Scott Jensen
05-30-2002, 12:24 PM
Hmmm. Someone moved "This is the best we can do?!" to Educational section too soon. For these threads to be of good educational value, they need to be allowed to age a bit. To have a good exchange back and forth. I posted a concern. People replied. Howard replied and ... *pop* ... it goes into the Educational section. I then get an email notification that someone has replied to my original post, click the link, read all the replies, and then I worked my little old fingers to the bone typing up a very nicely formated reply (going so far as typing in my own code :D ... ok, ok, so it was only making certain lines bold, but that's code for this non-programmer ;) ) and fired off the reply. But when I check the General Discussion forum to insure it made it, I see the thread has already been moved to the Educational section and thus my fresh reply has supposedly and HOPEFULLY gone into limbo for consideration to be posted to that thread. *sniff* *sniff* And it was my thread to begin with. *sniff* *sniff*
What I recommend is not to honor a thread with moving it to the Educational section (and, yes, I do consider it an honor to have one go there) until the discussion seems to have run its course. The only reason I can see for moving it early would be to try to reduce the off-topic posts, but I think that would cause a premature dying of the thread by the delay in seeing posted replies. And if someone posts a reply to a thread that has been moved to the Educational section, will its position (then identified as "Moved:") in the General Discussion forum once again rise to the top with each new reply to it or will it simply continue to sink into oblivion on the GD forum? If it continues sinks on the GD roster regardless of the new replies to it, I would definitely then NOT move it to the Educational section until its discussion has at least seemed to run its course to keep it before the eyes of the vast majority of people (who will tend to only read the General Discussion forum) and thus it having more a chance that more will reply to it thus its educational value increasing both in the length of the thread and those that will read it.
Lastly, the following statement in the intro post for the Educational section:
Most users shouldn't bother attempting to post in this area unless instructed to do so by a moderator.
...should be changed a bit. I think replies should be ENCOURAGED in that section like no other section on this forum. This is where we will be supposedly educating the unwashed masses ... like me. :p Thus the above statement could be viewed as discouraging that. I think it should be changed to something like the following:
"While on-topic replies to the threads in this section are HIGHLY encouraged, please don't try to start up a new thread here. Only authorized people can do that. If you have an idea for a good educational thread, post it to the General Discussion forum and if the Men In Black think it develops into a good educational thread, they'll later move it here."
If new replies to Educational threads also resurrect those threads in the General Discussion forum (by rising to the top of the GD roster their "Moved:" subject title), there will be the double benefit that as newbies read the Educational forum, submit questions to it, and DF staff answers those questions, the rest of us old-timers will see the old educational thread resurface, likely read them (or at least skim them for the new stuff), and possibly learn a little bit more that we didn't know before. Additionally, these educational threads will then more thoroughly discuss the topic and that more in-depth discussion will still furhter increase the threads' educational value!
What I recommend is not to honor a thread with moving it to the Educational section (and, yes, I do consider it an honor to have one go there) until the discussion seems to have run its course. The only reason I can see for moving it early would be to try to reduce the off-topic posts, but I think that would cause a premature dying of the thread by the delay in seeing posted replies. And if someone posts a reply to a thread that has been moved to the Educational section, will its position (then identified as "Moved:") in the General Discussion forum once again rise to the top with each new reply to it or will it simply continue to sink into oblivion on the GD forum? If it continues sinks on the GD roster regardless of the new replies to it, I would definitely then NOT move it to the Educational section until its discussion has at least seemed to run its course to keep it before the eyes of the vast majority of people (who will tend to only read the General Discussion forum) and thus it having more a chance that more will reply to it thus its educational value increasing both in the length of the thread and those that will read it.
Lastly, the following statement in the intro post for the Educational section:
Most users shouldn't bother attempting to post in this area unless instructed to do so by a moderator.
...should be changed a bit. I think replies should be ENCOURAGED in that section like no other section on this forum. This is where we will be supposedly educating the unwashed masses ... like me. :p Thus the above statement could be viewed as discouraging that. I think it should be changed to something like the following:
"While on-topic replies to the threads in this section are HIGHLY encouraged, please don't try to start up a new thread here. Only authorized people can do that. If you have an idea for a good educational thread, post it to the General Discussion forum and if the Men In Black think it develops into a good educational thread, they'll later move it here."
If new replies to Educational threads also resurrect those threads in the General Discussion forum (by rising to the top of the GD roster their "Moved:" subject title), there will be the double benefit that as newbies read the Educational forum, submit questions to it, and DF staff answers those questions, the rest of us old-timers will see the old educational thread resurface, likely read them (or at least skim them for the new stuff), and possibly learn a little bit more that we didn't know before. Additionally, these educational threads will then more thoroughly discuss the topic and that more in-depth discussion will still furhter increase the threads' educational value!