moderators for Q&A forum

[Andy Baker]

Originally posted by Ken Leung
I can't think of anymore reasons for having invited only moderators... Like Andy Baker said, there are lots and lots of students out there in FIRST capable of giving great answers. I can already think of 20 more people who could be great answerers

This sort of frustration described by Krass, Jon, Cory, and Bill is what I feared when I suggested that we keep this open.

I had a feeling that there would be some ruffled feathers due to the limitation of choosing moderators. I should've been more vocal and went with my gut about not holding this to a limited number of moderators... sorry.

However...

(I'm going with my gut here again)

I do feel that many posters in these excellent forums do need some advice on getting their points across while being respected.

1. Make your point concise.
2. Keep your emotions in check.
3. Try to keep your posts from being one big paragraph.
4. If someone provides information that may change your opinion or disprove yours, it's ok to say "yeah, I was wrong". Heck, I still do this... see, I am wrong for not being concise in this point. heh.

Andy B.

[seanwitte]

As a new member, I think the QA forum is a great idea for very specific questions. Something like "How do you connect an RC servo to the EDU-robotics controller?". This is not explained in the documentation, and there is a discrete answer. What is there to discuss? That forum, if used properly, will become a dynamic FAQ as the season progresses.

It would be the moderators job to make sure that questions meet the intended requirements. If you need to provide a personal opinion to answer the question, it probably doesn't belong there. Straw polls don't belong there because only a subset of the population can reply.

If you see a question posted in the QA forum and you know the answer, but are not a moderator, you can always send a private message.

[Gary Dillard]

Let me throw out a different idea - maybe someone else can embelish it.....

Our team (SPAM) already consists of the only 2 high schools in our county. We're not in a big urban area, so we are not able to mentor a neighboring team in the traditional sense, but we are willing to help answer questions or give direction (or even moral support) however we can. Last year I had trouble contacting rookie teams (they frequently don't have working websites or up to date contact info) so about mid season I posted a note in this forum with my personal e-mail address begging for someone to come to us for help. I did get a few responses right away, and we answered alot of pretty simple questions; I think this is the intent of the Q&A forum - to help rookie teams keep from getting bogged down in stuff we've learned over the years. This year I've IM'd a few of the rookie posters with my work e-mail and phone number for the same reason - quick answers to quick questions.

What if - we took the FIRST list of rookie teams or teams looking for mentors and the moderators and/or others such as myself each adopted 1 or 2 teams. Give one person on a few teams your personal e-mail and phone number, or a link to your team website with a contact e-mail or chat room or forum that would be monitored as real time as possible. Having a real, live go-to person with experience would help each team from getting overwhelmed.

I guess I'm old school. It's certainly not as efficient as a forum or FAQ's from the responder's standpoint, but it sure is from the viewpoint of the guy asking the question.

[Ken Leung]

Ok, finally done with vacation. The past few days gave me the time I didn't have last month about this.

First of all, all these issues about choosing "moderators" and creating "question forum" have been troubling me since the first day I came up with the idea. It was all posted on the thread:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...threadid=15285
(funny how no one except Andy posted in that thread with concerns about these)

I was still brainstorming about this when Meabury suggested something similar, and I was soo busy with school work and workshop stuff that I went ahead and ask Brandon to create the forum before any more things were considered. I apologize for doing that. Thanks everyone for posting replies before it was too late.

Now, here are a few things I thought of while I was in "radio silent" the past two days.

The Chief Delphi Forum is a free-for-all forum, and therefore there shouldn't have been any sort of limitation on who can and can't post in a forum inside.

I still think having a Q&A forum is a good idea, as long as there's something to make sure the answers are helpful and correct.

When I suggested the Question forum, I didn't necessary mean creating one inside CD forum.

I think the first thing to do is to open it to everyone again. Then, CD can choose to keep (or not) the list of moderators to help manage that forum and make sure things run smoothly and questions get answered quickly and closed.


My original idea is creating something for organizations or groups like WRRF, where teams can ask questions to others inside that organization. It would be some what of a private forum just for the group only. I suggested this because WRRF teams already ask questions to the WRRF mailing list that only WRRF members can see, and having a forum is just one step on top of that. It would be like what Al said in his post earlier:

"It seems like what we are looking at here is a moderator who directs the questions to a group or expert (via e-mail) and then the reponse is posted to a forum that is read only."

