Hi everyone,
If you had a chance making it to this posting, well I'd say you'll agree with me on this one. When writing your post make sure to put some meaningful words in the subject line. To put this into perspective, say you have a problem with security, well, try putting "security problems" in the subject line and refrain from putting "Hurry! I need help right now" This way members that are proficient in security will attend to the post more effectively.
Well, this is just my thoughts.

Good luck everyone and remember...

Agreed.

I'd even like to see a "standard" format along the lines of:

distro : topic : description

For example:

Slackware:X11:X won't start

...posted in the appropriate forum too

Maybe this could be included in a "welcome" email after someone registers?

Thoughts?

j.

We've been trying to let members know that more helpful topics are easier to sort thru and lets some get faster responses as it allows us to determine by just the thread if maybe we can answer it or not.
I am not sure about having to add "what distro they are using" to the thread but it does help when in non-specific distro forum.

Mainly we would like to have at least members post their thread describing the problem without just a "Help Me" sort of thing which is really annoying. When you get too many "help me's" and or "urgents" that doesn't mean your questions will be answered any faster as this is a free site, with questions answered by others just like you that might know how to fix your specific problem.

Thanks and thanks abra and jpweston for pointing out that this is an issue that even other members can clearly see there is a problem when users post with a thread title of just "help me".

Sound reasonable enough - just don't get overboard and write a rulelist. I know mailinglists where about half the volume is about rules and how to post.

I agree that a good title is essential. What would you guys like to see to aid in this? I could add it to the forum guidelines or even put a little note next to the subject box. I do think that a standard is asking a little too much myself - it would just be too difficult to get this many members to do something exactly the same. Also, I encourage everyone to fill in the distro box in your profile. This way it will appear next to your name in your posts. With distros doing more and more customizations many answers really depend on the distro you are using. Having it a glance away is very convenient.

--jeremy

I think that would work and also adding the text next to the subject field would work, maybe something like "Please try to be specific as possible for the thread title."

Actually, I'd like to stretch your suggesting further: an "open ticketing" system. It's basically a regular BBS, but certain forums have extra fields for specifying useful info, like a ticket form. That way you won't get posts like: "HELP! I can't get KPPP running!" in the "Programming" forum. By making certain fields mandatory you can also avoid the need for "enforcing subject format rules". Also, by using the extra fields, you can automatically redirect posts to relevant forums. Say, if a user tries to post to the "Programming" forum, but selects the topic "Networking", her/his post would automatically be posted in the "Networking" forum.

What do you think? After all, the primary function of this forum is tech support...

It might work for the new users, but what about those hard corps users that have like 3000+ posts (trickykid - 4073) who are used to just "typing in the blank boxes" and not really reading what's next to it. Not to say that trickykid makes bad subjects, but that was just an example of a hard corps poster.

well you said it yourself... the people that post a lot are aware of the way the forums work.. so they (we) always use a decent thread title in the first place.

actually maybe a "How to post useful questions" page might be good? as well a suggesting useful titles you can say things like "try running the app in a terminal window to get any debugging information" and all that...

the combination of "newbie needs help" and "i can't load the Gimp, it doesn't come up when i select it from the menu. thanks." make for a really useless post.

I thought that instructions on giving useful titles was already part of the sign-up process. Perhaps making it in really big letters (and also the bit about double-posting), a lurid green and flashing would get people to remember.

Or a reward for fishing out the double posts. Like give them a week off work, or even better, allow them to download a free copy of any linux distro. ha ha ha ha

Anything really works and doesn't bother most just as long as it has something related to what their problem is. Like, "Problems with the Gimp" is way better than... "Help a Newbie".

I don't believe we should make some things mandatory, too many restrictions will detract some members and they might go elsewhere.

And the hardcore posters with tons of posts, you will hardly ever see them start a new thread, usually with that posts, were mainly just answering other members threads. But if we do, they are usually suitable and at least you know what the thread is going to be about in some way.

Trust me, nobody will read that page. An analogy: when was the last time you read any MOTD?

Linux dread 2.2.19 #1 Sat Jun 9 13:04:06 EST 2001 i686 unknown

All of the user accounts should be back to functional now. Comments, complaints, suggestions, please mail to root with the subject heading: Purge My Ass Please.

finn@dread:~$



Most of the real newbies that come by here stop in once, maybe twice, get their problem fixed and go on so that most of the forum ettiquette never makes it into their grey matter. Maybe like kewp said, but a short how-to with a quick 6-7 no-no's that they are redirected to before they can post, for say their first 5 posts or somesuch?

Then again, I work at library, and no matter how much you over-think the problem, never under-estimate the ability of people to avoid giving details when asking questions.

I dunno, anyway,

Cheers,

Finegan