New users quoting and replying to people...

[r2724r16]

So very often, new users on this forum won't quote/tag people.

 

For example: A new user asks: Is this a good gaming PC? We tell the new user if it's good or not, how to improve on the build, we ask any questions we have, etc. And when the new user tries to resond to our replies, we don't see their response and they don't get the help they want/need. And I think this happens because new users just don't know how to quote people. 

 

So my suggestion is that when a new user signs up for this forum, they be shown how to quote people. So that when we try to help a new user troubleshoot or solve a problem, that we get their replies and we can respond to them.

 

I want something like this to be shown to new users when they sign up:

Spoiler

If you need to reply to someone, the best way is to quote them. Not everyone follows every topic, so by quoting them, you will notify them.

 

You can also quote multiple users in one post, which keeps the thread organized. You can either select multiple posts to quote using the plus button, or just quote one user, type a reply, and then quote the next user.



 

You can also tag a user like you would on twitter:



 

Just type @ followed by a username, and click it, it should look like this: @iamdarkyoshi

 

Quote someone or tag them, please don't do both.

 

The LTT forum is one of the most popular and active general tech forums out there (AFAIK), and I believe that new users should be able to get answers to their questions, which'll only happen if we see their replies, which'll only happen if new users know how to quote/tag others.

 

Let me know what you think. Thanks!

 

@colonel_mortis

[Sauron]

To be fair, this works pretty much exactly like every other forum - I think the main problem is that many new users don't take the time to learn the basics of the platform before posting. This is also evident in the regular appearance of posts in the wrong subforum or not following the guidelines, despite the clear description under each subforum name and the big ol' "PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES" sign on top of the page. Even adding instructions like this is likely to result in people just skipping through it without reading anything.

 

With that said, it certainly couldn't hurt to make this clearer.

[emosun]

7 minutes ago, Sauron said:

I think the main problem is that many new users don't take the time to learn the basics of the platform before posting.

no , its bs

most of my older forums ive been using for 10 years never had this function of forcing people to quote in order to see that they replied. I know that two of my car forums and two of my other pc forums were based on a very old system obviously but neither had this method and instead i could simply look at a list of threads i was in and see if they had replies or not.

telling people they have to quote people when they are new here , isn't a bad idea.

[r2724r16]

7 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Even adding instructions like this is likely to result in people just skipping through it without reading anything.

Lol, maybe they should complete a very short (but mandatory) tutorial on how to quote/tag people. Just so they understand the basics. 

Just now, emosun said:

telling people they have to quote people when they are new here , isn't a bad idea.

I agree.

[Neo-revo]

5 minutes ago, emosun said:

no , its bs

most of my older forums ive been using for 10 years never had this function of forcing people to quote in order to see that they replied. I know that two of my car forums and two of my other pc forums were based on a very old system obviously but neither had this method and instead i could simply look at a list of threads i was in and see if they had replies or not.

telling people they have to quote people when they are new here , isn't a bad idea.

 

4 minutes ago, Geography said:

Lol, maybe they should complete a very short (but mandatory) tutorial on how to quote/tag people. Just so they understand the basics. 

I agree.

if you go into your activity page, and choose the posted in function you can see if there has been a reply in the thread, regardless of whether they quoted you, or even was a response to oneof/your post.

[r2724r16]

4 minutes ago, Neo-revo said:

if you go into your activity page, and choose the posted in function you can see if there has been a reply in the thread, regardless of whether they quoted you, or even was a response to oneof/your post.

Thanks for the tip! I never knew that tbh. Still frustrating that we have to do that in order to see someone's reply. Not to mention that a lot of new users reply to us days after they make the post. 

 

Regardless, I still think new users should learn how to quote/tag people.

[Sauron]

17 minutes ago, emosun said:

no , its bs

most of my older forums ive been using for 10 years never had this function of forcing people to quote in order to see that they replied. I know that two of my car forums and two of my other pc forums were based on a very old system obviously but neither had this method and instead i could simply look at a list of threads i was in and see if they had replies or not.

telling people they have to quote people when they are new here , isn't a bad idea.

Well, I can only speak for the ones I've tried - almost all the forums I've seen, plus things like reddit, use some sort of direct answer system. Here it's called "quote", but the idea is the same. Either way, it's not that outlandish... and I don't recall having any problems with it when I first started.

