Not to but in, but if one answer is given by a non-mod in the Q&A section that helps a team tremendously then it's worth it. I know that many times questions can't wait for 40 mins untill a mod comes and puts up the answer. That's the idea here, not to reduce the role of the mods, but to speed up the process and bring in some creative people who either don't post enough to be considered or may be looked over.

So, instead of making people who post here have to earn the respect of users by making meaningful, well-thought out posts on a consistent basis, you're suggesting, instead that we wipe their slate of uselessness clean any time they mess up in this forum.

It's entirely possible to back up a wrong answer with a post of discertation. The answer is still wrong. While I agree that whoever posted the incorrect answer stands to learn from their mistake, it does nothing to help anyone seeking "a quick & direct answer."

It's a matter of ideology. If you'd like everyone to learn from the forums, it's imperative that we facilitate discussion from everyone so that they can be shown the errors in their thinking or logic. The Q&A Forum's purpose doesn't facilitate that sort of environment. The Q&A Forum exists for people who aren't interested in anyone learning anything. It's for people who are in a bind and need a fast answer to a problem they're facing at that moment. In the final hours of the build season, learning something becomes secondary to getting the project done -- at least, that's what the Q&A Forum leads me to believe.

I don't believe the Q&A Forum works within an ideology that supports everyone learning something above actually doing something successfully. I'm not at all suggesting that people shouldn't learn by what they post and what they read here. It just seems to me that the Q&A Forum was not created for that purpose, and if it's going to stick around, it needs to excel at what it was created for. Doing that steps on many toes.


It's also easier for me to read a response that says, "no," and discount it and its author than it is for me to pour through a 4 page reply that gives me an incorrect answer; particularly when I'm looking for an immediate solution to a problem. Furthermore, if I'm asking a question, it's likely that I'm doing so because I don't know the answer. So, if the first reply is an incorrect novel that sounds intelligent, it stands to reason that I could act on that response. How does that help the person who's asked the question?

People are capable of making intelligent-sounding arguments that suggest the earth is flat and that the world was created in 7 days. When someone is in a position that requires they get a correct answer quickly, making those intelligent-sounding arguments available to them is damaging.

Again, it's just a matter of ideology.

There are benefits and negative aspects of excessive discussion.

The benefits include more detailed explainations and we get to know each other better.

The negatives include making these forums even more cluttered than they are now and the fact that we users have to wade through discussion that is not needed.

People need to be concise. Many times, I don't have time to read long, drawn out posts. Sure, I have been guilty of this too... but this "added discussion" turns many people off.

Andy B.

I think that the forum as it was this year is fine, with the addition of more (qty.) knowledgeable mentors.
I do not agree with making the forum open to everyone to answer. Many posts on CD are incomplete or fully incorrect. The FIRST forum is just as bad if not worse for getting conflicting answers or gray area answers that don't give the definitive answer the user seeks. Each of my reply posts was researched this past year on the Q&A forum as were most of the others. Sometimes it takes longer than the 30 seconds some people want to make sure what is posted, is correct. The solution is to let knowledgeable people that want to be moderators, be moderators. To be a moderator know that you are expected to give the correct answer to the best of your ability.

Lastly, I wish everyone would take the extra 5 seconds to spell check and make even a minimal attempt to look like we passed 4th grade spelling. i.e. 'you' instead of 'u' etc.....

But, isn't it more beneficial and easier to provide more information and discussion than it is to leave it out entirely? It's somewhat easier for someone to skip a post because of its length than it is for someone else to go research the same content provided in that post.

I understand that these forums can be hard to keep up with at times, and as more people join in on the party, it'll probably just get worse. There's something to be said for being concise -- it's a skill we could all work on sometimes -- but, I'd rather see something verbose and useful than not at all.

Your mileage may vary, of course.

Exactly what I was trying to get at. I'm not trying to introduce "more clutter" into the forum, I'm trying to get people to research their responses. I researched all my responses before I posted. Even if it was something I thought I knew, I checked through the rulebook and found the answer before I posted.
A point that re-enforces the argruement of "more moderators" and leaving the forum closed to everyone else. Even a rating system will take time to weed out the bad responses.

I do get where you are coming from though. You don't want only a select group of people to have their thoughts heard in the Q&A forum. My suggestion was a way to allow everyone to provide answers in the Q&A forum, while still keeping the answers clean by forcing them to back up their answers with rule book quotes.

Isn't that the point of the "Extra Discussion" Forum, though? That is, don't clutter up the Q&A forum with a lot of extraneous discussion, but if you have something that you want to discuss, and is not of vital interest to the person who asked the question in the first place, it should take place in the extra discussion area.

Also, I'll take this time to describe in more detail something I said earlier. If there were a thread stuck at the top of the forum, where moderators could put common questions and concise, yet detailed, answers, I think that would solve a lot of problems. Moderators can reword the questions to be more general, or more grammatically correct, or more concise, etc. Then, they can provide a good answer, and it will be readily available to anyone even casually glancing at the forum. As people ask questions, if a moderator thinks it could come up again, he'll place the question (or a modified version of it) in this thread, and provide the answer as well. This, I think, would help stop clutter in the forum. Over time, if this thread got too bloated, it could be subdivided into many categories, or made into its own area (like the whitepaper area, but the FAQ area). For an example of such an FAQ area, check out this site. But, I suppose I'm getting ahead of myself now. Before this post gets too long, I'll end it by saying thanks to all the moderators for the great job they did this past season on the Q&A forum.

Stephen