[Salem_c]

Every couple of days, I spend time composing some response to a thread only to find that the thread has already been moved to the GMTC. Every time this happens, I feel so demotivated that it's "fuck it, I'm off" and go do something else for the rest of the day.

Perhaps mods should wait until there have been say one or two "report" posts indicating that there isn't enough information,
- or allow a reasonable amount of time without a reply,
- or 'x' views without a reply.
I mean, if a thread is 10 hours old with 100+ views, and no replies, there must be something wrong with it right?

No doubt some data mining on the board can provide stats such as average time to first reply, and average number of views to first reply. A thread without replies more than say 2σ away from the norm could be automatically flagged.

I mean, 6 minutes is enthusiastic to say the least.

An actual question which is vague could well do with the boilerplate response asking for better information, without necessarily moving it to the dead pool. It would allow those of us who manage to peer a little deeper through the murkiness of whatever was posted to respond with something a bit more specific, without feeling that we completely wasted our time.

Personally, I do report blatant attempts to solicit code with zero effort, but anyone with posted code (however vague) should be grated a bit more slack(*).


(*)Well, at least until it's proved that they're just downloading code from other forums, and trying to get us to fix it

[no2pencil]

We can't make everyone happy. The majority of members complain about all the students begging for code, now you are going to point out that we close them too fast?

These topics, as I'm sure you are aware, do not get closed automatically. With most of the moderation staff being from the US, it is safe to assume that we are online roughly around the same time. Thus topics have the potential to sit overnight if started from overseas, & if the students are from the us, the topic is likely to be closed as soon as it's opened.

[macosxnerd101]

We have been having problems with this particular member dumping little to no code with little to no question. It has been to the point where two other team members have contacted him directly, and I contacted him again today. That question was right after my PM asking him to take the time to ask real questions. I am sorry that I cut into your response. This particular instance wasn't an isolated instance of simply being overzealous though.

[Curtis Rutland]

Quote

Perhaps mods should wait until there have been say one or two "report" posts indicating that there isn't enough information,

The mods tend to be experts too, so they see the same thing you do. Our action of removing a post would basically be your "one report", since we're also members and experts.

Personally, the one you linked to...I would have dumped it too, without the context that Mac had. Two code snippets, no question...what value does that provide? Why should we have to pull information from OPs like pulling teeth? If they want any kind of decent help, they need to put in decent effort. And the gimme teh codes / ambiguous question macros tell them exactly how to fix their posting issues.

[BenignDesign]

My question is what kind of replies are you composing that would make the closing of the thread in question so demotivational?

The post was literally "I have two arrays [ code ][ /code ]". My response would be "Congratulations."

What kind of long response are you generating in reply to a post with no question or decently informative content? I'm truly not trying to be rude here, I am genuinely curious.

[JackOfAllTrades]

I actually banned that guy today.

[no2pencil]