Damn a serious suggest John

[Jethro]

Ok l know you are going to be disappointed but an actual suggestion.

When a new member signs up for the site, could you maybe email them a code of conduct sort of thing. Have noticed a few people are getting upset with certain other's conduct. This would perhaps help out.

Refraining from mentioning the "antiGuru" thing here....damn!!!!

Just my $0.02c worth.

[honeybee]

Maybe, this code of conduct should also be sent to existing members??

New members are always cautious when posting, I am saying this from my own experience. Perhaps the existing members need a word of advice ...?!

And please do not take offence at my remarks, all you existing members! (Oh, that includes me, too!!)

.

[parksie]

a code of conduct sort of thing

Prime Directive: You must make all reasonable attempts to draw any thread you reply to into the gutter.

Failure to comply will result in immediate banning from the forums.

[da_silvy]

Also suggest that members bother to respond to code.

I have posted quite a few good examples, as I am sure many others have, with no reply to say Thanks, or Sorry, that didn't work..

It's nice to know, when your knowledge has helped someone...

[honeybee]

I do not agree. Whenever one of my suggestions has not helped clarify someone's doubts (and there were quite a few occasions for it! ) I have seen the other member asking for clarification. And in threads where the member's query has been satisfied, the member should not come back and post a 'Thank you' and add one more useless post to his credit.

There have been many discussions on how members increase their post count without posting any substantial material, simply asking 500 dumb or otherwise questions about VB can shoot up your post count. There is no need for 'Thank You's adding to it.

Also I believe Stevie and a few others, including myself, have suggested to John that an option be provided to the thread starter to indicate whether his question has been answered satisfactorily or not.

I personally don't like 'Thank You' notes, i.e. posts which only contain 'Thank You's. Occasionally, if you have been rescued from great difficulties, it's OK to express your feelings to the ones who helped you out, but it should not be made a practice. If you feel that gratitude be expressed, let it be in advance, "This is my question and thanks in advance to those who help solve it..."

I understand your concern about knowing if your post helped solve matters, but there will be other better ways than 'Thank You's.

.

[chrisjk]

I don't care about post counts. I will always give thanks and I will always expect it in return. Even if someone says "Thanks in advance" it is still polite to express that again at the end of the conversation. After all, I'm taking time out to help this person; I don't have to.

[Pix]

I've been brought up to use manners

[chrisjk]

Poor Manners. He must be feeling low.

[SurfDemon]

I always like to ge ta Thank you back, and I know lots of others feel the same way.

Personally I couldn't care less about my post count.

SD

[Active]

I would like to get monetary compensation from those who
doesn't give me the correct/suitable reply !

[parksie]

No. Sod off

(is that a bad enough reply for you? )

[Kzin]

Posting a thank you also indicates that you have tried the suggestion and that it works - which closes the brackets so to speak. I guess there are threads where I haven't thanked whoever made the suggestions yet but that is specifically because something has come up that has delayed my testing of the suggestion - I always try to let the other guy know the outcome


BTW -who wants a high post count - Parksie says that he tries to help people with low post counts

[parksie]

Did I say that? I don't actually look at the post count when answering a question...because it's not important, and doesn't give any indication of skill/knowledge.

You only find that out by reading their posts.

[Jethro]

Originally posted by SurfDemon
I always like to ge ta Thank you back, and I know lots of others feel the same way.

Personally I couldn't care less about my post count.

SD

Thank you for expressing your view SD

[da_silvy]

Then there should be some way in which you can express your thanks.

So, when you have a thread,
you can say, click Megatron's name, because you think he helped the most, and beside his name, in only that post it says:

Megatron solved da_silvy's problem...


or something like that

[honeybee]

For one, I do care about my postcount. I would love to watch it rise and rise above everyone else's post count. But I also want to do it the right way.

Secondly, I don't come here to see people thanking me. A discussion board is meant to share your knowledge and help people out. I don't think I am doing any favours by solving others' problems. I would better start hanging out in Chit Chat if I thought so.

Why waste a post to just say Thank You when you can email or send a private message to a member to express your gratitude?

Personally I don't give a hoot if people thank me or not. But I would like to know if my suggestion DID NOT help someone, because that tells me that I need to improve. And even if you don't care about the post count, why add up to the total number of posts and increase the server load? Ever paused to think how many posts just contain a "Thank You So&So for your help" ??

On a discussion forum like this, whenever any member asks a doubt or a question, he is confident that someone will give him the right answer, and he is already grateful for that. There is no need to display the emotion in public.

.

[SurfDemon]

Originally posted by Jethro


Thank you for expressing your view SD

Thank you for thanking me Jethro

SD

[SurfDemon]

Originally posted by honeybee
For one, I do care about my postcount. I would love to watch it rise and rise above everyone else's post count. But I also want to do it the right way.

