social or technical forum


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During the last 9-12 month the forum has slowly changed content and form.

 

It went from a technical infoexchange and troubleshooting forum, to a mix also containing opinions, and it apears as some is using it for social interaction.

Questions are asked with little information, answers, opinions based on nothing is given.

 

Information has given in, and opinions are taking over. "I post, therefore I am", seems to be the mantra for some.

 

Previously all new posts contained something relevant, and readworthy, now most is crap.

To me someones opinion is worth very little, unless it is for longshot-troubleshooting.

 

Frankly, if 5 members is removed, the forum falls apart, so maybe their time should be valued and not wasted.

 

/Rene

"never underestimate the power of stupid people, in large numbers"

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Funny stuff.  You wrote a subjective opinionated post about hating subjective and opinionated posts.

 

"I am sick and tired of people who are sick and tired of people who are sick and tired"

     - Month Python

 

Please provide specifics.  I have not seen a significant shift in the flavor of the forum but admittedly I don't read everything.

 

 

Bill

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Funny stuff.  You wrote a subjective opinionated post about hating subjective and opinionated posts.

 

"I am sick and tired of people who are sick and tired of people who are sick and tired"

     - Month Python

 

Please provide specifics.  I have not seen a significant shift in the flavor of the forum but admittedly I don't read everything.

 

 

Bill

 

What he said.

 

Thread like NLS referenced are not common.

 

There are a ton of newbie questions that require re-explaining the most basic diagnostic processes (saving syslog).  Perhaps a "sticky" message on this topic would help.

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I am with parsec that the forum "feel" has been changing mainly due to uptake.

 

IMHO if the wiki was more detailed and comprehensive it would help people alot. There are a small number of genuine knowledgeable users here so can i suggest again that we do something like...

 

"Sure i will help you. The only caveat being that at the end of this help you document it in the wiki".

 

This should help all and stop the few uber helpers losing interest in helping.

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I agree NASUser.

My only "objection" would be, how much more could we ask from 2-3 experts that already do much here (in fact much more than expected - for one of them, someone even proposed Tom should give him a salary :D).

I think this is a job for all the rest of us. Most of us can edit a wiki. When an expert gives a reply potentially useful to the "public", we could add it to wiki.

 

I wonder though, what messes the forum more:

 

- A "newbie" question that someone finds stupid but someone else may not find stupid (btw the referenced thread does NOT fall into this catergory at all, I still believe my question was valid and never asked before so probably useful to some)

 

or

 

- A useless reply that is not worth the time of the reader much more than the original question (...that demo's someones bad character - but that's a whole other issue, no point or use discussing here).

 

Could be a poll if the forum was "social". :D :D :D

 

 

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I think we are all on the same page here... wanting to help out... find better ways of supporting and in general keeping the forum a happy place for all.

 

One thing is for certain its good to ask these questions and ponder the answers. I have some experience runing a couple of technical forums and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt a small group of hard core users can set the "feel" of an entire forum. People follow by example so if the core users start to get annoyed at n00b questions or other random events things can spiral out of control quickly.

 

I still maintain the best way to help all is to get all involved. Getting users to work on a wiki page as part of their burdon for getting free support makes them feel involved, helps with their support and helps others. It also takes away workload from the core users.

 

The one downside we have to avoid is an RTFM culture. There nothing worse than a user who has made some effort to help themselves but based on low skill level doesnt get the documentation properly and when they ask for help they get a barrage of regulars RTFM'ing them.

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I don't think this is a very social forum.  Even the Lounge area doesn't have much chatting going on.  As far as people not being clear about their problems when posting, either do something about it (in a not-rude way) or just ignore their post.  No one's forcing you to respond.  Some examples:

 

If a lot of people aren't giving the required information, either make a post or a wiki entry that describes the basic information that must be present in every troubleshooting post for it to be considered.  Tell them things like they must say what version of unRAID they're running, what motherboard, and what additional cards they're using.  That should be enough information to answer most problems, or at least get an idea of what's going on.  Additional information could be requested later (such as what drives are connected where, what bios version, whatever).

