Read Thread Before Moving

[ScorpDX]

I realize the staff is rather busy keeping up with the board operations. The moving of threads is getting worse by the day. The EVO forum is nothing but a list of moved topics. I completely understand that some are in the wrong place. Probably more than not. But the issue now seems to be threads are moved just by the few words in the subject line.

This topic was in the EVO forum and before I could even type up the first response was moved to the classifieds. Classfieds (buy/sell/trade by your own definition) has nothing to do with that post at all. The user asked a few questions and what a good price would be. The subject line mentioned "sell" and it was promptly moved from the appropriate forum to an inappropriate forum.

This is happening more and more in the last month or so. Last week someone posted asking about Solitaire on the EVO. The most popular app available on the market requires a trackball or trackpad to deal cards. The user was asking on the EVO forum if anyone found a solution to that. It was promptly moved to the apps forum where he got a dozen post calling him stupid for not using the trackball/pad. It was a hardware issue promptly moved to a software forum because it said "app" in the subject line.

As I said, I understand the moving of threads is necessary to keep things organized. I'm just asking if the movers could take a few seconds to actually read and see what they're moving first?!?

 

[G.Armour]

I agree with this, people should read the thread before making an assumption and moving it. It also lays with the person who made the thread, if they chose better wording for the title thread, it wouldn't have gotten moved to start with, if it was already in the legit place.

 

[Slug]

Your point is well made, and I wholeheartedly agree. We're human, just like everyone else, and mistakes happen. Thanks for bringing this up, and we (the staff) will take it on board and do our best to avoid similar in the future.

FYI, I've moved the thread you highlighted back to the EVO 4G forum and PM'd the OP to explain what happened.

 

[woop]

I have posted this numerous times in the Guide forums (when I was a guide and also now that I'm a mod), asking that people do not move threads strictly based on the thread title and/or the preview that shows up, but rather reading the entire OP - as more of a hassle it might be; so with that said, I completely agree with your post. I know on a few occasions, threads were moved based on this and I had to move them back. I guess this is something we should bring up in both the Guide and the Moderator forums to make sure the message gets across.

I will say in defense of our staff, that a majority of the time members are not utilizing the correct forum/subforum for their threads and continue to do so even after seeing threads being moved. I can attest to this because I move, on average, about 20 threads daily in the Incredible forum - all which are support/help related, and know for a fact that two things contribute to this (because they are regulars - and not just a new member): laziness to do an extra click to the support subforum and/or trying to take advantage of the higher traffic in the main forums, which IMO defeats the purpose of subforums and is unacceptable.

 

[ScorpDX]

I will say in defense of our staff, that a majority of the time members are not utilizing the correct forum/subforum for their threads and continue to do so even after seeing threads being moved. I can attest to this because I move, on average, about 20 threads daily in the Incredible forum - all which are support/help related, and know for a fact that two things contribute to this (because they are regulars - and not just a new member): laziness to do an extra click to the support subforum and/or trying to take advantage of the higher traffic in the main forums, which IMO defeats the purpose of subforums and is unacceptable.

I agree with you and I tried to make it come out that way rather than the other posts containing general moaning and bashing of the mods. I realize that a majority of the time it should be somewhere else. It's just those other few rare occurrences that I wanted to bring up.

Thanks for taking the time to read and address the issue!

 

[Steven58]

I'm probably one of the worst offenders of this, if not the worst. I want you all to know that I am trying to be more careful when I move posts and I'm giving the OP the benefit of the doubt.

I was not reading the full original post but was instead reading the pop-up for gist, as there are so many threads and it's hard to read them all. Part of the problem for me was that there were so few guides. Now, there are a lot of us, so I don't feel the burden to shoulder most of the load. In fact, I'm more laid back about it, now. Let the new guys do the grunt work! (jk)

Just thought you may want to know that I'm turning over a new leaf in moving posts.

 

[Frisco]

I agree with the OP, very much so.

I'm hoping that a bit of patience will be used by members who see a thread moved that perhaps should not have been if the Guide or Moderator had read and understood the posts.

I'm also noticing that once in a while a thread is begun that could well be suited for the forum it is initially in, but might also garner more responses in another area as well. For example, I copied a thread that was started in the Android Lounge, about Bluetooth difficulties in a Galaxy S, to the device specific forum. I'm hoping I was right about doing that.

Copying can be over done, obviously, as a sort of "fail safe" action, so I'm trying to make sure it is only done if absolutely necessary because it is also easy to just post in that thread a suggestion to ask about the issue in the other forum, or to at the least browse the other forum, with a link to that forum.

 

[OFI]

On the subject of moving threads, I know vbb has the option to move the thread entirely rather than leave the original trace in the posted thread.
Any reason that isn't being used?

I am guilty of having posted one tonight in the wrong thread and then noticed the crazy number of others that had been moved which makes it a bit of a mess.

I might be making this up but I think i've also seen an option on previous forums that pm's an auto-message to the OP to tell them their thread has been moved to the correct forum to save any confusion.

ta.

