PatioDaddio
Babbling Farker
Brethren & Sistren,
I know that what I am about to say may be somewhat controversial, but I
sincerely put it forth in the spirit of improving this forum. I don't intend to
single out anyone, cast aspersions, point fingers, or at all hold myself up as
some great example or paragon of virtue.
We all know that there is a ton of very useful information exchanged here.
When I recommend this forum to others I often tell them that they will
learn more here in a day than they will in a month at other similar forums.
It's a wonderful resource, and I truly appreciate all of the individual and
collective contributions to it.
With that said, having a ton of information can quickly become very unruly
if you can't find what you're looking for. Some forums try to enforce
categories, while others, like this forum, provide a few broad categories. I
prefer the latter approach because it's simpler and doesn't require as much
filtering and policing. Many topics simply don't fall into nice neat
categories.
I'd like to politely request that we all make a conscious effort to provide
descriptive subjects for our posts so that others can get the gist without
having to open the post. This will also help folks more accurately search
for what they're after.
Posts with an uber-generic subject like "Chili?" (I just pulled that out of the
air) isn't at all helpful. Does that mean, "Should I make chili?", or does that
mean, "Does anyone have a good chili recipe?", or could it even mean, "I
can't believe they served chili!"? Instead, I'd suggest that we think about
using something short that truly summarizes what the post is about.
As a personal example, you may have noticed that I preface my recipe
posts with "Recipe:". I do that in an effort to help folks quickly see that it's
a recipe, and to make it easy to search.
In summary, I'm merely suggesting that we think intentionally about using
helpful subjects. I'd recommend putting yourself in the shoes of those
scanning the forum and ask, "How can I best describe this and make it
helpful for others?" Aside from helping others, compelling subjects make
others more likely to open the post and read what you have to say.
I apologize for the long post, but I thought it was worth mentioning.
Thanks for listening,
John
I know that what I am about to say may be somewhat controversial, but I
sincerely put it forth in the spirit of improving this forum. I don't intend to
single out anyone, cast aspersions, point fingers, or at all hold myself up as
some great example or paragon of virtue.
We all know that there is a ton of very useful information exchanged here.
When I recommend this forum to others I often tell them that they will
learn more here in a day than they will in a month at other similar forums.
It's a wonderful resource, and I truly appreciate all of the individual and
collective contributions to it.
With that said, having a ton of information can quickly become very unruly
if you can't find what you're looking for. Some forums try to enforce
categories, while others, like this forum, provide a few broad categories. I
prefer the latter approach because it's simpler and doesn't require as much
filtering and policing. Many topics simply don't fall into nice neat
categories.
I'd like to politely request that we all make a conscious effort to provide
descriptive subjects for our posts so that others can get the gist without
having to open the post. This will also help folks more accurately search
for what they're after.
Posts with an uber-generic subject like "Chili?" (I just pulled that out of the
air) isn't at all helpful. Does that mean, "Should I make chili?", or does that
mean, "Does anyone have a good chili recipe?", or could it even mean, "I
can't believe they served chili!"? Instead, I'd suggest that we think about
using something short that truly summarizes what the post is about.
As a personal example, you may have noticed that I preface my recipe
posts with "Recipe:". I do that in an effort to help folks quickly see that it's
a recipe, and to make it easy to search.
In summary, I'm merely suggesting that we think intentionally about using
helpful subjects. I'd recommend putting yourself in the shoes of those
scanning the forum and ask, "How can I best describe this and make it
helpful for others?" Aside from helping others, compelling subjects make
others more likely to open the post and read what you have to say.
I apologize for the long post, but I thought it was worth mentioning.
Thanks for listening,
John