Sorry to cross swords with you again HB, but we do seem to disagree about a lot of things

The post count (as it is implemented at present) is an arbitary measure of someones involvement in the forum. Having a high post count is not something that you would brag to your mates about or use to impress a girl (I hope). It just says "I have been actively involved with the VB forum". Someone with a high post count might be really useless at VB. The post count doesn't tell us anything, so why bother about it.

People like MegaTron and MathewGates have very high post counts, but you judge their knowledge by their inteligent and usefull answers not by their post counts.

If you really want a high post count, then I'll give you mine. I'm sure John can reset mine back to zero and up yours by the required amount. Would that make you happier? As far as I'm concerned a Thank You is always appreciated. If somebody really wanted to up their post count they would just create a seperate persona who constantly asked dumb questions which they could use their real account to quickly post one line replies. But I don't think anyone cares!!!

SD

[barrk]

Originally posted by honeybee
There is no need to display the emotion in public.

Saying "Thank you" is displaying emotions in public???? Geesh!!!!!!!

[parksie]

Don't normally see you in Feedback, Katie

But I agree though

[honeybee]

SurfDemon, we might disagree upon a lot of things, but you have misunderstood me. I have clearly said that I want to see my post count rise by the right ways, not by the way you have suggested, so thanks for the offer, but I don't want that.

Secondly, although it's true that the post count does not truly reflect a person's knowledge, it is the only indicator till now to quickly judge if a member's opinion or answer would have any substance in it. For e.g. if someone posted a code snippet with some untraceable error, and if I said, "Maybe you have goofed up this thing. Just a guess." and if someone like Megatron or Matthew Gates says the same thing, I don't have the slightest doubt as to whose statement would be taken more seriously.

After all you can't just post useless stuff and increase your post count. Almost all members who have a high post count have good knowledge in their respective areas.

I feel that you have got carried away by the former part of my statement that I want my post count to rise, and ignored the later part which says I want to do it the right way. After all why should I not desire to be Guru?? I naturally wouldn't get it just by increasing my post count, would I? And I know very well that simply having a high post count will not win me respect from other members. But that does not mean post count is totally meaningless. Otherwise we wouldn't have it in the first place.

Katie, although I stick to my opinion that posting a Thank You is a display of emotion in public, I don't want to fight you, and so I shall not elaborate on it.

The point I was trying to make originally was the Thank You posts should not be included in the code of conduct. It should be left upon the respective member how he/she wants to express his/her feelings. I don't say that Thank Yous be banned, but certainly they don't fall under the code of conduct category.

And a suggestion has already been made to John to make a provision whereby the thread starter can indicate if his problem was solved or not, which he has promised to look into once the beta is stable.

.

[Jethro]

Originally posted by SurfDemon


Thank you for thanking me Jethro

SD

Hey thank you for thanking me for thanking you

Honeybee

It's a politeness thing dude

[Kzin]

Originally posted by parksie
Did I say that? I don't actually look at the post count when answering a question...because it's not important, and doesn't give any indication of skill/knowledge.

You only find that out by reading their posts.

No you are right - my fault - it was megatron - you said "Good point . . . if they are new I'll do my best"

[Tygur]

I'm coming into this a bit late, but I have to express my opinion on thank you messages.

I like it when someone reports back to say thank you. Like at least one person said already, it lets you know that the problem was solved, instead of leaving you hanging.

Matthew Gates and Megatron have high post counts because they post lots of messages and they've been members for a very long time. Matthew Gates has been a member for over a year! Megatron's been around for more than two! And both have a high amount of posts per day. Their post counts are not so high just because they know VB very well. Their knowledge of VB has nothing to do with their post count.

There are quite possibly many people that know VB like the back of their hands and still have post counts less than a thousand. This can be for a number of reasons. It can be because they joined only months ago. It can be because they just don't come to the forum very often. Maybe they just don't have much time. But the low post count is no reason to view their code or opinion as inferior to others.

In short, post count is not a very good way of evaluating the skill of someone. In fact, I think it's a very poor way of doing it. What the post count does show is someone's involvement in the forums, as someone else already mentioned in this thread.

If someone's post count rises significantly because of posting many thank you messages, that's ok. It shows that they are involved with the forum. Since I already showed that the post count is a poor way of judging someone's skill with VB, why is it so important that their post count get scaled down just because they aren't the ones answering questions? This forum needs people to ask questions just as much as it needs people to answer them. Both groups are getting involved, and both should feel free to post messages and communicate. Even if it's just a show of appreciation.

Thank you messages are very important for the people answering the questions because it shows that someone appreciates their effort. That's what keeps them going. I hope everyone I answer questions for sends a thank you message. If they don't, I get discouraged because I'm not so sure I'm really making a difference. One thing you definitely don't want in this forum is for people answering questions to get discouraged.


Wow, over 350 words.. I feel like I just wrote an essay.