A forum for explanations?

Most of the posts on forums are requests for help. However sometimes people post questions about things they just want to have explained. I've made posts like that myself and received good answers. I've also received answers that were off-point because people assumed that I was in some kind of trouble ("If you have a problem with Y, don't use it! Use Z instead.")

What about a forum for requested explanations? It could be a subforum of Linux - General, like the "Triumphs" forum. People who wanted something explained could post there and people who considered themselves good at explaining could trawl it and provide answers. And everyone else would know that scanning a page or two of that forum would often turn up useful information.

If you feel that something is worth "saving" I might ask the author if they wanted to add it to tutorials or as an article. I don't think that a new forum in the long run will be that beneficial.

The problem with a forum like this is that folks are 2000 miles away, trying to discover the true nature of the post and with their free time offering a few words to help the OP.

Offering a solution like don't use a pipe wrench on a car may be the best solution but the OP only has a pipe wrench. I get your point however.

I do see a lot of posts where the first line goes something like "Can you explain this please?"

I'd make you a Hazel forum. You'd set the rules.

This is the kind of thing I had in mind. Now if we had a special place to put these threads, they wouldn't get mixed up with the help threads. And there could be a sticky maintained by one person to act as a subject index.

I think all of what you're asking does exist in LQ.

I'll note that there are poor threads and there are good threads.

In the role of creating a thread, "it is what you make it" and you can continue to contribute to a discussion.

If you feel the intent of a thread you've created has deviated from your intentions, then send a reply and explain to the subscribers of your thread that you wished to concentrate the discussion in a certain area.

Being clear about your intentions, up front, when creating a thread are sometimes helpful. I will also admit, sometimes the exact opposite may occur if it appears obvious that someone is trying to force a discussion into a highly specific direction.

I will add that the other important thing is the forum choice.

I've noticed that the Non-Nix -> General forum has technical questions started in it and typically I see that by frequent thread creators there who typically have open discussion threads, but then they also choose to start technical threads in there. To me that's a poor choice because while that forum is open to all topics, that fact that it is open to all topics can potentially derail the good intentions of a technical question.

I actually think this is a great idea. I've also seen many threads that don't fall in the "help" category, but the "confusion" category, like the one Hazel linked to. No real system problems, just someone looking for an explanation. I've had that frustration myself too...I see a command, read the man page, but the output is confusing or not well documented. Asking "I see XXXX in the output when I do this, but don't know what it means", is all someone needs sometimes.

How about the LQ User Success Stories forum?

Originally Posted by dugan How about the LQ User Success Stories forum?

I tend to post how-tos, or write things up that have taken me a while to figure out. I use that more as a place for guides, which is what I'd consider a 'success', since I managed to get whatever it was working.

Thanks for the feedback. A couple questions:

* Is the consensus that the current hierarchy doesn't cover this? That is, if you want something about networking explained then wouldn't Linux - Networking be a resonable place, or Linux - Software if you want something about an application explained? Note that putting in the initial post that you are looking for an explanation should limit the kind of responses you noted.

* If that is the consensus, do we think there are enough of these type of requests to justify a dedicated forum?

--jeremy