[wp-forums] 'Common Sense' Mod Rules when reviewing forum post that says 'me too'

[Jan Dembowski]

Mike,

The link alone would have been sufficient, the list parsed all that copied
text to badly formatted bits.

I'm going to reply to some parts of this selectively. *Please do not
mistake my replies for an argument I am just attempting to explain.*

On Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 12:37 PM, Mike Turner wrote:

> So I use the forums quite a lot for plugin support and if I have an issue
> the first thing I will always do is do a quick search through existing
> posts to make sure it hasn't been raised before.
>

That's good and thanks for that.


> If I find an issue that has been raised already and is in the process of
> being investigating then I see no issue with just adding a simple 'Me Too'
> message to the post, for 3 reasons:
> 1.  To Let the person who submitted the issue know that they aren't
> alone.2.  To help prioritize the issue log for the author so they know what
> are / aren't important.3.
>

Often it really doesn't do anything but clutter the topic and does not move
the conversation forward.

See, that topic is not yours, it's the original poster's topic. Unless you
are trying to contribute directly to the OPs request for assistance then at
a minimum you're not really contributing. Worst case? You're hijacking
someone else's issue with your own.

Put it differently: you ask for assistance in a topic. You need that plugin
to work and you have a deadline/requirement/it's really bugging you. Then
other users hop on the topic and begin focusing on *their* problem. Where
does that leave you and your problem?

They may solve your problem but too often it's lead to leaving the original
poster in the dust. Here's a prime example of that exact thing happening a
month ago and my reply.

http://wordpress.org/support/topic/recent-update-breaks-my-site-slider?replies=19#post-4952110

See what I mean? No one heard from the original poster and that topic was
taken over by other people who BTW were properly sorry about that. The
plugin author and the person who also needed help didn't mean to hijack
that topic.

No one is attempting to not help you but starting your own topic really is
the best way to go. That's why that text is in the forum welcome.

Thanks,

Jan Dembowski