[wp-forums] This needs debating please

Scott Merrill skippy at skippy.net
Mon Sep 12 13:45:26 GMT 2005


Podz wrote:
> Scott Merrill wrote:
>> Sound fair?
>>
> Certainly.

Sweet, I win!  ;)

> Unless we keep and enforce a focus we will have more and more people
> dropping by. Unless a URL is given in the post I am now checking
> people's sites first - there was a poster last night asking for an SQL
> query to delete TB's. Their name led to a drupal site - how do we know
> who we are answering ? I really don't think it's unreasonable to expect
> a decent focus.

Yes, I saw that, too.  A lot of people, for whatever reason, don't want
to post links to their blogs.  I understand that: they might be slightly
embarrased, or afraid of an explosion in traffic that their account
can't support.  Or maybe they're afraid of malicious visitors.  I often
sanitize my postings to mailing lists like the postfix-users one, so as
not to draw undue attention to my possibly mis-configured system.

In the case of the SQL question, I chose (as you saw) to provide the
WordPress way to mass-moderate comments.  This helps the user learn
WordPress, if they are in fact using it but don't want to share the link.

> We also seem to get a fair chunk of Adsense posts (a
> topic I don't care for particularly but the last time I said what I
> thought in the forums I was directly attacked in a few blogs so I've
> given up) and where it's code placement, fair enough. Today we have
> someone moaning about the ad quality - and it's in the How To forum
> again: http://wordpress.org/support/topic/44337

I support a more aggressive thread locking policy.  If it's clearly a
non-WordPress issue (even the liberal "on-topic" definition I try to
use), lock the thread with an explanation.

> I don't disagree with your work Skippy, but then what if I had posted
> about my router problem ? After all, no router = no wp = problem.

I'd give you a snarky response about contacting the manufacturer, just
like we often give snarky responses to contact one's hosting provider.  =)

> I really don't like interfering with posts but an increase in moving
> posts to the Misc forum might be a start ?

We could create a new forum, "Off-Topic", in which we file all of these.
 This would let "Miscellaneous" remain the catch-all for WordPress
questions, and "Off-Topic" would be for all non-WP posts.

I'm certain, though, that this grnaularity would be lost on most users,
and wouldn't actually solve any problems.

So I'm perfectly okay with moving posts to "Miscellaneous", and will
also support a more aggressive locking policy.

-- 
skippy at skippy.net | http://skippy.net/

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