[wp-forums] We need to be friendly.

[Podz]

I just deleted a thread which had moved from the issue posted to being 
personal. The problem was resolved and the thread served no purpose 
hence it's removal. But what happened in the thread is indicative of 
recent happenings.

I have had more email in the past month about the forums than in the 
last year and every one had the same concern - "the forums aren't friendly".
They need to be.
I don't care if you've seen the same post 500 times, I don't care if you 
think they haven't searched - answer them by pointing at a correct 
answer or don't bother answering them. You don't _have_ to answer, so if 
you do - for any question - please be civil at the very least.

If the response to every issue that had been posted once before had been 
"SEARCH" then we'd not be much would we? Codex.. why bother - we can search.

Tags can be added, search can be improved - we should be looking to give 
at least one model answer which we can then reference, which can be 
added to the search form, which can be read by those who never post but 
just read (because you made search better), which can be used by someone 
to feel confident enough to start answering posts as well.

Bad news travels fastest and lingers longest - so one shouting match in 
the forums can negate the effect of many many more good answers and 
experiences. Calling people names ("Troll") also does nothing at all but 
to attack and lower the tone. I have never yet seen anyone on usenet 
disappear when called that so I don't see why it will happen here. All 
this drags the forum down and starts to lower the bar of what we should 
expect.

The forums are not our playground. We will all move on at some point and 
we should leave an environment into which we would be happy to post. WP 
is free and so is our help but it doesn't mean that we should be 
anything less than helpful and decent.

The 'modlook' tag is something to be used against spammers and those 
wishing to be destructive. It is also a tool others can use to make sure 
than anyone's posts can be seen - that includes us. There is a 
difference between using tools like editing/deleting/tagging to manage 
the forums more effectively and abuse.

I'm not perfect - I know that - but please - if you cannot be polite, 
please do not post.

P.