Quality of forums changing

lexus said:

I have a genuine networking problem and never got a good answer.

I use a network which is PC only, it uses scripts etc and I use it on a windows partition on my MacBook.

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I wonder why.

Ummm, I don't think you're being particularly fair to the community. The extent to which technical requests get answered depends to some extent on whether or not there actually *is* a solution available within our knowledgebase.

An example would be (up until Apple just released Bootcamp 1.1) threads saying, "I want to use my iSight in Windows." The only way the Apple community could have resolved that issue would have been for someone to reverse engineer the iSight and write a driver. That's not realistic.

Another example would be, "I want to do two-way AV chatting in MSN on a Mac." Until the software exists, it's just not feasible.

As for spam, there's been spam on MR ever since I joined at the beginning of 2004. It's just a fact of life, but it is aggressively moderated.

As for the community aspect of MR...*le shrug* That's a big part of why I bought a Mac, to be honest. Cuz I like the community.

You're a valuable part of the community, Lexus...as long as you chose to be. But if you like it that little and it's of that little help to you, you're of course always free to leave. We'll miss you, but....that's your choice.

P.S. I replied in your other thread as well.

I think you're way off the mark. If anything, the forums are just busier, that's all. And the Community forum is great... without community, we may as well be the Apple support forums.

And so your thread never got answered...

I started one well over a month ago asking about upgrading a Quicksilver which was never answered either but it's not something I'm going to whinge about. Or bump, either.

Um. This place is the same, if you ask me. Perhaps your annoyance with not receiving a "good" answer in your other thread is taking over other feelings you have about MR. Or perhaps you are getting sick of the forum itself.

Blue Velvet said:

I started one well over a month ago asking about upgrading a Quicksilver which was never answered either but it's not something I'm going to whinge about. Or bump, either.

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Come to think of it, I have a thread asking how to get music on an LG Chocolate without the need to buy their overpriced software and never got a good answer either.

Seeing as how it's all about me, I hereby declare the quality of these forums to be pure garbage.

If it's any consolation, nobody replied to this thread I started.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/223039/

Maybe no one likes me? I don't smell, do I?

spicyapple said:

If it's any consolation, nobody replied to this thread I started.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/223039/

Maybe no one likes me? I don't smell, do I?

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You do a little...

I also agree with the above posts, and also will add that I intensely hate bumping of the

"Anyone out there?"
"Well, obviously no-one cares then"
"Right, you can all go jump, then"

type. I also hate people bumping every hour or two. As you managed to do both in your thread, if I had knowledge of your brief and rather vaguely described problem, I would be far less inclined to try and help with bumping like that.

As far as I'm concerned, bumping is perhaps appropriate after a day or two, when you have maybe done some research into the problem yourself, and is polite, e.g.

"I've managed to determine that the network I'm trying to connect to had "X" security, and this Google article says that this should work. It doesn't, and I wondered if any of you had any more ideas? Thanks."

I think you have to look at threads on a case-by-case basis. Maybe you didn't get good replies because nobody here knows how to address your question.

It seems that people were asking relatively good questions to find out more information about your networking question, but your inability to answer them stopped the progression of the thread. Also, your repeated bumps in the thread in turn probably irked more users away than brought them to you.

One thing you should ask yourself as you wait for responses: are you asking the question just for attention, or do you really want a correct answer? If it's the attention, then you won't care who or what replies to your thread, just that they replied. If you genuinely care, then you'll want the correct response, and will be willing to answer a few questions asked of you to render that correct information.

I'd say using a computer isn't rocket science, but sometimes, to do things like you're trying to do, it's not far off. Sorry you didn't get the answers you were looking for, but possibly it's because someone wanted to do a little fact checking before telling you to do something that wouldn't work.

I see a lot of people posting threads asking for help but they don't define the problem well and don't define want they want as a solution well, either.

I don't see that anything has changed with the way people respond or the quality of the answers. The majority of people on MacRumors are takers, not givers. This resembles real life, doesn't it?

Perhaps, guidelines should be set and made into a sticky thread so that everyone knows what will help them get a quick resolution. We've gone through this in other threads in the past. Of course, getting people to actually read is a problem.

Have the forums really changed that much in 5 months...?

Doctor Q said:

I think we have done what bousozoku suggests. We have a sticky thread in the Mac Basics and Help forum named How to maximise your MacRumors troubleshooting experience. I hope people looking for help notice it and read it.

