such as:

4.0.2 site:www.blackberryforums.com

ventmore · 09-30-2005, 10:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by corey@12mile

By having a moderator approve or disapprove a post doesn't scare people away. If a post is disapproved, a PM can be sent to the person explaining why it was disapproved with a link to a thread where it has already been answered. It's not that tough or scary.

Either way... what is counterproductive is filling the forum with the same stuff over and over.

I agree, if it was done in that way, then it would not scare people away

Talldog · 09-30-2005, 10:20 AM

Of course, if you're going to get all rigid and dogmatic about using the search facility, it would help if it was more robust (for instance, any words, all words, exact phrase, boolean operators, etc.). I've found it less than helpful on many occasions.

stonent · 09-30-2005, 10:20 AM

When I was an active member of the Dell forums, we had a thread we made for the most common laptop question: "My screen size shrunk" and the answer was press Fn+F7 but it got so annoying seeing 5 posts on the same page with the same question that I mad a thread with the answer in it and then had somoene link to it. Then the next time someone asked it, they would link to the other thread that linked to mine. So each time the question was asked it would take the user longer and longer to get to the answer.

"Oh that question is answered here *LINK*"
Click
"Oh that question is answered here *LINK*"
Click
"Oh that question is answered here *LINK*"
Click
"Oh that question is answered here *LINK*"
Click
"Oh that question is answered here *LINK*"
Click
"Oh that question is answered here *LINK*"
Click
"Press Fn+F7 to fix the issue, and please use the search function as this is the top most commonly asked question in the laptop forums"

Talldog · 09-30-2005, 10:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stonent

However, you can do a targeted search from google by entering a search string such as:

4.0.2 site:www.blackberryforums.com

Whoa!! This is pretty cool, other than the fact that if you do a search for "search button" it shows every single post involving someone with "knows where the search button is" under their name.

This should be part of the newcomer sticky, if it isn't already.

stonent · 09-30-2005, 10:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Talldog

Of course, if you're going to get all rigid and dogmatic about using the search facility, it would help if it was more robust (for instance, any words, all words, exact phrase, boolean operators, etc.). I've found it less than helpful on many occasions.

http://www.google.com/services/free.html

Perhaps the admins can put a google site-search box here so people can easily use google to search the site.

KonTiki · 09-30-2005, 10:52 AM

Excelent suggestion Stonent.Are the Moderators looking, just teasing I know they are, and NJBlackBerry I am not an advocate of time out or the like but I commend you on corey's, it was about time, he had become greatly annoying, if you dont want to answer or want to tell someone who is new about the search function, either point the search function nicely like others do or simply ignore the post you dont even have to read it, but there is no need for rudeness. I know I too at times have even been rude and I apologize to anyone I may have but maybe this way we can improve on the great asset we have here in this forum.

Mark Rejhon · 09-30-2005, 11:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScOObydoo

The one thing ALL bulletin boards have in common is "newbies". You can either tell them all to shut up and do a search, or welcome them, help them, and hope they'll stay and become valued members of the community.

Personally I pick the latter.

It's always a better approach, although not all moderators like that. There was a time that some of us told newbies to do a search, but that got annoying and tedious, so we just gave up on that. Letting the user community take care of itself; people answering people's posts.

When this board was small, I was helping a lot of newbies, but with the size of this forum now and my current work situation, I don't have the time that I used to.

It would be interesting to have a forum system that could intelligently suggest "recommended threads" (much like Amazon's recommended books, etc), or at least allow experienced users to more easily input a "referred thread". So duplicate questions almost instantly have helpful referral link. One can dream, eh...?

BlackBerry Forums Support Community

Moderate a users first 10 posts.