I frequently see that response to a member posting questions on here. Yet when one clicks on “view recent discussions”, the forum that the question is posted on does not appear under the thread title. I’m sure that there are plenty of members like myself who habitually check the view recent discussions rather than checking their preferred genre forums.
I can see that answer being helpful if no answer appears in a day or two to a question posted out of the specialty forum. But not within a short time. Just my thoughts on this…
On the contrary, I think if a new member posts a question and does not receive an answer as quick as he might on FaceBook, then he might just not return.
Although even to a newbie forum user, it is strange that they would ask a helicopter or tank modeling question in a general forum and not in the specific genre forum.
I agree. I’m one of the people who just looks at the “Recent Activity” on the home page and I don’t necessarily care about what forum something is posted in. In fact, there are a lot of the subforums here that don’t really interest me, so I don’t make it a habit of checking those. But, when I see a question I might have some useful input for on the “Recent Activity” page, I just click on that and throw in my two cents…even if its in a subforum I normally wouldn’t be interested in looking at.
On the other hand, I guess the quick “try asking in the xxxxx forum” responses could be helpful upfront just to prevent the post getting lost in the shuffle for the guys who only check the subforums because they visit less frequently than I do.
When I post a new thread though, I think its best to post it in the subforum that fits. Just makes it more likely to be seen by everybody who might have some input, regardless of their viewing preferences.
I believe the directional advice is meant in a positive way, but I’ve never thought of it as productive, and I’ve never been quite sure how it might be recieved by a new member.
I’ve been here 8 years now, and I’ve yet to see a post reposted in the ‘right’ section result in a flury of activity.
It’s so quiet here that I would think activity from a newcomer might be met with enthusiasm rather than a redirect.
FWIW, I am a recent discussion browser too, so my opinion might be skewed due to that. As others have mentioned above, it doesn’t much matter when checking the forum that way.
It does annoy me that when reviewing the recent discussions list, the only way to see what section (or so-called forum) a recent thread is in is to open it, find my bifocals, and read the navigational header.
I get the intent of the “post this question in the xxxxx form” answers. But for all the folks who have posted so far, how many of you go to your preferred forums first looking for possible interesting topics, rather than simply hitting the “recent discussions” button? I know that I don’t sit in the aircraft and armor forums, my preferred areas, full time. It’s almost like the Monty Python argument clinic skit, “oh this is abuse, you want room xxx across the hall”.
And yes, for the record, I try to post my own questions in the appropriate forum. [;)]
I almost never do that. “Recent discussions/activity” is where I always go, unless I want to just have a look around and maybe get ideas for a build I’m currently working on.
As Greg said, I too get concerned sometimes about how the “you should post this somewhere else” responses might be received by people who might be making their first few posts on here. It may have positive intentions, but when its all someone says as their response, it could easily be taken the wrong way and cause a new poster to leave. The same goes for some of the posts I have seen, advising newcomers on how they should be wording their questions. When that’s all that is said, and no attempt is made to ask for clarification, I can definitely understand how it might be taken as hostility.
If I direct someone to the appropriate forum, I also try to answer the question to the best of my ability. My expertise is limited, so if someone asks a question I’m not too familiar with, I will answer, “I think…, but you’d get a better/more accurate answer if you posted this in the XYZ forum.”
P.S. this was one of those posts that vanished when I hit, “submit your reply” and is a repost.
Better than a simple redirect (regardless of how good the intention is) …or doing what I tend to do and respond to the question as best I can, without mentioning the specific ‘forums’.
I’m going to try to remember and follow your suggestion.
I’m a member here since May 2009 - but it says that under my avatar, doesn’t it? - and back then you had to look up about five pages of recent activity every day, if you visited daily and wanted to stay up-to-date, so to say. Back then it might made a difference which forum you posted in.
Nowadays it doesn’t much matter, so the answer “try posting in other forum” should maybe read: try posting on another website - and that wouldn’t be too cool either, now would it?
The thing is, when the answer doesn’t come in about a day or two, it mostly doesn’t matter any more. But many times I answered questions from new members about basic things and that was about it - no sign they even read it and no further activity on the forum…
And what is the chance of some titan going through, say, decaling forum, content from 10 years ago, and answering the questions that didn’t get answered back then?
I’ve given up on the “Search” function here many years ago and only use google to search the forums. The key here is to start the query with “cs.finescale”. Now google doesn’t care in which subforum the post is, neither.
The bottom line is with people like Stik or Rob around, there’s still enough help on the forums here to make it worth using them! Thanks a lot guys!
I don’t think it’s strange at all. I think many new members join, and when they go to post their first post, they pick one of the forums at the top of the page. I don’t think very many people stop to familarize themselves with the contents, the various subforums, etc.
Posting a question in the Welcome forum is a flavor of that. A new guy joins, notices that we do have a Welcome forum, makes his introductory post, then adds a question there, too.
Another flavor of this is to post all kinds of things in a forum that a person visits most. For example, if someone is an airplane builder, and spends most of his time in the Airplanes forum, he might tend to make all his posts there, and not split them out to the other forums, especially if he’s never visited them.
And it’s not just here in the FSM forum. I see this, in varying degrees, in other forums, and in other social media. It’s particularly bad in Facebook, but Facebook’s very design almost rules out any other posting behavior. On Hyperscale, it’s very common for members to visit just one forum out of the entire selection, so all of their posts go into that forum.
I’m guilty of replying to Welcome posts, to suggest they ask specific questions in the other forums. I do it to help get the new member used to thinking in terms of the various forums, and so his question on a specific topic isn’t hidden in the Welcome forum, especially given how weak the Search feature is here. I try not to worry about posts others make in the other forums, though, that really belong in a different one. Not worth the effort.