Not sure if this has already been suggested but as a total newb to this site I thought I would make a suggestion. Clearly you have a very busy beginners sub, my post sank 3 pages deep in only 1 day, do you not think it would be a good idea to have a whole beginners section?

For one I think you would see people asking the same question alot less as the info would be much better organised, secondly you could bring a whole lot more people onboard (not that it really needs any by the looks of it) by catering a little better to those that are totally new rather than making them feel like they are standing in the road at rush hour.

Just a thought...

keep up the good work.

That's what the Newbie forum is for.
Unfortunately, it becomes a free for all and we can't always tell how new a member is (post counts are not a good guide). We do try to move threads to other forums when it is obvious that they belong elsewhere, but with our membership as it is now and at the rate it grows, it will always be a popular forum.

A good tip is to wait 24 hours and then to bump it back to the top by responding to your own question with either more info or with things you have tried in the meantime.

You are missing the point, my post got answered, it was fine, but as you said yourself, it's a free for all, no forum should be like that, speaking as a mod on another very busy forum, if it gets that way then there is enough demand for it to be split up. Just mho but i'm sure a whole sub dedicated to beginners would be very busy and much appreciated by many.

Its just another Linux - General for newbies., just aimed at the members who feel they are very new, don't know as much Linux as more advanced users and want to be treated as newbies to Linux, that is what Newbie is for really.

Yes, I know what it is for and I see it is very popular, hence why I am suggesting that it be broken down. If it was split into sections you it would be much easier to manage and you could develop a new sub-sculture on the board where beginners could learn from each other, read each others posts rather than just hope their post gets read before it gets to the next page. I aware of bumping etc. but when a section is that busy it needs to be split. Like I said, just my opinion...

I think you guys are missing his point. He is talking about a newbie section that would have more than one forum. They could be organized the way that people who are very new would understand. Like Newbie - Installation | Newbie - Sound Problems | Newbie - Network Problems | Newbie - Video Problems | Newbie - No problems... just questions

I think it is well worth a good think. I probably would have helped me out a lot more when I was a noob.

But this would then render the existing forums redundant. Believe me, there is enough difficulty getting members to place their problems in the correct forums as it is - by doubling up, we would end up with double the opportunity for misposting.

As for double posting - there is already a problem with multiple posting. By doubling the number of forums we would have people posting in Newbie, Linux-General, Networking and Newbie-Networking, simply because they feel that their thread is relevant to all the forums.

I believe that this would be an unwieldy solution.

I agree with XavierP, the more forums, the more confusion and more cross posting that would occur. Though I'm a organized freak myself but I've learned by being a part of this forum for so long now that it seems the less amount of forums, the easier it is to navigate, find, search and so on. Sure making a new forum that is more specific keeps topics and threads altogether but I also feel that most don't even care or would notice split up forums, they just post in whatever or whereever. It seems to me that most who answer questions would like to have more speicfic broken down forums, the one's who come here to just get an answer and maybe come back again one day just want the answer; and care less where its put at. Some just pick the top forum no matter the question, just cause they don't want to search thru all the forums to decide where theirs fits in. Some don't even know how to categorize their question.

I give it a thumbs down though, it would be nice but I don't see splitting up the newbie forums into categories we already have is beneficial to our members at this time.

I agree with XavierP and trickykid,

People need to post their questions in the appropriate forum. Most Installation questions should be posted in the respective forum in the Distributions section. Probably most sound and video problems also. Many of the tools available to fix those problems are distro specific. And add the fact that they sometimes use different config files.

I agree with the mods. It's always better to have lesser number of forums -- to remove redundency and to sustain talks.

The boarsds on the site are very well organised and new membres would benefit quickly if only they choose the boards right. Look through the website, use the search, choose your Forum right and you will find that the system at LQ is Perfect.

Well, far from perfect, but thanks I have to agree that in my opinion the added complexity of having sub-Newbie forums would out weight the benefits.

--jeremy

How about having an indicator to show your level of knowledge. i.e. [0] - This would be a zero knowledge newbie. [1] - newbie with very basic knowledge. [2] - newbie. [3] intermediate... [7] Can recompile kernals with ease. .... [100] Linus/Morton {just joking}.
The benefits are: No need for a seperate newbie forum. The newbie can indicate their level of knowledge/confidence. The 'expert' knows at what level to pitch their answer, etc. It could be an extra button on the [Post Reply] similar to the Message Icon. It would be optional. The categories 0 - 10 would have a brief description (fuller in FAQ) and would be decided by LQ experts. Also, a real newbie could be distinguished from a UNIX expert but is a new-to-Linux newbie. I would be happy to ask the most moronic question at [0] and not expect to get flambed but get gently helped, whereas asking the same question at [7] would get a RTFM. newbie[1].

Nice thought but I give this rating system a big hands down. I'll explain myself later. It's chow time now

hi ...

just my opinion..

Agreed about the splitting issue...
The big thing is to convince and show the users how to use correct the forums...
Slackware has a sub-forum for installation and it is just ignored by some users .. check by yourself the amount of installation question, now with this running for the 10th version, in the main slackware forum...
split is not a solution.. somehow must be arranged that the questions are done in the correct places..
i think Marcel6 idea is not bad..
Maybe it is possible to use this idea to make the things even better ... ; - )

regards

slackie1000

I don't agree with this rating system, because it depends on "LQ experts" to rate other members. And according to this rating users are supposed to reply to other people' threads.

If someone is a complete newbie, then they should explicitly ask for step-by-step guidance. And why not, it's they who are searching for answers which would help them and so they should explain their level of knowledge, so that they get better answers.

I don't believe that this rating system would do any good.

Just my two...