The way the forum works

[food158]

From past experience I'm getting a sense of how this forum works. Somebody will make a thread. In about 20 minutes, some person will come along and respond(mostly if the question is relatively easy to moderate to answer). Then, all communication in the thread stops. Question is never answered. Thoughts?

[NumLock21]

What I've experience is replies are almost instant and most members here don't have retarded strict standards when it comes to picking computer components.

[food158]

1 minute ago, NumLock21 said:

What I've experience is replies are almost instant and most members here don't have retarded strict standards when it comes to picking computer components.

Yeah I agree with that, but then they stop.

[NumLock21]

Just now, food158 said:

Yeah I agree with that, but then they stop.

Cause that thread is consider solved?

[straight_stewie]

6 minutes ago, food158 said:

From past experience I'm getting a sense of how this forum works. Somebody will make a thread. In about 20 minutes, some person will come along and respond(mostly if the question is relatively easy to moderate to answer). Then, all communication in the thread stops. Question is never answered. Thoughts?

Once upon a time there was a group of individuals who would actually study and write up nice, well formatted replies to questions. Then attrition happened. Some left because of personal reasons, others left because they were tired of answering the same questions 10,000 times a day. Some are still here, but stay relatively close to the confines of their areas of expertise.

 

[food158]

Just now, NumLock21 said:

Cause that thread is consider solved?

Usually it's not solved in my cases.

[Enderman]

Most of the replies come in while the thread is on the "newest topics" list on the right of the front page.

Unless it's one of the big threads that has hundreds of people talking in it constantly.

[Tsuki]

honestly most of the time, its because OP stops responding. if we dont get continued feedback on what we suggest, we stop caring.

 

If OP doesnt care enough to respond, why should we?

[NumLock21]

8 minutes ago, food158 said:

Usually it's not solved in my cases.

Did you respond in a timely manner? If not, maybe that's why.

 

[food158]

8 hours ago, NumLock21 said:

Did you respond in a timely manner? If not, maybe that's why.

 

Yeah, check out what I've posted before.

 

9 hours ago, Tsuki said:

honestly most of the time, its because OP stops responding. if we dont get continued feedback on what we suggest, we stop caring.

 

If OP doesnt care enough to respond, why should we?

Nice point.

[Oshino Shinobu]

14 minutes ago, food158 said:

Usually it's not solved in my cases.

That ultimately depends on what kind of questions you're asking. If it's a question about component selection for a gaming build, its bound to get loads of replies and will be solved. If it's a more niche question, there's going to be less, or maybe, no replies. I rarely create threads asking questions on the forum for that reason. Most of the questions I've asked tend to be pretty specific and the majority end up unresolved, some with no replies at all. 

 

I think most people just go off the recent topics thread to find what to reply to. I do this most of the time, but I also try to go to some of the less active subforums that I have knowledge in to see what threads haven't been replied to. Mostly the networking subforum. 

 

I imagine quite a bit of unresolved threads are due to a new member coming in and making a thread, getting a reply or two but then not quoting or tagging those that replied, so no one comes back to it and it gets pushed off the recent topics. I've replied to some threads that ended up like that, as I forget to check back on a thread if I'm replying to multiple threads at once. I try to remember to follow a thread I reply to if the OP has less than 100 posts as they're less likely to quote or tag, but I do miss it sometimes. I kind of wish there was a setting enabled at default to give you a notification if a thread is replied to by the OP (rather than the setting for any reply). 

[straight_stewie]

2 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

I kind of wish there was a setting enabled at default to give you a notification if a thread is replied to by the OP (rather than the setting for any reply). 

That should probably be posted in the forum suggestions subforum.

[dalekphalm]

19 minutes ago, food158 said:

From past experience I'm getting a sense of how this forum works. Somebody will make a thread. In about 20 minutes, some person will come along and respond(mostly if the question is relatively easy to moderate to answer). Then, all communication in the thread stops. Question is never answered. Thoughts?

If that happens, if someone replies but doesn't answer your question, and no one else responds, you should reply to that person and prompt the conversation to continue.

 

Eg: Say something like "Hey thanks for the reply - great input - however my issue is still unresolved. Anyone have more insight?"

 

Honestly in my experience, threads that only get a few replies, or none, were either poorly worded, uninteresting to the masses, or simply a question that no one has any expertise in.

 

If you personally find that your threads are constantly not getting replies, try to analyze the situation and see what the cause is. Are your posts engaging enough? Easy to read/understand? Good grammar? (Not essential - but it helps), and so on.

 

If you notice that about other threads, try engaging the thread, try to push the conversation further, etc.

[Oshino Shinobu]

1 minute ago, straight_stewie said:

That should probably be posted in the forum suggestions subforum.

Mm, I'll go post it over there now

[straight_stewie]

2 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Good grammar? (Not essential - but it helps), and so on.

In addition to that, this forum has one of the nicest WYSIWYG editors that I've seen on any forum (if not the nicest). Using the features of it as necessary or appropriate are also beneficial. If a post looks like it's formatted in such a way that it is more difficult to read than it would otherwise be I usually won't bother reading it. 

