How it involve new forum members quicker 4

[Drazen]

currently it is noticeable that there are many young people or beginners that are joining this hvac forum.

in general i am delighted about that, but such situation also imposes that more emphasis be given to basic principles of engineer's work, for mere sake of practicality. without knowing that some members do not use common kind of engineering communication, lot of misunderstanding can occur, and many problems are possibly not solved as expected, and that can also discourage new members to continue being part of this community.

how to mitigate this? some members frequently send reference to general eng-tip rules, which, formally speaking, is the right way, but i am not sure that it helps in practice as much as it should.

is there some way to talk with forum developers? there could be many simple ways to improve things. for instance, putting some general forum principles right below forum heading could help.

 

[DRWeig]

I agree, Drazen.

I'm a forum-rules-reference type guy but I try to explain when I'm not in a rush. But even the small tidbits of explaining I do for those who double-post and such may not be effective if English is a second language or they are new to the foibles of Western culture for the OP.

We all need to keep professionalism and respect first, especially when addressing a new member. I believe they need advice and direction rather than chastisement. In some cases a newbie shouldn't be here. We often can't tell, though, whether he or she might become a valuable contributor.

There are some who obviously don't need to be here, who can be recognized on the first post (spammers, marketers, recruiters, and so on). They don't need sarcasm or flame coming back at them. If a member feels that a newbie is being inappropriate, just quietly red-flag the post with a brief explanation to admin and move on.

I'll pass your post along so admin will see it.

Confession: multiple posts in the forums I prowl are a pet peeve of mine. Drives me nuts (in case nobody has ever noticed).

Best to you,

Goober Dave

Haven't see the forum policies? Do so now: Forum Policies

 

[Drazen]

indeed, it would be ideal to explain such things as delicately as possible, but without pointing at it, even repeatedly, we are in situation to spend much time not only on very basic issues, but even on concept that come before very basics.

hope something can be done in that respect, and it would be good to hear some additional ideas as well

 

[IRstuff]

Well, I applaud your enthusiasm, but fear that you will be disappointed. The majority, if not the overwhelming majority of ET members do not spend much time here and do not attempt to figure out the workings of the site; they're posting simply to get an answer and move on.

The notion of "lazy" engineers is quite commonplace, and the reason the rules are so often quoted is that it is indeed so often that I, as a neophyte in a particular discipline, can Google the keywords in an OP, and can apparently spout back more than what the OP has posted about in less than 10 minutes of reading through the Google hits. THIS is why there is such great reluctance to proffer immediate and detailed help, since it's often the case that the OPs will simply suck up the knowledge and vanish, never to return or even offer a cursory "wham-bam, thank you."

There are daily postings where the OP expects the site to behave like a personal servant that will go and hunt down simple catalog information that the OP was too lazy to look up themselves.

TTFN
faq731-376

 

[Artisi]

IRstuff, I agree and as I have said previously, if an OP shows that they have at least done a bit of research on the subject or at least pose a coherent question I am happy to help - as for the others, depends how I feel on the day

It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. (Sherlock Holmes - A Scandal in Bohemia.)