This would be some what of a private forum for that group only. Of course, if the group chooses to open it to others they are welcome to.

Then the idea got expanded into a question forum for EVERY team, and suddenly it got a lot more complicated. I was too hasty to combine my idea with his and add Q&A into the CD forum. Again, I apologize for not thinking this thoroughly.

The Question forum I had in mind would be something created on the side, asking a number of people to help answer questions, as an additional resource on top of existing CD forum and other websites. However, putting it inside CD forum and setting a limit on answerers made it seems like “strips away some of that ability to see someone's worth. it will become the exclusive place to look for answers and discussion and - as someone told me - the "garbage" will be filtered out.” As M Krass said in his post. And he is right.

So, here is my question to everyone. Beside creating something for groups like WRRF or SCRRF, is there anyway of creating something that’s not free-for-all while not being “exclusive”? Or does it have to be free-for-all if its open to all teams in FIRST?

[Ken Leung]

Originally posted by Gary Dillard
I think this is the intent of the Q&A forum - to help rookie teams keep from getting bogged down in stuff we've learned over the years.

Yup! The spirit of a Q&A forum is to gather people who are willing to offer their help together, and have a central place where all teams can come in and ask questions to.

It's more efficient in the sense that a question only need to be asked once to be helpful to all teams. Also, everyone willing to help won't have to look for people who need help anymore... They just have to join the group and tell everyone that he/she is willing to answer whatever questions anyone has.

[Ken Leung]

Sorry for posting so many replies. But this is really important to me, and I really want to see the Q&A forum works well. Just want to add a few points I forgot to post in the last reply.

I think there are a few things that definitely need to happen in order for the Q&A forum to run smoothly:

Some way to make sure answers are good and helpful.
Some way to prevent trouble makers.
Some way to keep threads nice and short.
Some way to make sure all questions are answered.

Those are few basic goals that need to be accomplished if we want the Q&A forum working really well.


With that in mind, we have to balance 2 ends. On one hand, it could open to everyone just like other forums, on the other hand, it could be restricted to a handfull of people. I know for sure having just a handfull of people doesn't work. But I don't think making it just like other forums is a good idea neither.

There need to be a way such that people who want to help aren't shut out, at the same time making sure the people aren't giving unhelpful answers and clogging up the threads.

Any suggestions are most welcomed.

[Jack]

Ya know... I think that the best way of trying to do what you said is on a post-count basis.

Think about it. After making 150 posts, you must have learned something. Plus... once your past the 150, you really don't even thing about spamming. If you want to say something useful, then you post it. Otherwise, you just don't waste your time. So... Brandon, not 100% sure of how vB handels permissions, but i'd think that the people that have earned 'custom user titles' most likely would be ok people to be able to reply. But... still have plenty of mods so that if a user just posts the same thing over, it can be removed or if a discuession starts. Also, be sure there is a way that you could prevent a over-150 user from posting if they abused their 'power'.

I understand that just beacuse you have 150 really doesn't mean too much. Also, for past users, blocking count from the Chit-Chat forum doesn't really do much, but for feature users it will make sure that they will only be allowed to post after they've hade 150 good 'first' posts.

That's just my though. The only down-side is that it might make new users want to spam more so that they can to post in the forum. BUT... word to all of you newbabies: It really isn't that hard to get 150. You'll be there in no time. Just don't spam to get there or it will only take longer.

Oh.... Another idea. I know it would be a little anoying, but what about some sort of reminder whenever posting a reply in the Q&A forum? Like a little JS pop-up that whenever you click the 'submit' button remindes you and asks if you are sure.

Ex: "Remember, you are posting in the Q&A forum. Is this a good post?" - Yes/No

I know it might get anoying, and mabey could be dissabled for the mods of the forum... but would just give a reminder to users to see if their reply is really neccessary. Be sure that the pop-up only occures on replys though.

Have fun Brandon

Jack

[Brandon Martus]

Originally posted by Jack
After making 150 posts, you must have learned something. Plus... once your past the 150, you really don't even thing about spamming. If you want to say something useful, then you post it. Otherwise, you just don't waste your time. So... Brandon, not 100% sure of how vB handels permissions, but i'd think that the people that have earned 'custom user titles' most likely would be ok people to be able to reply. But... still have plenty of mods so that if a user just posts the same thing over, it can be removed or if a discuession starts. Also, be sure there is a way that you could prevent a over-150 user from posting if they abused their 'power'.

