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

Mon Jan 20 17:58:19 UTC 2014

I think many "me too" posters would expect an answer/help with their
problem. And then we would find out it was a "me too except" and take the
thread off in a different direction.

Keith

-----Original Message-----
From: wp-forums [mailto:wp-forums-bounces at lists.automattic.com] On Behalf Of
Mike Turner
Sent: Monday, January 20, 2014 9:37 AM
To: wp-forums at lists.automattic.com
Subject: [wp-forums] 'Common Sense' Mod Rules when reviewing forum post that
says 'me too'

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.
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.  So I can get email notifications of To me, if I just
raise another post with the exact same error report then I would consider
this as a duplicate (Most forums work this way right?) So here is my
experience today - see
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/please-update-oauth?replies=8#post-513251
1
Now I will rarely argue with a moderator, but in this case, for me it just
felt like she was taking the 'Forum Guide' a little bit too literal and not
applying some common sense.  The issue itself was basically that the install
guide for a plugin was completely out of date since Google had changed its
API (OAUTH) functionality so no-one could use the plugin.  Now someone had
already posted the issue, so I just added 'Me Too' in order to be notified
by email if the author makes a reply.  Yes I know I could have subscribed to
an RSS feed instead, but frankly I don't use RSS and if I was to check every
support feed that I want to read about through RSS I'd be checking it almost
constantly at the moment, rather than waiting for an update.
Surely by making everyone that found this issue report it seperately, it
would be a complete waste of time, and results in duplication!
Just in case my comments have already been moderated on the post the
conversation is below.
Does any one agree? - It would also be great if their was the ability to
'Follow this post' so you could be notified of any updates (without then
needing to post) 
1.    theig072Posted 1 week ago #
The instructions for a new install of version 1.4.58 are outdated because
Google has deprecated OAuth 1.0. Does anyone know how to register a domain
and get it working properly? Also Google seems to only allow https:// URLs
when setting up the callbacks. Any way around that?
2.    ravenoakMemberPosted 5 days ago #
Same problem here as well. :/
3. northantsphotos   <<< THIS IS MEMemberPosted 5 hours ago #
Me too :(
4.Esmi Theme Diva & Forum ModeratorPosted 4 hours ago #
@northantsphotos: If you require assistance then, as per the Forum Welcome,
please post your own topic   << HUH?
5. northantsphotosMemberPosted 3 hours ago # Seems a bit silly to me @Esmi
since most forums will advise you to look up existing issues so you're not
raising duplicate posts. The only reason I posted is that I wanted to be
notified of updates to the article which you can only do by adding your own
comment on.
But as you wish, I've created a new topic with the exact same description
just so that I can get assistance.
@ravenoak, I guess the same will apply to you also.
6. esmiTheme Diva & Forum ModeratorPosted 2 hours ago 

"most forums will advise you to look up existing issues so you're not
raising duplicate posts"
As you will see from the link I posted above, that's not how these forums
work.
"I wanted to be notified of updates to the article"
You can just subscribe to the topic's RSS feed - the link is at the top
right of each topic.
HTH
7.northantsphotosMemberPosted 1 hour ago It's just symantecs in my opinion,
I had the exact same problem and wasn't even looking for seperate help but
to add to the post that it wasn't just affecting 1 person, in order to help
both the original poster know they weren't alone as well as to help
prioritize the issue for the author so that they know its an important
issue.
I've been using forums for over a year now and have seen exactly what I did
time and time again in posts and never seen a mod try to step in.
In my view I was helping out by letting people know its a wider issue
"Helping OutIf you are here to help others, you can view a quick list of
unanswered topics by using the "No Replies" link at the bottom of the front
page. The "No Replies" filter is often used by folk to find questions to
answer next. This is also a good reason why you shouldn't bump your topics.
Bumping is discouraged and bumps may be deleted by the moderators."
I'll feed back to the WordPress Complaints address about this.
p.s. I don't use an RSS reader so whilst I "could" subscribe to an rss feed,
its much more useful to me to be notified by email. (Otherwise I'd be
constantly checking a lot of RSS feeds constantly) 8. esmiTheme Diva & Forum
ModeratorPosted 1 hour ago # Posting your own topic is smiled upon. Unless
you are using the same version of WordPress on the same physical server
hosted by the same hosts with the same plugins, theme & configurations as
the original poster, do not post in someone else's thread. Start your own
topic.
http://codex.wordpress.org/Forum_Welcome#Where_To_Post
9. northantsphotosMemberPosted 0 seconds ago # It also says:
"Duplicate postings will be closed or might be deleted".
Maybe that should be a bit clearer that it means Duplicate Posting of your
own posts in the forum, rather than duplicating the same issue that someone
else has reported.
Either way, as I said above, I was trying to 'Help Out'
"Helping OutIf you are here to help others, you can view a quick list of
unanswered topics by using the "No Replies" link at the bottom of the front
page. The "No Replies" filter is often used by folk to find questions to
answer next. This is also a good reason why you shouldn't bump your topics.
Bumping is discouraged and bumps may be deleted by the moderators."
Moderators need to simply apply some common sense. Funny how you also picked
on me only when 5 days ago someone else had done exactly the same but no
mention of that here. One rule for 1 and then another for someone else I
guess. 		 	   		  
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