comments on posting etiquette or why did i get flamed.
It's come up a lot recently that people are hijacking threads of postings on this board. Everyone has been pretty nice about it. But in a recent instance it was so blatant and by a person who recently started using the forum that I thought I'd explain just why it is not a good idea to go about hijacking other peoples topic or threads in a non flame kind of way.
In response to this question
"Why shouldn't I post that here, people might find this helpful too?"
What you are asking about should be in a different conversation thread. Mr X was being nice to you when he told you nicely to go start a new topic. He wasn't being ugly. If you did this on other forums/bulletin boards, people would flame you in public. I'm trying not to flame you, but to explain. It is not good ettiquete to hijack topics on any bulletin board. It hurts you too, becuase you won't get the answers you seek either. Here's why.
Where should I post, under the miva 4.x questions area or 5.5 questoin areas?
You should also post Miva 4.x question in that topic area, granted this topic of yours might fit in both. But store owners who are converting who have both types of store will monitor the 4.x area of the forum. They might help you. Also the developers who do 4.x to 5.5 conversions will monitor both and will probably chime in. (Why would they, well it's good business, they help a little bit and if you need real help, then you might hire them.).
Well if I only post in the 4.x topic area, no one in the 5.5 will see my question and they might be able to help me.
Instead of double posting, you could put a detailed post in the 4.x section, then put a short nice post on the 5.5 section with a topic like "i'm converting to 5.5, i have questions about modules" then in the body of that post ask for people who have done it, to kindly go check out your detailed post over in the 4.4 section and give them a link to it. That way, all the answers will also be in once thread, in one place, easy for someone else in the future to find all the suggestions. Having answers to the same topic scattered around the board doesn't help anyone, and makes the board a lot less useful.
Why do people on the forum tell me to search for my answer, I don't want to, I just want an answer?
Becuase this forum has been around for years. I've been a regular for at least 9 years. Others have been here longer. Everyone get's really bored at answering the same question over and over. If you search, the common questions already have been covered. If it is something like that, and you feel ignored becuase no one is answering you. Try searching again. Or maybe people are just busy.
No one is answering my question, somebody darn it help me, somebody answer my question!
This is not paid support. It is people out of the goodness of their hearts and out of understanding that we can all help each other out in a "you scratch my back, I"ll scratch your back" way. BUT all of us are running our own web sites, have our own business, or job and our time is precious. There are some days this board goes crazy with people posting all over, then there are days where no one answers. Luckily this is a pretty busy board. Look at the previous paragraph about about why you need to search. perhaps your question has already been answered.
I am still not sure how this bulletin board ettiquete works
Here is an analogy. Using a bulletin board or forum is like attending a big conference at a big business complex. Each room has a different talk/presentation going on. You wouldn't go to a room about lawn mowers to find out about video cameras. To find out about video cameras, you would go to the camera presentation in a different room. Oops! you went into the camera part of the converence. There are 15 rooms about cameras. You take the first door on the left and are in the still camera room. Oops! nobody here cares about video cameras. You saw that the video cameras are the next door. So ... moving over to video cameras.. you get to ask your question and get a really useful answer.
How does your silly analogy apply to this forum? Well the big areas are like the sections of the home page on this forum miva 4.x, miva 5.5, empressa and development, and a general area to let your hair down and ask about things that don't have a dedicated room. - like this off topic area.
The topic threads within those dedicated areas are like the presentation rooms. You need to go to the right one to get te answer you seek.
Is this the way every bulletin board is?
Pretty much. This isn't just etiquette for this particular board. If you hijacked topic threads on other forums/bulletin boards, people would flame you in public. It can get really ugly on some forums. We really try to keep that to a minimum here. No one wants to read posts and posts of rudeness. It makes the bulletin board pretty worthless. Keeping things on topic, on thread, will help everyone now and in the future.
Hope this helps anyone who is feeling frustrated about why they are told that they need to post elsewhere.
~ Kayakbabe
In response to this question
"Why shouldn't I post that here, people might find this helpful too?"