We haven't put it in every forum, but perhaps we should add a "How to Get Help" section (with a link to that thread) to the FAQ.

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Perhaps, a context-sensitive "Post new thread" button that attempts to figure out what people are trying to do before they do it and suggests a list of help and 6 months of training before allowing an actual thread to be added.

bousozoku said:

Perhaps, a context-sensitive "Post new thread" button that attempts to figure out what people are trying to do before they do it and suggests a list of help and 6 months of training before allowing an actual thread to be added.

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Do you remember how, in the day, rn would give you a big speech before it would let you post a new thread on usenet?

AvSRoCkCO1067 said:

You do a little...

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If you can smell someone over the internet then, I'm afraid, they smell a LOT!!!

mkrishnan said:

Do you remember how, in the day, rn would give you a big speech before it would let you post a new thread on usenet?

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NewsWatcher still hands out the same lecture (but sadly, leaves out the "hundreds if not thousands of dollars" bit).

mkrishnan said:

Do you remember how, in the day, rn would give you a big speech before it would let you post a new thread on usenet?

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No, I don't but I certainly can understand why.

I'm a recent convert to MR. I like it. I used to have one friend who knew more about macs than I do (which is very little) Now I am part of THE mac community. I admit, that I'm so uneducated I probably don't even know how to ask the right question - yet it still gets answered. I love you guys!

bousozoku said:

No, I don't but I certainly can understand why.

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Well, once the alt. tree of the USENet had been created, it was sort of a moot point to argue about whether one's post was worth the cost, since certainly no one else's was.

i visited frequently before joining and i can see some merit in the OP's complaint/comment. i thought the forums would be a little friendlier but i suppose i'm just as bad as everyone else - answering only what i know and ignoring or posting some offhand comment on others i have no idea about.

either way, i think that's part of the community. you can't expect everyone here to know everything and have a reply a minute after you post. not everyone here knows everything, but they sure do know a lot and with the combined brainpower of all the members, i confidently made the switch a couple years ago and recently joined so i could learn more.

the key is not to expect everyone here to be your best friend and answer all your technological questions. they do the best they can.

that said, it wouldn't kill some of the members to be a little nicer when posting a reply.

There's always a good reason for censorship but it's never a good idea. I don't like spam either but it's usually pretty obvious and I don't see a lot of it here. It's probably not a good billboard. Why waste your time? Even if it is .0001 of a dime.

When boards start up there's a small community of people who generate warmth and affection. As the community grows that small orignal community is overwhelmed and the originals may fall into bitterness. Be not bitter. It makes you hard and cold.

I don't think there's been any change in the quality. I agree with BV, that the forums are busier but that's all. Just because you didn't get a answer to your thread means very little because there are so many reasons as to why no one may have had an answer.

Spam is same as ever, I haven't noticed any real increase. As for the community aspect, it's the main reason I come here so much. Sure I'm interested in what's going on in the Mac world, but I have a limit as to the amount of tech stuff I can read before getting bored. If there's something I can help with then I do but otherwise it's the community stuff that keeps things interesting.

somewhatstunned said:

There's always a good reason for censorship but it's never a good idea. I don't like spam either but it's usually pretty obvious and I don't see a lot of it here. It's probably not a good billboard. Why waste your time? Even if it is .0001 of a dime.

When boards start up there's a small community of people who generate warmth and affection. As the community grows that small orignal community is overwhelmed and the originals may fall into bitterness. Be not bitter. It makes you hard and cold.

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This would be a very ugly place, if all the spam that people post was allowed to remain. You don't see a lot of it here because the moderators are very good and very quick and rubbish posts are usually reported quickly.

Of course, not everyone gets their answers. In the 4 years I've been here, my requests for help with problems have mostly ended without any reply, flip or useful. It doesn't matter, I usually figure it out.

A lot of people could answer their own questions, if they just opened the Preferences or the help text and made some sort of effort. I suppose that sounds bitter but it's real life. You can't always depend on someone else being there to figure it out for you.

The mods are quick because of the members who submit bad post reports (by clicking on the little '!' triangle next to each post), so I very much thank those members who do such a good job of telling us which posts are bad and why.

Also, many questions aren't answered because someone who knew the answer didn't see the post. Many of the more experienced members tend to search the new posts and so miss posts made earlier. I don't think many people see posts, know the answer, and refuse to post a reply.

And those who answer with a non-answer bother me, particularly those who go out of their way to be un-helpful.