please focus on robotics: a warning

[Admin]

Lately there has been a serious problem of the forum getting clogged up with useless posts. Warnings have been issued, and mostly ignored.

Why is this important? Well the forum is now getting 100+ posts/day. I, nor any of the other experts, have time to spend sorting through comments that in no way help the person asking a question. We want to help, so please make our job easier.

Having these pointless comments also reduces forum quality, giving other people no reason to join or use the forum.

Have you ever noticed that when an expert answers a question, its always short and to the point, yet very inciteful at the same time? Try to post more like that . . .

Its ok to occasionally post a joke or have a bit of conversation in your posts, but make sure your post is also very useful too. Don't post to just post. Don't post if you don't know the answer. Don't post an idea you haven't thought out just to see what people say, like posting 20+ robot ideas in 20+ posts that you have no intention of ever pursuing.

I have already taken the liberty to deleting quite a few of them recently (mostly from SmAsH), but this is taking up quite a lot of my time that I could be spending helping others. Yeap, if I see a post that is 100% unrelated and goes no where, I *will* delete it.

Please, focus on robots!

ps - stock hijacking peoples threads!

[Fredrik Andersson]

At last! It is good that this problem has been brought up.

I have a rule to myself when posting on forums. If i want to post something even slightly off-topic I'll have to be able to contribute to the thread as well else I'm not allowed to post. In contributing I'm not including giving my opinion about something (like "Yeah, what he said is a great idea!" and unless the thread is about showing off something). This is ongoing subconsciously for me so it may happen that I'm doing a mistake some time.

Please, I beg you on my bare knees to really focus on the topic in the community projects threads. It's a real pain tracing back in the thread to find a certain post.

[frank26080115]

set up a sandbox wiki, and also make it so people can vote for each idea so they appear at the top of the list, this way good ideas are viewed and developed more often

i'd really love some help with a lot of my half-baked ideas

[airman00]

set up a sandbox wiki, and also make it so people can vote for each idea so they appear at the top of the list, this way good ideas are viewed and developed more often

i'd really love some help with a lot of my half-baked ideas

i agree , but also some posts are good ideas and are just new posts , they would be at the bottom

meaning there would always have to be people who "explore" through all those useless threads

[SmAsH]

hahaha lol i knew that was coming...but ive stopped the useless posts.
[/quote]
set up a sandbox wiki, and also make it so people can vote for each idea so they appear at the top of the list, this way good ideas are viewed and developed more often

i'd really love some help with a lot of my half-baked ideas
[/quote]
i think this is a good idea.

[frank26080115]

set up a sandbox wiki, and also make it so people can vote for each idea so they appear at the top of the list, this way good ideas are viewed and developed more often

i'd really love some help with a lot of my half-baked ideas

i agree , but also some posts are good ideas and are just new posts , they would be at the bottom

meaning there would always have to be people who "explore" through all those useless threads

Make it so it's sortable, Instructables is excellent at this, you can sort by date, popularity, or rating.

[airman00]

maybe .....

but I doubt it will work

this is a forum , there are so many posts and so many people who need help

[vidam]

You sort of have to be self-sufficient and willing to learn on your own, teach yourself, or you'll never get very far in robotics. You can't just rely on forums. You have to do most of the heavy lifting on your own or you'll never get very far in Robotics. This is learned from personal experience. Improving the quality of questions you ask by thinking though them before posting is definitely a skill that would benefit yourself in the long run. So I agree fully with Admin. We got to have better quality posts to the forum.

[airman00]

You sort of have to be self-sufficient and willing to learn on your own, teach yourself, or you'll never get very far in robotics. You can't just rely on forums. You have to do most of the heavy lifting on your own or you'll never get very far in Robotics. This is learned from personal experience. Improving the quality of questions you ask by thinking though them before posting is definitely a skill that would benefit yourself in the long run. So I agree fully with Admin. We got to have better quality posts to the forum.

yes better quality is the best ,

but i find that many of the the questions that people ask helps me learn about different sensors ,technologies, techniques.........

even if i myself am the one answering it with a correct response , other members add on information which I had not known before

[SmAsH]

yes i often browse through the old topics and learn lots while im at it 

[lego-robot]

i've only just gotten into the field of robotics and ive already learnt so much from this site. thank you everyone

[frank26080115]

yes i often browse through the old topics and learn lots while im at it 

It shows!

the browsing that is

Admin, I think there's plenty of screen space on the left side and top right corner of the new post page, maybe a few reminders and links would cut down on the crap a bit.

[hazzer123]

I have seen sites with post templates. It was like this -

1. The problem statement, all variables and given/known data



2. Relevant equations



3. The attempt at a solution

This was automatically in the message box when you started a new topic in a Help category in the forum. I know that admin isn't really keen on adding a help category, so i don't really know how you implement it too well. Maybe someone else does...
If this problem requires a category called Questions from Begineers or something, we could always transfer answered, useful threads to the correct category(electronics, mechanics etc) afterwards.

[SmAsH]

yea that would clear up the forums a bit. ive noticed the only forums that arent full of crap are videos. but as i said above i think a help section would clear it up more.

[ed1380]

yes better quality is the best ,

but i find that many of the the questions that people ask helps me learn about different sensors ,technologies, techniques.........

even if i myself am the one answering it with a correct response , other members add on information which I had not known before

+1
one never stops learning

sorry bout the spam admin. i'll stop

[airman00]

perhaps we need another section of the forum for all the crap

then we could set up trusted members to filter the crap to the crap forum , and then whoever wants to reply to the crap can post there


what do u think?

[Admin]

I think the best solution would be for you guys to stop spamming

Anyway, I've noticed the problem hasn't gone away. I deleted ~20 more messages in the last few days, mostly from people who replied to this message too! I don't want to be mean, but I'll start sending personal warnings out when I see this . . .

Think of it this way . . . the more time I spend reading and deleting spam, the less time I have to spend writing tutorials and helping you on your robot.

[ed1380]

 I've tried cutting it down, but if it's not enough. let me know, and I'll try harder