An idea I had earlier while talking to Ken was to use the vBulletin3 karma system. Your karma depends on votes from your peers and the moderators. The more 'good' karma votes you have, the higher your karma, which means your posts probably are good. So, with vb3 we could base your ability to post in this forum on: recommendation and karma level. Just a thought -- this wouldn't be possible until next year, though.

[Matt Reiland]

Ken I really think this forum (Q&A) will come into its own with the addition of a few more moderators that are more than willing & able to join in. After the group is finally formed (I imagine about 50-75 moderators) it will be a place to ask specific questions that you want quick answers from the specific group of moderators. I can't tell you how many times I have asked a question needing a response and got 20 replies, 12 of them off topic, 5 of them 'I think I remember....", 2 of them that were helpful and finally one that answers the question clearly and concisely.

There is no way that this forum will be everything to everyone.

If someone wants to post so that all can answer there are the other forums that have always and will always work well but when you post in them it is always 'like a box of chocolates'

With the Q&A forum at least you can feel assured that the poster of the response has taken time to make sure the response is researched and answered to the best of their ability.

[Cory]

Originally posted by Jack
Ya know... I think that the best way of trying to do what you said is on a post-count basis.

Think about it. After making 150 posts, you must have learned something. Plus... once your past the 150, you really don't even thing about spamming. If you want to say something useful, then you post it. Otherwise, you just don't waste your time. So... Brandon, not 100% sure of how vB handels permissions, but i'd think that the people that have earned 'custom user titles' most likely would be ok people to be able to reply. But... still have plenty of mods so that if a user just posts the same thing over, it can be removed or if a discuession starts. Also, be sure there is a way that you could prevent a over-150 user from posting if they abused their 'power'.

I understand that just beacuse you have 150 really doesn't mean too much. Also, for past users, blocking count from the Chit-Chat forum doesn't really do much, but for feature users it will make sure that they will only be allowed to post after they've hade 150 good 'first' posts.

That's just my though. The only down-side is that it might make new users want to spam more so that they can to post in the forum. BUT... word to all of you newbabies: It really isn't that hard to get 150. You'll be there in no time. Just don't spam to get there or it will only take longer.

Oh.... Another idea. I know it would be a little anoying, but what about some sort of reminder whenever posting a reply in the Q&A forum? Like a little JS pop-up that whenever you click the 'submit' button remindes you and asks if you are sure.

Ex: "Remember, you are posting in the Q&A forum. Is this a good post?" - Yes/No

I know it might get anoying, and mabey could be dissabled for the mods of the forum... but would just give a reminder to users to see if their reply is really neccessary. Be sure that the pop-up only occures on replys though.

Have fun Brandon

Jack

In principle, I think this is a good idea, but I am sure that there are many people like myself, who don't post on things unless they feel very strongly about them. Many of these people may have less than 150 posts, simply because they don't respond to everything they read.

On a more positive note, Brandon's idea of a karma system sounds excellent and would work out very well, because no one will vote for a trouble maker, and everyone knows who the meaningful posters are.

[Ken Leung]

Originally posted by Jon Lawton
I agree entirely with M's post, except for the last line. I see no good to come out of this new forum. I only see frustration and discontent from those of us who are already weary of this community.

So that makes four cents in total, so far. I am hoping M is wrong in saying we are in the minority on this topic. Who else is bothered by this?

Let's say the situation where the Q&A forum is open to everyone to post in, the reason for having it is to have a place to hold all the questions and quick answer together. It would be questions like "is shaft collars allowed?" or "what thickness of aluminum is allowed on the robot?" type of question, where no possible discussions can happen. It will be a place for people to ask quick questions and expect answers real soon, and get them without having to fish it out in the mass threads inside "general" or "technical" forums. All the other type of "deeper" questions will still happen in the usual forums. At least this is the way I picture this would work.

Again, the Q&A forum is only an addition to the already successful forum. Things are going to work just like the way it was, except with a new place for rookie participants to ask simple questions in.