Is it time to word some stickies more strongly ?

[Deb-fan]

Every forum of course takes the time to post "how to post", what you should do before you post, common sense forum netiquette and all manner of similar threads prominently. However after 8 or so years and much participation in many forums, it became very clear to me that almost NOBODY reads these, nor cares in the slightest. As such, is it in fact time that we make such common sense guidelines standout to people more ?

I propose the titles of these valuable threads be changed henceforth, things along the lines of "READ THIS, OR DIE!!!" and "READ ME, OR DON'T POST AND DIE!!!" come to mind. So whatcha think fellow nixers ?

PS, Hey, it's 5am and I've drank a bunch of coffee. Dang it, actually now that I read the junk I just typed, honestly think there may be something to this nonsense.

PS2, Also such gems as "PROVIDE BASIC INFO OR DIE!!!" and "IF YOU HAVEN'T SPENT AT LEAST 30MINS WITH GOOGLE, PLEASE DIE!!!" have a certain appeal.

[sunrat]

Someone once said there are no stupid questions. They were wrong. The longer I hang around here, the more I ignore stupid questions.
Debian is still not a good distro for beginners. Sorry beginners.
That said, if someone doesn't know how to do something but explains concisely what they wish to do, it's usually worth an answer.
There are also stupid answers. Some forums have people who reply to every post whether they know what they are talking about or not. If I don't know something, I try to STFU.
Stickies will always be ignored by a percentage of people no matter how they are worded or how prominently they are displayed.

[CwF]

I started before the internet. Back then the signal to noise ratio was very good. Any correspondence was guaranteed to be with someone possessing some remnant of education. Then compuserve, AOL, and the internet population hit ONE MILLION! Now with the general public online, there is no guaranty of a brain on the other end. You'd think this new generation could dominate with some inbred savvy, seems not the case. A minority blow my mind, a majority have blown minds.

[Soul Singin']

The longer I hang around here, the more I ignore stupid questions.

+1

I usually ignore threads like this one too, but I wanted to express my agreement with Sunrat.

[stevepusser]

Can we just have one sticky post with FAQs on how to safely install the latest Firefox release, what's up with my missing firmware messages, how can I safely install a newer version of <package>, and so on?

[sunrat]

Can we just have one sticky post with FAQs on how to safely install the latest Firefox release, what's up with my missing firmware messages, how can I safely install a newer version of <package>, and so on?

That is a good idea but some of those things are already in stickies and in the Tips and Tricks section. I like the idea of consolidating a quick FAQ for the most common questions.
But then we'd also need a sticky on how to find and read the FAQ, and a percentage of users will not read it before posting the same old questions anyway.

[Deb-fan]

^Lol, that's when everyone responds by posting a link to the faqs.

[NFT5]

There are stickies?

There are forums where the forum etiquette is clearly defined and enforced by admins, moderators and members so that it is part of the "culture" of that forum and there is no surprise when posts just get locked for non-compliance.

This forum isn't in that category and despite the efforts of a few members to 'encourage' other members to research first, without support from the top down, it's a culture change that isn't going to happen any time soon.

While I do agree with the suggestion of a single FAQs thread, the question is who is going to maintain it and what happens when the entitled new member ignores it anyway?

[Deb-fan]

^All good points, as mentioned above though, as a community I'd like to see more efforts to "police" ourselves. The Mods are outnumbered and can't be everywhere at once. Also agreed with Sunrat, not bothering to give an answer, is an answer. If someone can't be bothered to post a worthwhile OP outlining their issue with a fair amount of data to go on, I say screw em. Not bothering to devote the time to trying to help them out.

Also generally do try dropping hints to people that research and providing info are strongly advised. The whole give a person a fish vs encouraging them to learn to fish thing. Oh well ... the world continues to spin fellas and fellettes.

[Deb-fan]

One biggy faq I'd like to see if how to profile a systems hardware components (ie: Graphics/vid-card). Sheesh in gnu/Nix there's only about 34 diff ways to do it, everything from "lspci -vv", inxi, hardinfo and etc etc etc. Believe there are community editable resources freely available. Though would want to see some amount of vetting, +1 Sunrat again, have been in forums where a user is level 23, joined 10yrs ago, 1,000's of posts, then you read some of what they post and find myself surprised they can successfully turn their computer on/off.

[Deb-fan]

Mostly this thread is/was just a gag-thread, it was late, I was over coffeefied and figured someone would get a smile out of the deal. Honestly though is much to this topic me thinks. Sure helping someone is one thing (and consider it generally a good thing, paying it forward etc.), teaching someone how to help others, help them and hopefully how to help themselves is a grand ideal too eh ?

Lol ... started out with Linux Mint and still have a soft spot for the distro and it's forum community. One time remembered encouraging that bright red links to all these FAQ's threads be included in the post page for a new users first 50 posts or so. Based on reaction from some of them, you'd think I'd suggested we track these new users down, go to their house, kick their dog, pimp-slap their significant other and give them a body cavity search. Still think it's a good idea, though don't know if there's a plugin available for whichever forum software to do it. Shrugs ...

[sunrat]

Mostly this thread is/was just a gag-thread, it was late, I was over coffeefied and figured someone would get a smile out of the deal.

It was 3am here and I'd had several alcohols. perfect time to vent!

we track these new users down, go to their house, kick their dog, pimp-slap their significant other and give them a body cavity search.

There is merit in this suggestion...

[Deb-fan]

^LMFAO Sunrat.

Not so fast, more on my (if I do say so myself AND I DO) brilliant idea on making sure people see, thus more likely to read/follow the basic common sense FAQ's, help links and the F'ing manual.

1. As mentioned included on post page (esp for new users?)
2. Included on everyone's profile pages ?
3. Included in users posts or sigline ?
4. Included in welcome letter and/or during the user registration process.
5. Debian finances myself, Sunrat and any acceptable others, to fly all over the world, kicking people's pets, pimp-slapping and body cavity searching those necessary.

Errrrr ... I vote for #5.

[Deb-fan]

How about a flashing red button that says *"click me, click me and win a prize !!!"* Then they click on it anddddd, gotcha, it's the fecking manual !

[sunrat]

[Deb-fan]

LOL/CON = coffee out nose ... nice Sunrat.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Can we just have one sticky post with FAQs on how to safely install the latest Firefox release, what's up with my missing firmware messages, how can I safely install a newer version of <package>, and so on?

OK, I'll put it on my list. Bit distracted at the moment though.

[Deb-fan]

^ Jebuz, not even you can do such by yaself Hoas. When do you sleep, eat ... find time to breathe ? Yep ... mentioned it before I'm pretty sure you're a cybernetic lifeform dang it !

[Head_on_a_Stick]

not even you can do such by yaself Hoas

Pah! It's just a case of collating the links for the [FAQ]s I've already written and then adding a few more. I suspect that making it a sticky will be the hardest part

[v&n]

..it was late, I was over coffeefied and..

You sure it was.... just Coffee? I mean nothing else with it, or IN it??