What you are asking about should be in a different conversation thread. Mr X was being nice to you when he told you nicely to go start a new topic. He wasn't being ugly. If you did this on other forums/bulletin boards, people would flame you in public. I'm trying not to flame you, but to explain. It is not good ettiquete to hijack topics on any bulletin board. It hurts you too, becuase you won't get the answers you seek either. Here's why.
- Keeping threads of conversation on topic is what makes these bulletin boards work so well and makes them so valuable.
- It doesn't help anyone if stuff that isn't about a topic is included in it. You might post some really helpful question but it will be really unlikely to be found by someone else in the future.
- If someone searched for something, they see the topic thread titles. They would see "top ten uses for emporium plus took kit". They would not see "Converting 4.x store to 5.5 which modules must I replace?" So they would never see your question, they've already moved on.
- Once people see what a topic is about, they'll ignore it after that. You will be missed by a lot of people who might have answered your question.
- If you started a new thread, more people would see and comment on your question and provide a documentation for the future.
Where should I post, under the miva 4.x questions area or 5.5 questoin areas?
You should also post Miva 4.x question in that topic area, granted this topic of yours might fit in both. But store owners who are converting who have both types of store will monitor the 4.x area of the forum. They might help you. Also the developers who do 4.x to 5.5 conversions will monitor both and will probably chime in. (Why would they, well it's good business, they help a little bit and if you need real help, then you might hire them.).
Well if I only post in the 4.x topic area, no one in the 5.5 will see my question and they might be able to help me.
Instead of double posting, you could put a detailed post in the 4.x section, then put a short nice post on the 5.5 section with a topic like "i'm converting to 5.5, i have questions about modules" then in the body of that post ask for people who have done it, to kindly go check out your detailed post over in the 4.4 section and give them a link to it. That way, all the answers will also be in once thread, in one place, easy for someone else in the future to find all the suggestions. Having answers to the same topic scattered around the board doesn't help anyone, and makes the board a lot less useful.
Why do people on the forum tell me to search for my answer, I don't want to, I just want an answer?
Becuase this forum has been around for years. I've been a regular for at least 9 years. Others have been here longer. Everyone get's really bored at answering the same question over and over. If you search, the common questions already have been covered. If it is something like that, and you feel ignored becuase no one is answering you. Try searching again. Or maybe people are just busy.
No one is answering my question, somebody darn it help me, somebody answer my question!
This is not paid support. It is people out of the goodness of their hearts and out of understanding that we can all help each other out in a "you scratch my back, I"ll scratch your back" way. BUT all of us are running our own web sites, have our own business, or job and our time is precious. There are some days this board goes crazy with people posting all over, then there are days where no one answers. Luckily this is a pretty busy board. Look at the previous paragraph about about why you need to search. perhaps your question has already been answered.
I am still not sure how this bulletin board ettiquete works
Here is an analogy. Using a bulletin board or forum is like attending a big conference at a big business complex. Each room has a different talk/presentation going on. You wouldn't go to a room about lawn mowers to find out about video cameras. To find out about video cameras, you would go to the camera presentation in a different room. Oops! you went into the camera part of the converence. There are 15 rooms about cameras. You take the first door on the left and are in the still camera room. Oops! nobody here cares about video cameras. You saw that the video cameras are the next door. So ... moving over to video cameras.. you get to ask your question and get a really useful answer.
How does your silly analogy apply to this forum? Well the big areas are like the sections of the home page on this forum miva 4.x, miva 5.5, empressa and development, and a general area to let your hair down and ask about things that don't have a dedicated room. - like this off topic area.
The topic threads within those dedicated areas are like the presentation rooms. You need to go to the right one to get te answer you seek.
Is this the way every bulletin board is?
Pretty much. This isn't just etiquette for this particular board. If you hijacked topic threads on other forums/bulletin boards, people would flame you in public. It can get really ugly on some forums. We really try to keep that to a minimum here. No one wants to read posts and posts of rudeness. It makes the bulletin board pretty worthless. Keeping things on topic, on thread, will help everyone now and in the future.
Hope this helps anyone who is feeling frustrated about why they are told that they need to post elsewhere.
~ Kayakbabe