 

[DaSchmarotzer]

On the subject of moving threads, I know vbb has the option to move the thread entirely rather than leave the original trace in the posted thread.
Any reason that isn't being used?

I am guilty of having posted one tonight in the wrong thread and then noticed the crazy number of others that had been moved which makes it a bit of a mess.

I might be making this up but I think i've also seen an option on previous forums that pm's an auto-message to the OP to tell them their thread has been moved to the correct forum to save any confusion.

ta.

Those traces are called redirects, and yes they do seem to clutter up the place. They expire (disappear) after the period of time we chose.

I like your idea, however the other people who posted besides the OP might get confused. A lot of people don't search and start complaining, trust me on that one. I've never heard of the automatic PM thing, but it might be a good idea (along with a 1 hour redirect?). It probably would be way too long to move threads and send a manual PM every single time, so the automatic private message would need to be implemented.


EDIT: Oh, and I think everybody should read the first post before moving a thread. I've always done that; I even thought everybody was.

 

[woop]

On the subject of moving threads, I know vbb has the option to move the thread entirely rather than leave the original trace in the posted thread.
Any reason that isn't being used?

I am guilty of having posted one tonight in the wrong thread and then noticed the crazy number of others that had been moved which makes it a bit of a mess.

I might be making this up but I think i've also seen an option on previous forums that pm's an auto-message to the OP to tell them their thread has been moved to the correct forum to save any confusion.

ta.

We have it. As posted above, its called "redirects." Most of us put them so that members who had posted in that thread as well as the OP themselves, can know what happened to their read. Trust me, alot of people have made threads titled "WHERE DID MY THREAD GO?!" when redirects aren't there. So to help out everyone, we put them there - but depending on which mod/guide you speak to - most of us put a expiring time limit on them (for myself, it can range from 1 hour to 1 day). Typically, I stray away from permanent redirects.

EDIT: Oh, and I think everybody should read the first post before moving a thread. I've always done that; I even thought everybody was.

Yeah, I make sure to read the OP before moving any thread just because I know it'd drive me crazy if the tables were flipped, and if I was a member and a mod moved my thread without reading it.

 

[TheXFactor]

I'd like to chime in. I've moderated a few busy sites and while it seems to be a necessary evil, moving threads creates confusion and sometimes unhappy members. I for one find it quite disappointing to come back to the site hours later only to find half the posts in the forum(s) I frequent are moved.

I think moderators can over do it at times too. Think before moving, try to make it clear to members (especially new ones) that creating threads in the proper forum is an important part of keeping the community organized.

Other sites I have moderated at have twice the traffic and less than a quarter the amount of moved threads. So, it can be done.

 

[Slug]

I think it's important to point out here that the uniform sub-forum structure was only recently rolled out across the site, so there was a spike in "moved threads" while we reorganised. It's not something that is likely to be a regular occurrence.

 

[woop]

I'd like to chime in. I've moderated a few busy sites and while it seems to be a necessary evil, moving threads creates confusion and sometimes unhappy members. I for one find it quite disappointing to come back to the site hours later only to find half the posts in the forum(s) I frequent are moved.

I think moderators can over do it at times too. Think before moving, try to make it clear to members (especially new ones) that creating threads in the proper forum is an important part of keeping the community organized.

Other sites I have moderated at have twice the traffic and less than a quarter the amount of moved threads. So, it can be done.

You also have to keep in mind several things, which can affect this:
1. The topic of the forum - tech talk is much more expansive/confusing. Thus, support questions are the majority, and being that people are not utilizing the support subforums, you will see moved threads.
2. The specificity of subforums and the type of subforums. Again, the only way you can compare "moved threads" between forums is if they have the same subforums (specificity, type, and amount). It wouldn't make sense to compare a forum that has 1 subforum that is "Other" versus AF.
3. The # of threads. Just because another forum has high traffic doesn't mean theres automatically more threads. This forum carries so many threads that its inevitable to have the same ratio of moved threads.

And then you have to also keep in mind that 90% of the reason why a thread is moved is because the OP has placed the thread in the wrong forum to begin with. Imagine if all the members were to post in the correct forum, you would see NO moved threads (Basically what I referenced above in my earlier post).

 

[cableguynoe]

I'm glad to see this subject was brought up, since I've been thinking the same thing for a couple of weeks now.

Sometimes, obviously, it's necessary to move a thread to the proper forum where it's more likely to get the attention it needs.
However, Lately I've seen a TON of movement and personally I have felt that some guides are a little trigger happy, and might just be moving threads because they can.

For example, if someone asks a question about how to work something on their phone, it doesn't necessarily have to be moved to the support and troubleshooting sub forum. But maybe I'm wrong on this. But i think it's fine being the the phones main forum.
that's my 2 cents

 

[woop]

For example, if someone asks a question about how to work something on their phone, it doesn't necessarily have to be moved to the support and troubleshooting sub forum. But maybe I'm wrong on this. But i think it's fine being the the phones main forum.
that's my 2 cents

IMO, if they're asking how to do something, that probably is support-related (not necessarily troubleshoot, but definitely support - which is under the same umbrella subforum)