...To Make It Work: Try this !

[petemoore]

  "What to do when it doesn't Work"
  ..."READ THIS" or
  "Nu Builders Read This" or
  "New Builders Must Read"
  One of these pre-captions would do well in place of, or in front of ..'What to do when it doesn't work"...some way of "BOLDIFYING" the title would make it more evident that the "To Make it Work..." thread gets noticed, even possibly read once in a while without starting another thread to point out the priceless debugging information.

[Peter Snowberg]

Unfortunatly there isn't any way to bold a post title. I'll see about adding some caps to the front to attract more attention.

[newbie builder]

Whenever I have a pedal that doesn't work I come on here and do two things: I search for the pedal that I'm building to see any problems anybody else has had building one (especially if it's a problem with the layout I'm using) and I also go and read the "What to do when it doesn't work at" at the top of the page. The things said in there are sometimes things that I know I should check, but reading it reminds me. Twice I've built pedals that didn't work, read that what to do paragraph, then went back and reversed the transistors in my pedal and it works/sounds GREAT. That thread really is great- anybody with a non-working pedal owes it to themself to first check that thread and read it before starting one of their own.

[Gilles C]

Sorry, my mistake.

[The Tone God]

I remember reading a mod for this forum awhile back that added a pull down for the start of new thread topics allowing a selection of prefixes to the start of thread. Perhaps that could be modified to allow users to add a prefix to the thread title so we can have a better idea what the purpose of the thread is (i.e. Repair, Debug, Schematic/Layout, Theory, Advice, Report, etc.) It would also make searching alot easier as that term ccould be used in the search criteria to bring up more specific help.

Just a thought.

Andrew

[Peter Snowberg]

I remember reading a mod for this forum awhile back that added a pull down for the start of new thread topics allowing a selection of prefixes to the start of thread.

I like that solution, but I fear that the people who it would help the most would be the people who would use it the least. Maybe if it was mandatory to complete a post it would work.... Hey, I'm liking that a lot. 

[The Tone God]

I like that solution, but I fear that the people who it would help the most would be the people who would use it the least. Maybe if it was mandatory to complete a post it would work.... Hey, I'm liking that a lot. 

I think I saw a "mandatory fill out field" mod somewhere too. Hmm...a hunting I will go, a hunting I will go...

Andrew

[ryanscissorhands]

Well, one thing that might work is a separate "Debugging" section of forum. Debuggin must be "it's built. . . sort of", not "what paint should I use." We can copy the "What to do" tread there, with a "MUST READ" subject heading, since everyone who goes to that section of the forum will be there strictly for debugging. It would also help the search function, because people can look for [insert pedal name] under just the debugging section, and are more likely to come up with relevant answers.

Thoughts?

[Johan]

Ive been thinking for some time if it would be possible to quaranteene new users from posting for a little time. not enough to turn them away, but enough to encourage them to find/use the search function..perhaps not being able to post for the first 2-3 hours after signing up..or perhaps not being able to post until they completed 5 searches...
we dont want to turn anyone away. new users sometimes bring fresh ideas and we where all newbies once. but the "signal/noise ratio" gets worse and worse when it gets to newbie questions and usefull answeres...we get more and more  "my ts doesnt work, can u help" kind of questions and they more and more often get an "use the search" kind of reply...we are not there yet, but pretty soon it will criple the serach function when all that comes up are houndreds of questions with replies refering to the search function...

..did that make sence?  or did I have too many beers allready?...

johan

[newbie builder]

Makes perfect sense I think a 5 hours no posting thing would be good. Anybody who gets driven away from the forum by that is probably better off not being here for our sake!

[The Tone God]

I found the prefix mod.

http://mods.simplemachines.org/index.php?mod=372

I did not find a "mandatory field" mod like I have seen for other forums. Perhaps this "minimum character" mod could be tweaked to include the field or else the posting template could be modded. I can't see it being too tough to do.

http://mods.simplemachines.org/index.php?mod=290

Another thought I had is depending on the thread type selected we could force the poster to fill out certain forms/fields. i.e. if they select "debug help" then the information fields from the "What to do..." sticky can be present and the needed fields be required. That would probably be alot of work but one can dream.

I think fragmenting the forum will lead to all kinds of problems. Where is the difference between building, debugging, repairing, modding, and so forth. Given that this forum is global some non native english people would not understand the difference. It would just make things messy with even more work of moving posts around for our mods, having to define posts that could be in either forum, and the ever annoying cross forum posting. I don't have a problem with multiple types of topics in the main forum. I do think trying to encourage users to use proper thread titling would be far more helpful.

As for a grace period I do not think that will do much. People do not skip searching because they think they can get a faster answer posting, well most of the time. They do not use the search function because they have not been trained/encourage to use search functions as part of their general internet use habits much in the same way people don't make use of the FAQs, wiki, links, and stickies. Making people wait won't encourage people to use the search more. Just annoying them into waiting to posting.

Further more it is not possible to determine the person's purpose for registering. What if the new registrant wants to post helpful information and not looking for help ? They won't be able to help for that time period.

Just my opinion.

Andrew

Edit: Edited for speeling are grammar. I typed too fast since I was having an extended power failure and my computer's UPS has limited time.

[burnt fingers]

I think it's just how things are.  There are always new builders who think " I can solder stuff together"  then when it doesn't work, they realise they don't have the skills to debug.  That's when they end up here. It's much like parenting really.  You just have to keep pointing them to the right things and hope they will learn. 

Scott

[petemoore]

  I can't help thinking there are some 'no workey' threads posted by frustrated greenhorns looking for an instantly gratifying experience in the form of a 'magic clue, out of the blue'...something, anything besides having to go through the classic debug information gathering process.
  Capitolizing the WTDWIDW thread title would probably do 'it...making that thread more noticable would probably get it noticed more.
 
 

[The Tone God]

The fact is that unless we force people to go through the debugging process we will always have the situation of "instant gratification" newbies. I doubt that we will find a full proof way of ensuring that the debug process is followed so with that in mind the best we can do is try to encourage them to go through process.

Andrew