Can we take a vote or something on the creation of an additional message board specifically for technical questions? Since they are actually specific questions they don’t really qualify as “General”… and I need to have quick access regarding such important topics as the smell of burning napalm… etc.
Wasn’t sure where to post, but wanted to get my voice out there… anyone else agree?
Slippery slope, smootman. Next, we’ll have a forum for TMI/Sex questions. Then Michael Moore debates. And the " just wanted to say hi because I joined and obviously the whole damned world cares" threads.
I don’t see the need. There are much better boards if you want computer questions answered, particularly if they are more specific questions than often seen here. ArsTechnica’s OpenForum would be my recommendation.
It just seems lately this board has been overrun with computer questions…
I gotta agree.
Either we need another board for computer questions, or just one big sticky that covers the usual suspects and has links to more in-depth computer support forums.
I fear that the proliferation of computer usage questions (“How do I do this…”) has begun to take away from the original idea of the Straight Dope (Why does this work the way it does?")
While I do have issues with the forum in which this thread is posted 
, I don’t think it’s wrong. Computer questions get answered. That’s empirical proof that folk here would participate. Computer questions get asked. That’s empirical proof that folk here would post.
I have too many effin’ passwords already, and I’ve been waiting a week for some damn computer forum staff to help me find out what the hell my password for that board is.
Besides, a sense of bonding is probably a good thing. I mean, when I have some intransigent problem that I can’t get fixed on my own and an ever-expanding list of forums & passwords is a royal hassle, it’s nice to get a little help from folk I feel familiar with. It’s neighborly.
Of course, I’ve mentioned something like this before and there is a very negative vibe about it.
Since paid subscriptions have been put into place, I think it would be wrong to make such a change.
Once you start doing this kind of triage, you end up alone on your own highly specialized little board discussing nothing but topics of very limited interest.
I believe because we paid for the subscription that breaking computer questions out of technical questions is justified. Especially if what brought you to subscribe was the general questions, in general… :)… I didn’t pay for specific individual home pc problems… I paid for the off-the-wall stuff… so just as Cafe Society has its own breakout… Computer questions should as well…
Ah… is it wrong to want a separate forum for opinions?
FWIW, I’ve noticed a bit of a dropoff in PC questions since the above thread was started.
I’m not in favor of a separate forum for computer questions. This site is (ostensibly) about fighting ignorance, not about tech support.
There are plenty of other sites on the web for computer tech-support issues; people can visit those and get in-depth answers to their problems. Either that, or stop buying defective computer stuff. 
I agree with rjung. Along with medical diagnoses and legal advice, tech support is not something this board is really set up to do. Even the sticky that now exists should have a caveat (“any unwanted, unforeseen or expensive negative outcomes from this advice are not the responsibility of the Straight Dope or the Chicago Reader”). We’re already the first alternate behind Google (“where is Germany? what’s the answer to my math homework? who was the drummer for Cream?”) and we don’t really need to take on a more specialized technical function when boards already exist which serve it.
General Questions is for questions with factaul answers. ATMB is for discussion About This Message Board.
Off to ATMB.
DrMatrix - GQ Moderator
This has been suggested before, and generally we feel that it’s not a good idea to fragment the board any further right now. Each time we set up a new forum, we get another mass of posters. While this could be a good thing since we went to a subscription basis, right now we just want to get the balance sheet into the black before we start branching out again.
There ARE other computer forums out there.
Incidentally, this sort of thing comes and goes in waves…since there’s already some computer problem threads in GQ, then anyone reading who has a computer problem is likely to post a computer problem of their own. It’ll die down in a while.
Hmmmm . . . so smootman posted a criticism of those who post in the wrong forum, in the wrong forum? What a clever deconstruction of the whole forum system. Brilliant really. A semiotic* tour de force. * 
I understand fully your point, Lynn – I belong to another board with about 78 topic-oriented forums, some of which see action once very few days and some of which move at the speed of GQ here. Each mod. shares responsibility for one fast-moving forum and three or four of the dead-dog forums on which they have expertise.
But for things like this (and political debates in GD, and a few other issues that have come up) it might be worth considering to use the “child forum” option. In this case, when you open GQ the first thing you would see is something resembling one row of the front index, labelled “Computer Questions” and with the appropriate statistics and links of a forum, followed by Ed’s latest announcement, the sticky threads, and the the usual stuff. As I envision this, moderation duties would be the responsibility of the same people that handle the main GQ forum, perhaps with xash’s expertise having him take the lead there (and if Arnold has the time, he might lend a hand to specifically the CompQ subforum). The idea is to preserve the same structure and responsibilities that the board presently has, while segregating out a common group of topical questions for easy access and reference.
Does this sound feasible – not more work for anybody or a more complex display, but a simple group-them-together-in-a-subforum method?
Oh, and an ultra-minor bug report: I have no idea where that “gf” on my title line came from; I did not type anything in that area.
I hope you’re right, but I fear the opposite.
I myself am currently suffering the presence of devious malware on my home computer. It is a variant of the CoolWebSearch spyware, which is very difficult to detect and remove.
I posted my HijackThis log to both the GQ thread on this topic, and the SpywareInfo forums. Interestingly, I’ve gotten a few replys and suggestions from our fellow Dopers, but the SpywareInfo folks are inundated with requests for help. After about 8 hours, my post there is already buried on page 7 of the malware forum.
My point is that these types of “infections” (in quotes because it is not a computer virus per se) seem to be increasing in frequency and because they require more than a simple AdAware or Spybot scan to fix, people will come here for assistance.
I have no strong opinion either way regarding the question of whether or not to create a computer forum. I do think however that the rate of computer related questions will not die down. I hope I’m wrong.
It’s not that we’re not sympathetic to your situation. Because we are. Some of us have even been there. Most of us will probably be there sooner or later as well.
However, we are not and cannot be all things to all people. All of us – and that includes the membership that we serve – are much better off sticking to what we do best and allowing other boards to handle what they do best.
It doesn’t mean you can’t ask about it here. It does mean you’re not going to get the kind of individualized attention you feel you require for your problem. But you know, there’s places that do give that sort of thing. Isn’t that what paid tech support is all about?
It’s not our responsibility to fix everybody’s problems. Even if you do pay to be here, if you believe we’re here to serve your every need, we’d need a heck of a lot more from you than what we’re charging now, even at full fare. I doubt any of you would pay it.
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
I’d prefer to see all computer/tech support questions closed, perhaps with a link to an appropriate tech support group, rather than another forum added. But I’m obviously not calling the shots.