[Neo-revo]

2 minutes ago, Geography said:

Thanks for the tip! I never knew that tbh. Still frustrating that we have to do that in order to see someone's reply. Not to mention that a lot of new users reply to us days after they make the post. 

 

Regardless, I still think new users should learn how to quote/tag people.

yea i try my best to show people with under 20 posts, how to do that if they start replying without the things..  i like @Geography for not having to quote, i like to quote the specific  part i intend to reply to, and  a mention just means  this i meant for you.

 

but also if i am active in the thread i will usually notice if its 'bumped' and go check it out

 

I didn't know about it for awhile too, then i was on my  phone in the work van stuck in traffic one day, and the  drop down menu is more condensed/etc and i found these other functions (like that)

[Fasauceome]

9 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Well, I can only speak for the ones I've tried - almost all the forums I've seen, plus things like reddit, use some sort of direct answer system. Here it's called "quote", but the idea is the same. Either way, it's not that outlandish... and I don't recall having any problems with it when I first started.

Yeah it's a little odd that even when I first started using the forum I picked up quoting.almost immediately just from reading a couple threads (which is what many users also neglect to do, whoops). I also didn't read the main "welcome to the forum" info so I missed out on a couple of obvious features like signature editing and whatnot, that also should be linked in this little introductory tutorial so users can see just what they are able to customize.

[emosun]

13 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Well, I can only speak for the ones I've tried - almost all the forums I've seen, plus things like reddit, use some sort of direct answer system. Here it's called "quote", but the idea is the same. Either way, it's not that outlandish... and I don't recall having any problems with it when I first started.

im a lot older than you then lol

[Sauron]

Just now, emosun said:

im a lot older than you then lol

Could be ^^ then again I only started participating in forums and such in my late teens, there are members here who are quite a bit younger than I was when I first joined.

[Neo-revo]

6 minutes ago, fasauceome said:

Yeah it's a little odd that even when I first started using the forum I picked up quoting.almost immediately just from reading a couple threads (which is what many users also neglect to do, whoops). I also didn't read the main "welcome to the forum" info so I missed out on a couple of obvious features like signature editing and whatnot, that also should be linked in this little introductory tutorial so users can see just what they are able to customize.

yea, esp  if you dont want to appear as a super anonymous person

4 minutes ago, emosun said:

im a lot older than you then lol

age is relative to the person perceiving it (chronologically aside; when i was young i felt old, now that i am older i feel young...)

2 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Could be ^^ then again I only started participating in forums and such in my late teens, there are members here who are quite a bit younger than I was when I first joined.

yea valid points i do feel a lot of the younger crowd skips over these introductions,  and their own faults lead them to failures/unsuccessful attempts to wrangle crowd sourced info in a forum

[Fasauceome]

2 minutes ago, Neo-revo said:

i do feel a lot of the younger crowd skips over these introductions,  and their own faults lead them to failures/unsuccessful attempts to wrangle crowd sourced info in a forum

That combined with the fact that people kinda see us as Linus Tech Support so they assume there's a team always ready and waiting to respond to them

[Sauron]

1 minute ago, fasauceome said:

That combined with the fact that people kinda see us as Linus Tech Support so they assume there's a team always ready and waiting to respond to them

Or that their questions are submitted directly to Linus.

[r2724r16]

1 minute ago, fasauceome said:

Linus Tech Support

Lol, I've seen newbies say "Help me please Linus" as if Linus is the one who's going to answer them.

[Fasauceome]

1 minute ago, Sauron said:

Or that their questions are submitted directly to Linus.

'dear mister Linus'

[Neo-revo]

internet fame will do that to you @Sauron @Geography @fasauceome

[Cyberspirit]

In the notification settings, you can set it up so you'll automatically follow a thread you reply to.

[r2724r16]

14 minutes ago, Cyberspirit said:

In the notification settings, you can set it up so you'll automatically follow a thread you reply to.

But I'm not gonna follow every thread I reply to. That's too time consuming.

[Cyberspirit]

3 minutes ago, Geography said:

But I'm not gonna follow every thread I reply to. That's too time consuming.

You can just unfollow later and, it solves your issue. Or the alternative is to just put it in your signature like how Crunchy dragon did.

 

Spoiler