[wp-forums] Building better.

[Michael B]

First this is not directly addressed to you spencerp, but to the "noob"
questions, I think the article touches on this in the sense it talks about
encouraging the "new" user to answer questions.  I often simply don't answer
those questions that I feel that I've answered a million times, or seen
answered a million times, knowing a search will return the answer.  Sure, I
could post a seemingly snipping reply telling them to search, but that
rarely solves anything.  A second solution would be to do the search, and
simply point to the search results.  The other option is to simply leave the
question unanswered, allowing someone with less experience in the forums to
chime in.  there's no rule that says we have to answer every question.  I
think that last point sometimes gets lost on the regular volunteers.

Second, the blog post you pointed to is a perfect example of the general
poster admitting to not giving a shit about rules.  There's nothing we can
do about that.  The rules about posting for paid help were formulated for a
reason, a general consensus was had, and it's important to follow them.  You
did nothing wrong in your reply, heck, I saw Kaf post an almost identical
reply today, with the same closing of the thread.  Their argument is
baseless, it could be compared to someone who was speeding, got pulled over
and given a ticket, then them complaining it's not their fault they didn't
read the stupid sign on the side of the road, and then try to make the
officer out to be a bad guy for enforcing the speed limit.  It's there for a
reason, same as that rule is there for a reason.

Back to my first point.  And I think this should apply to ALL the volunteers
in the forums.  There's no harm in not answering a question.  If it's worded
poorly, or vague, a polite, "can you expound on your question" could
suffice, but rather than get snippy, or sharp, just skip it.  Chances are,
someone new to the forums might now the answer and jump in.  This not only
empowers them to participate more, but reduces the frustrations for the
veteran volunteer.

I really am looking to be a liaison between the forums and the new wave of
codex work to potentially have some cross reference material to once and for
all have some of the FAQs covered.

Perhaps some effort could be made by the mods/veteran volunteers on updating
the Codex page on "how to" volunteer in the forums, with some type of
etiquette rules of thumb, and some simple tips on how to answer threads that
"break" the Forum rules.  Something that puts less emphasis on telling the
poster about rules, and more about why the rule is there.  May take seconds
more to reply, but perhaps a few less feathers ruffled.

Regardless though of how "kind and gentle" we try to be, not everyone is
going to be happy, as they tend to be frustrated and confused before even
entering the forum.  The goal is reduce their stress, and point them in the
right direction.  This should go for ALL forum volunteers, mods included.

And perhaps it's time to take a "zero-tolerance" stance with those that
don't have the patinence, regardless of their "status" or time spent in the
forums.

Michael


On 12/5/06, spencerp <spencerp1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> [spencerp wrote>
> 1) Despite having the HUGE search on the index page, and even the little
> one up top there, some of the users STILL DO NOT use it, sigh. This IS, and
> CAN BE, quite frustrating to the normal volunteers.. ]
>
> Replying to myself on this, because I forgot to add it in the first time.
> That's also why I try to encourage people to go through threads from a
> "search" I've already done for them, example here:
> http://wordpress.org/support/topic/95729?replies=2#post-479023
>
> To help show them.. that searching DOES help, if not MOST of the time,  at
> least some of the times.. (example from here, down)
> http://wordpress.org/support/topic/30885?replies=8#post-480320
>
> However, if I have the answer right off the top of my head, I'll post it,
> or if I have the "answer" from a [Resolved] thread, bookmarked some where..
> I'll post that too!
>
> So, either way, I try my best to help the people. ;) :)
>
> spencerp
>
>
>
>
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