[NumLock21]

9 minutes ago, food158 said:

Yeah, check out what I've posted before.

It's annoying when OP post a question, gets a bunch of replies and OP never responds. The other annoyance is OP might respond and then it's a cliff hanger cause they disappear into the abyss and never to be heard of again. 3rd is extremely slow response time, instead of responding back in minutes, it takes hours, weeks, or months. When someone takes that long to respond, it means what they're asking isn't that important.

 

Provide the links to your topics, that you need help on.

[flibberdipper]

22 minutes ago, straight_stewie said:

Once upon a time there was a group of individuals who would actually study and write up nice, well formatted replies to questions. Then attrition happened. Some left because of personal reasons, others left because they were tired of answering the same questions 10,000 times a day. Some are still here, but stay relatively close to the confines of their areas of expertise.

 

This perfectly sums me up lmao

[minibois]

I try to put as much effort in my replies, as the OP does in the main posts and all his replies.

If I ask three things and only one gets answered, I am not likely to give you very in depth answers

[dalekphalm]

1 minute ago, Minibois said:

I try to put as much effort in my replies, as the OP does in the main posts and all his replies.

If I ask three things and only one gets answered, I am not likely to give you very in depth answers

One thing of note to keep in mind is that someone might have expertise in only one of the three things being asked.

 

Though as a courtesy, they should be up front about that in their reply.

[minibois]

6 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

One thing of note to keep in mind is that someone might have expertise in only one of the three things being asked.

 

Though as a courtesy, they should be up front about that in their reply.

I would much rather have some tell me "I have no clue what you are asking of me" instead of ignoring my question. But yeah, I consider someone's expertise in how they reply to me.

[MimigaKing]

29 minutes ago, Minibois said:

I would much rather have some tell me "I have no clue what you are asking of me" instead of ignoring my question. But yeah, I consider someone's expertise in how they reply to me.

However, wouldn't doing that in every threads be considered like artificially inflating their post count?

[LogicalDrm]

Depends on question. And does OP reply and give more info or not. But some are just too odd to solve.

[dalekphalm]

20 minutes ago, MimigaKing said:

However, wouldn't doing that in every threads be considered like artificially inflating their post count?

I think what @Minibois meant was that if a person was going to respond anyway (thus, increasing their post count regardless), then he would prefer that they indicate if they are confused about the question(s), or otherwise are unable to answer them due to lack of knowledge in that subject.

 

Alternatively, it could mean that if an OP asks a question, and Minibois asks the OP a clarifying question (eg: asking for more detail), that the OP respond either way, rather than ignoring his response.

 

I could be mistaken of course, but that's how I interpreted his post.

[WkdPaul]

13 hours ago, food158 said:

Usually it's not solved in my cases.

FYI, we allow one "bump" per 24h, if a thread falls into the second page of a section, it will stop getting replies.

 

Giving lots of details (without going overboard) also helps, some people get frustrated because they're not getting help with questions like "Windows randomly crash, HALPP!!!!" without giving more details.

 

TLDR ; give enough details, keep the thread alive and with time you should get your answers.

 

[IKnight]

16 hours ago, straight_stewie said:

Once upon a time there was a group of individuals who would actually study and write up nice, well formatted replies to questions. Then attrition happened. Some left because of personal reasons, others left because they were tired of answering the same questions 10,000 times a day. Some are still here, but stay relatively close to the confines of their areas of expertise.

 

Yeah, this is exactly why I'm not on the forum as much. Too many personal things going on, but mostly cause it's the same questions 24/7 with nothing new. People can't use the search button.... 

 

16 hours ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

That ultimately depends on what kind of questions you're asking. If it's a question about component selection for a gaming build, its bound to get loads of replies and will be solved. If it's a more niche question, there's going to be less, or maybe, no replies. I rarely create threads asking questions on the forum for that reason. Most of the questions I've asked tend to be pretty specific and the majority end up unresolved, some with no replies at all. 

 

I think most people just go off the recent topics thread to find what to reply to. I do this most of the time, but I also try to go to some of the less active subforums that I have knowledge in to see what threads haven't been replied to. Mostly the networking subforum. 

 

I imagine quite a bit of unresolved threads are due to a new member coming in and making a thread, getting a reply or two but then not quoting or tagging those that replied, so no one comes back to it and it gets pushed off the recent topics. I've replied to some threads that ended up like that, as I forget to check back on a thread if I'm replying to multiple threads at once. I try to remember to follow a thread I reply to if the OP has less than 100 posts as they're less likely to quote or tag, but I do miss it sometimes. I kind of wish there was a setting enabled at default to give you a notification if a thread is replied to by the OP (rather than the setting for any reply). 

Most of my questions never get answered cause they are stuff that's kinda niche and outside of a regular persons (and mine) expertise. Either it's older more obscure tech problems/thought or troubleshooting errors that take me forever to resolve. 

Anyone can make a parts list, but contributing something new is a skill very few have.