[Ian M]

Well here it is the quick guide on How to...
As was discussed try to keep the subjects to the point.
If you have some thing to add to one of the "How too's; an other way of doing it, or a helpful discovery when trying one of the how too's, add it to the existing thread. If your idea is substantially different start a new thread.
All replies along the lines of; Thanks, great idea, nice, Oh I like that will be deleted to keep the section as uncluttered as possible. Questions and suggestions are of course welcome.

Any questions, comments (about this post)? Please post them in this thread.

Now get on with it!! lol

Ian M

[spanner570]

Ian, in view of the good hearted and gentle ribbing you are receiving from the members, would it not be better to revoke your ruling to remove 'clutter' from 'How to' posts?

Does it really doesn't matter how many posts each thread receives? People reading each one will only be interested in the initial 'How to' and not the comments from members........It would also leave people free if they need clarification on certain points.

Just a quiet observation since I started my 'How to' thread and worth a minute's thought, perhaps ask John for his views too?

Cheers,
Ron

[tecdes]

Seems to me to be unwise to restrict replies. I do mean meaning full replies. The art of learning is discussion & I fear some may be detered. I do hate rules they are the disease of modern life, restrictive & when to many disregarded.

It is very rare if some one comes up with a new idea that another does not add a detail to it to improve it.

Also it may be that if a point is not clear there will be a question posed to clarify. I can see no problem with a different slant on matters being put in the same article. It is then all in the same place & not scattered. After all articles at the moment have every bodies slant & ideas on a subject.

Laurie

[spanner570]

Glad you agree with my post Laurie.

I was a first surprised only Colin and I had subscribed to this 'How to' forum, but on reflection and reading your post, I suspect people are put off posting their methods by the well meaning restrictions placed on the type of contribution that would follow any submission made.....

Let's hope we can be allowed free discussion and comment on this, as we can on other threads.

Cheers,
Ron

[aaron]

I agree with Ian...theres a "thank you" button to express... your thanks =)

[Ian M]

perhaps I did not make it clear enough. I have edited to first post a bit so it is easier to find the relevant info. Hope that it makes it clearer.

Ian M

[CDW]

Just my 2p worth .... but ....

I agree with the "reply only with a contributing factor" and skip/delete/shoot the short "cool" & "thats a great idea" entries.

I use a few other forums, mainly animal related, and if you have a scientific review/reclassification thread of a species then trolling through all the "well done" posts till you get to the relevant second revision entry is a balls ache to be honest.

The simplest way is to remove the abbilty to reply to threads in that subforum, it's easy enough with vBulletin as some forums have done it. If someone has a better/different idea about a topic then they start a new single thread ..if anyone searches for that particular topic then all the threads some up in the search ...simple.

On a more formal note i know rules are meant to be broken but.. Ian (i.e. a moderator) made the ruling that such posts would be deleted, shouldn't that stand for something.

Having a sub-forum where we can't be interactive won't take away from the laid-back friendly environment it is here, it'll just make one area more efficient if you look at it logically.

Not wishing to rock the boat here and there'll be people who think i'm being petty .... not my intention ... just looking at it from a different angle ... hope you can see where i'm coming from

[tecdes]

Care is needed here not to de-humanise.

First I suspect that few will take notice. How many have read the rules when they joined. How many who did remember them.

This forum actually regulates itself which to me is amazing. I think it is easy going part of which is due to Ian & John. The other is that members here respect each other & are tolerant of what the other has to say even though they may at times have serious disagreement. A number of times someone has gone beyond the pale & been reminded & apologized without moderator intervention.

I left another forum before finding this one as members bit your head off if you stated your own theory which did not coincide with their theory. Moderation was of a dickensian school master standard & clique groups seem to form not interested in others in the forum.

So why restrict. Comments do no harm. We are free to use them in the remainder of the forum why here. I also think that encouragement will bring more rewards than restriction. If we are honest we like to be thanked for our efforts it is human nature.

Laurie

[CDW]

I left another forum before finding this one as members bit your head off if you stated your own theory which did not coincide with their theory.

I have left a few other (non model related) forums for this very reason ... it's actually one of the reasons i enjoy this forum so much ... there's no cliques, no underhanded/sarcastic comments (well maybe in jest) and everyone seems to take critisism as it's meant .. to inform not to humiliate. there are a lot of well educated people on here ... willing to share their knowledge and not keep it to themselves like so many on other forums do.

So why restrict. Comments do no harm. We are free to use them in the remainder of the forum why here. I also think that encouragement will bring more rewards than restriction. If we are honest we like to be thanked for our efforts it is human nature.

I agree on the most part, the point i was making was a ruling was set ..yet it was passed by this time even though, as Aaron mentioned, we have a thanks button that would have stayed within Ians original guidelines and wishes.
You're absolutely correct in the fact that this forum moderates itself, a good thing by far but in my opinion we should recognise the "moderator title" and abide by any guidelines they initiate ... i don't mean we should have a police-state or go into the realms of despotism though

Anyway i'm wafflin' like a baddun, so thats it i'll shut up ... nice to have a debate outside the usual though eh?

[Ian M]

You have made some very good points there Colin as has Laurie. I can understand Laurie's point that people react well to gratification. Its nice to hear that some one likes what you did. Simple as.
However, Colin hit the nail well and square. The whole point behind the idea of non-contributory replies is to avoid the section getting bogged down. We are almost into page two of the cliff face post and not on question, not one suggestion. Just "cool, great idea" USE THE THANKS BUTTON.

I must admit that after all the wishes for this section I am a bit disappointed that there are only four threads. Including this one!!!

Sorry to say it but as people continued to post with "funny comments" after I had said to stop, I think it both rude and disrespectful, but that's probably just me being an old fart.

Ian M