MobileRead Forums - View Single Post

Worldwalker · 07-07-2010, 04:57 AM

I never posted in "Introduce Yourself".

Here's an example of what I'm talking about:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...828#post996828

There's a 2-year-old thread about using Calibre and the Sony Library software in combination. For some reason, a new member decided that the ideal way of getting help with a problem involving the resizing of images in RTF to LRF conversions could best be addressed, not by posting "I'm having a problem with image resizing", but to attach his question to the end of that years-old thread on a different topic.

I know there are forums where the mods and/or members will have a cow if you start a thread related to any topic which has ever been mentioned in the history of the forum. "There was a discussion of that four years ago, why are you starting a new thread, n00b?" It's possible, I suppose, that the people attaching unrelated posts to the ends of ancient threads are accustomed to that kind of environment. But whatever the reason, people exhuming ancient threads and hanging unrelated posts on them isn't doing much for forum content and readability. I really can't see any reason they're doing it that doesn't involve a) a belief that they're not allowed to start new topics, and b) a search engine.

So we have, in the Sony forum, a years-old thread on the end of which is affixed a question that should be in the Calibre forum. That's not helping anyone.

I think there needs to be more effective "welcome to MR, here's how to do stuff" information made very, very obvious to new posters (especially if they're guests clicking "reply" and being sent to the registration page) so that questions get to the places where they'll get answers.

07-07-2010, 04:57 AM	#142
Worldwalker Curmudgeon Posts: 3,085 Karma: 722357 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: PRS-505	I never posted in "Introduce Yourself". Here's an example of what I'm talking about: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...828#post996828 There's a 2-year-old thread about using Calibre and the Sony Library software in combination. For some reason, a new member decided that the ideal way of getting help with a problem involving the resizing of images in RTF to LRF conversions could best be addressed, not by posting "I'm having a problem with image resizing", but to attach his question to the end of that years-old thread on a different topic. I know there are forums where the mods and/or members will have a cow if you start a thread related to any topic which has ever been mentioned in the history of the forum. "There was a discussion of that four years ago, why are you starting a new thread, n00b?" It's possible, I suppose, that the people attaching unrelated posts to the ends of ancient threads are accustomed to that kind of environment. But whatever the reason, people exhuming ancient threads and hanging unrelated posts on them isn't doing much for forum content and readability. I really can't see any reason they're doing it that doesn't involve a) a belief that they're not allowed to start new topics, and b) a search engine. So we have, in the Sony forum, a years-old thread on the end of which is affixed a question that should be in the Calibre forum. That's not helping anyone. I think there needs to be more effective "welcome to MR, here's how to do stuff" information made very, very obvious to new posters (especially if they're guests clicking "reply" and being sent to the registration page) so that questions get to the places where they'll get answers.