Introduction Forum....

[Baldilocks]

Since it seems people can't read the part about "...this is NOT for support questions"..., why not just shutter the Introduction forum? That would force people to ask their question in a more relevant forum instead of having to have a moderator move or close the thread.

Just wondering.

 

[El Presidente]

Very rarely will you see mod close/move a thread in the intro forum as it could give new users the impression they've done something wrong and are being chastised by posting there.

We've pretty strict guidelines regarding the introduction forum in that whilst it's for intros, it's ok to ask a support question there. A lot of people aren't overly familiar with forums (especially one like ours, with so many subsections), so they'll just post in the first forum that's available to them. We shouldn't make them believe they've done the wrong thing by posting where they shouldn't.

Having a place just to say Hi gives the feeling we're a pretty laid back, friendly community which is what the Site Owner/Admin want.

 

[Baldilocks]

If it's ok to ask for support questions there, why does it say "THIS IS NOT FOR SUPPORT QUESTIONS!" ??

I understand the idea of having an Introduction forum as I have been a forum administrator for a long, long time. Again, why have a guideline in place if it's not going to be adhered to?

 

[Frisco]

It's about leading those to the device forums who might notice that announcement at the top, not about disallowing device oriented posts entirely, otherwise it would be "shuttered."

Also, like many other notices and signs all around us in and out of forums, it often takes two or more exposures to a person before it "takes" with that person. This is very common, especially when a person is brand new in an area and has landed there as a result of something they want to say or do.

 

[Xyro]

I know what you mean. We have the guideline there, but we don't enforce it. But that's not an oversight on our part.

If new members picked the right section for their posts, it would cut down on the work for staff members and the new members would get answers faster. Like Frisco said, we have the guideline to encourage that behaviour.

But people ignore the guideline all the time. And really, we have no way of preventing that. They are new members to the forum, so that thread is our first point of contact; there's no opportunity to tell them otherwise until the damage is done and they've already posted in the wrong section. Nearly everybody gets into the swing of things within a few posts, but there will always be new members arriving and making the same mistake.

Removing the introduction section won't stop them either. In the past we've tried rearranging the front page, and these support threads tend to accumulate in the first section on the homepage, whether it's the introductions section or not. That taught us that these posts are just something we have to deal with.

In the end, having the introduction section means that we can allow these posts to accumulate in one section without disrupting the other, more useful sections.