use the Title Line when you post

[Ken Patton]

I just saw the recent thread where some new guy from Colorado got the business for starting a new thread that was possibly redundant (not passin' judgement on anyone here ). One reason for the new thread was that looking through a 500-post thread is not an easy task.

So, I would like to suggest a way to improve the situation. How about if we try to intelligently use the "Title" line when we reply to a post in a thread? This will allow others to scan the posts for topics when there is a whole bunch of them.

By just hitting reply and not changing the title, its not possible for others to know what the reason is for your reply.

But, if the reply has some useful, standalone message, sort of a summary of what you said in the post, it should be helpful to others.

Examples of possible titles:
rather than "Re: ramp" use "I disagree, because ramp is made of jello"
rather than "Re: IR sensor" use "our test results from IR sensor"
rather than "Re: GLR Results" use "GLR congrats also to the TechnoChickens"

Just an idea, hopefully it will help us deal with the massive amount of great info here on the Chief Delphi forums.

Ken

[EricH]

There is also a "Search Thread" tool located in the orange bar at the top of each thread. This feature searches only within the thread.

And, yes, Ken, I followed your suggestion.

[T3_1565]

I never actually knew this line was there

[Jaime65]

Originally Posted by T3_1565

I never actually knew this line was there

Ditto

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by EricH

There is also a "Search Thread" tool located in the orange bar at the top of each thread. This feature searches only within the thread.

And, yes, Ken, I followed your suggestion.

If we had a tree based posting sytem like CD used to have (and users actually have the option for now as well I just remembered but I doubbt anyone uses it) , it would make more sense. But in my opinion, the search thread (or even main Search feature in general) could lead to an answer a lot quicker.

It's just a matter of new folks here on CD learning how to use it, and being forgiving when they post a n00b question we all know because we are so addicted to CD, and know how to use it inside & out. We were all n00bs here on CD at one time, some just a longer time ago than others.
*cough* My "n00bie" year on CD was 2001 *cough*

Not all posts that tell people to "search before they post" should be interpretted as a rude post. Just a friendly reminder. The ones directed to someone about reading the manual about a question they ask literally less than an hour or even a day after the game is released about "read the manual" shouldn't be interpretted as rude either. Again, just a friedly reminder. Most questions that are asked in the immediate 2-4 days after the release of the game, answers are easily found by reading the manual, and more importantly understanding it.

And when someone responds with a link (as I personally did in that thread) it's not meant as a rude action as well, and I don't like a response that says something like "I clicked that but don't feel like looking at the whole thing to get my answer".
I know that's personally hard for me to accept because I'm guilty of doing the same thing when I ask people something.
Kind of like asking a teacher how you spell something & they tell you to look in the dictionary.
I'm sure none of us liked that answer growing up, but we can't be expected to have everything handed to us in the world (answers to questions being one of those things).

If it were up to me (and you should all be glad it's not) I would shut down CD from the time after kickoff & up to about 2 days after to give people a chance to read the darn manual and not post questions that can be easily found by doing so.

Btw, for those people who haven't been on CD during a kickoff event, or a webcast/televised regional, you don't realize the amount of annoying things that can happen.

One liners here on CD while watching the webcast like users asking the following:

User 1: can you see the field

User 2: what did he say?

User 3: OMG Green light!

User 4: Did he say IR?

User 5: <insert code for PDF files here>

User 6: <insert code for PDF files here>

User 7: <insert code for PDF files here>

User 8: <insert code for PDF files here>

User 9: I didn't read that manual yet but I have a question. (posted seconds after kickoff)

User 10: I knew that was the game all along..

Those are the typical postings on CD that grinds my gears the most. CD is not a real time chat, and shouldnt' be used as one.

Oh, and people not searching before they post, that annoys the heck out of me too obviously.

Sorry.. had to make a CD rules/regulations/standards rant before this all happened again this year. I believe we're all allowed to vent/rant about stuff occasionally.
That's what makes CD as a whole a great group of discussion forums.


Oh, and one more thing LOL @ the following quote:

Originally Posted by Ken Patton

I just saw the recent thread where some new guy from Colorado got the business.....

That reminds me of a college football game a friend of mine just showed me a video of recently. The ref called a penalty on one player for "giving him the business" to another player. What does that even mean???

[meaubry]

Ken,
I like your suggestion.

Anything we can do to help each other (regardless, if this might seem redundant) is okay in by book.

Elgin,
Yes, we all could learn to be better CD community citizens.
Posting can be very scary and a difficult thing to learn how to do well.

Hopefully, we will all remember to treat the newest members, the way we wish we had been treated when we first started.
It does take some time to learn how this community of FIRST folks, communicate here on CD.

Mike

[Danielle H]

The only thing I can see wrong with using the title line, is people like me.


If I'm reading a thread, and I have a reply, most of the time my thoughts move faster than my hands, and I just end up clicking the "Quick Reply" button which, unfortunately, doesn't give you a title line.

So, I guess the search thread option would be the best... and I can't believe I've never used it before.

*feels like a n00b*

[Bomberofdoom]

Never done this before, but this sounds really good.

Will start doing so from now. Thanks for the idea.

BTW, those who might know what to write in their reply topic, they should write their reply text first, and then write the title according to what you've written.

Just for those it might not have been obvious (not that I underestimate people).

[popo308]

I don't see this being as helpful as expected.

Good idea but i don't see it really helping enough for everyone to do it?

could just be my opinion

[JaneYoung]

Ken,
Thank you for starting this thread. The thread you referred to isn't the first one where I've seen a new poster 'get the business'. I'm glad folks are thinking of ways to help this situation.

Two things:

If everyone keeps their sense of humor intact and available - it will go a long way towards warding off criticism while new members learn to navigate CD.

If your humor fails you, push back your chair and go outside. If it's too cold, go look out a window. Then come back and try the humor again. It's called 'refresh'.

[Qbranch]

Or, when you search to see if your question has already been answered, use the advanced search and have the results shown by post rather than by thread. Pretty much stamps out any possibility of you being a 'repeat' offender.

-q

[Pavan Dave]

Instead of clicking on "post reply" I always use the quick reply box, and it doesn't ask me the title. It by default posts ReTitle of Thread).