 

If someone's asking a rudimentary question, do a quick search yourself to see if the answer's easy to find.  If so, then post "I search for X and here's the results".  Don't just say "use the freaking search function newbie!" as even I sometimes have trouble using the exact right search phrase, though I definitely always search first.  If the answer's not easy to find, then just reply to them, or edit the wiki and point them to it (and let them know you just added it, so they won't feel stupid for not finding it the first time).  Some stuff that's common knowledge isn't that obvious to someone who's new here.

 

As for people giving opinions instead of real answers, I think you (the OP) are guilty of that as was just shown.  Sometimes I respond to a question but I'll make a nice disclaimer, saying this is how I think it works, and it's how it's worked for me.  I'm not always right though, but at least I told you that I'm not 100% sure that it's the way it is in all cases.  Should I instead say "this is the answer, that's the way it is, you're welcome?"  Should I not answer at all, because of the off chance someone's had a different experience?  Or should I continue to answer, and if someone has a different view they can post it as well?

 

Lastly...give some specific examples.  Where exactly are people rampantly socializing all over the forum?  Where are people giving pure opinions as answers (i.e. "I'm just guessing, but maybe the answer is 42")?

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Last reply was to the OP, this is to the rest of the discussion.

 

I don't think the forum would be that bad if there was more social-type discussions going on, as long as they were in the appropriate areas (i.e. the Lounge).  Things like showing off a new system build, or posting screenshots of their desktop (I never understood the appeal of that, but oh well).  The more we keep people engaged here, the more time they'll spend on the forum, and ultimately end up helping others.

 

If someone answers an easy question, I'd either ignore it or go ahead and reply.  It helps the forum and the whole site in general if you do that.  Just think, the more people ask questions, the more they're answered.  Now there's just that much more actual content for google (and other search engines) to see.  If someone searches for "raid solutions" or what-not, this site will show up even higher because there's so many more pages and pages of content that has to do with raid, or whatever else would be searched.  Even if you do nothing but post a link to a past discussion, that helps too (links to your site count, even if they're internal links).  Ideally you could give a quick answer in addition to some other links.  Of course no one should feel obligated to, but remember that it helps the forum more to actually be helpful than to be rude.

 

Another reason that being nice in general would help the site, is because not everyone who visits these forums are already paying customers.  I know I wasn't when I first signed up.  If everyone was rude and elitist, who knows, I may not have bought any licenses at all.  Instead I was able to find some useful information, and while I didn't get many responses to my questions, no one was rude and told me to go RTFM (then again, there probably wasn't much of a manual for what I was doing).

 

I do agree that Tom should try to keep the core users here.  Since he's selling a product, maybe he could give him a couple free licenses here and there for all their help.  On my site I have one person who spends much more time than I do helping others out, so I occasionally do something for him (last thing was an HD-DVD player for Christmas, then of course the HD-DVD format just had to die right afterwards, oh well).  You don't even need to do that, people seem to get excited over small things like a custom user title.

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Well, english is a difficult language, as it apears

It is, even for those of us who were born in the US

-I dont hate anyone on the forum.

-People should be helped, and I am a great fan of WIKI. put a little work in it too.

 

To me unraid is just about bitbucket'ing, it is not a hobby, lifestyle or peering.

You are right... unRaid is not a hobby or lifestyle.  I have quite a few hobbies... unRaid supports one of them acting as my media server so I can watch movies. (I have a home theater, as do many folks here, that is one hobby.)

 

I help people, perhaps too much, but they then support unRAID by registering their software, and Tom keeps his business running, and we all get new releases of software.  So in effect, I benefit.  I've had a server running here since Tom's first release and it has worked perfectly for several years now.

 

I've been adding entries into the wiki more and more.  Hopefully, adding content that answers the most frequently asked questions.  If everybody does the same, it will grow to become a great resource.  As noted, we need to review existing content periodically, as upgrades and new unRaid releases make old wiki content obsolete.

 

Joe L.

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