General Guidelines to the Competition Forum

[BBQchef33]

Originally posted by our moderators.

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Just a request from one Brother (who happens to have an "edit key") to another.

The major complaint I hear about "BBQ Forums" is that they are disjointed or disorganized. They have "hard to follow" discussions and little historical value. Topics disappear in a few days and are "re-started" over and over again.
I hope The Brethren do not go there

May I offer these thoughts to help us rise above the "norm"?

#1--Please "title" threads completely and accurately.
If we are posting about an event--include the city/state. That is how most people identify them. There are about a zillion "Pig Jams" a year! Take a moment and look to see if a thread exists for your event. Threads do not "go away" here like they do elsewhere! Your new post will bring them right back to the top again! Use the prefixes for this forum to make the title stand out and keep things organized.
Contest Announcements can be put up as soon as a contest is official.
Roll calls no sooner than 4 weeks out.

If your thread is about "first judging" or "first competition"--see it it fits in with any existing threads on that event. Normally, it will fit in just fine
Just add it in and folks will guide you accordingly!
If not (in your opinion), start a new thread and see what happens.

#2--"Competition Cooking" threads are a tough call. Best I can do is--"If your question is about "how to win" and is of an advanced nature, it probably belongs in comp. General questions about "how to cook crispy skin"--well, that is general interest and probably belongs in Q-Talk..
Sometimes a hard call for the moderators, we will just do our best
I have asked for several threads that were first posted in Q-talk to be moved to comp. They were good comp threads that were staying "on-topic"!

#3--Please look at events as a 2 part item.
One is "getting ready".
This is the standard "who is coming" type things. Also, some coordinating information is normal.
The second part is "what happened?"
For really large events like the Royal or CAB, the "getting ready" thread can go a couple of pages easily. And then the "what happened" can do the same.
Events of this magnitude easily justify a second and separate thread.
But--a third, fifth, or ?? thread???????

However, most events do not have so many Brethren teams involved and can easiy be handled in one nice coherent thread.

I have personally merged up to 5 threads started for events that Dave and I were in when the disjointed threads started piling up! It just makes it really hard to follow!

#4--Pictures. We love them.
But, they really fit best in the "results" portion of a thread.
Also, review the guidance at http://bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14685
Post #3 for guidance about posting "off-line" pictures.
Please pick the ones you feel are really the best and post them here. Provide a link to your site or off-line host and then those who want to see more can go there.

#5--Chatter and Banter (AKA Chatroom talk).
This is becoming our biggest problem!
Let me start with my personal definition of these terms.
They are posts between a few people that have little or no interest to the membership as "a whole".
Best I can do!
They really does not belong in any forum--phone calls and IM's work so much better

There are a lot of perfectly legitimate things that go into the "prep phase" or the "after event phase" of comps.
Many are legitimate public discussion items such as "who is coming", "What are the facilities like?" etc.
On the back side--"I screwed up" or "I did OK" are common and expected.
One or two "well thought out posts" should cover all of that.

Not drawing any lines here---yet.

But--Many have limited appeal.
Example A:
Brother #1----"Who is bringing the coffee machine"
Brother $2----"I have it covered, no problem"
Brother #1----"Thanks"

I personally did this for Dillard last year. Basically--"I am doing a shrimp boil--who is coming?" I got a couple of "sorrys, and a "yes"--I knew how many to cook for in 3 posts or so

At this point with this conversation, no problem. "No harm, no big deal, no foul"

Example B:
Brother #1----"Who is bringing the coffee machine"
Brother $2----"I have it covered, no problem"
Brother #1----"Is that the same one your had at zzz?"
Brother #2----"Yes, same one, but a new blend this time!"
Brother #1----"Don't change the blend! That was so good!"
Brother $2----"Your are gonna love it!. I did it for XXX last week and it was a winner!"
Brother #XXX--"It is some good stuff!"

And, this goes on, in one form or another, for ??? posts.
Got the picture???
By now, the other 1500 Brothers are going--"Pick up the FARKIN' phone, guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
There is a big difference between the "basics" and the personal details in all of this!

Anyway. IMHO we can replicate the problems demonstrated by the "other" Forums.

Or we can rise above them with a little bit of thought.

The choice is up to us as to how "professional" our teams are viewed in this forum.

[Ron_L]

Gang... Please pay attention to item #1...

#1--Please "title" threads completely and accurately.
If we are posting about an event--include the city/state. That is how most people identify them. There are about a zillion "Pig Jams" a year! Take a moment and look to see if a thread exists for your event. Threads do not "go away" here like they do elsewhere! Your new post will bring them right back to the top again! Use the prefixes for this forum to make the title stand out and keep things organized.
Contest Announcements can be put up as soon as a contest is official.
Roll calls no sooner than 4 weeks out.

I'd like to suggest a format for threads about specific competitions to make sure that the requested information is included...

<Name_of_competition>, <Location_of_competition> - <Dates_of_competition>

Where Name_of_competition is the name that shows up in the sanctioning body's listings, Location_of_competition includes the city AND state as show in the listing, and Dates_of_competition includes the year since many of these events happen every year.

Thanks in advance!