It seems that every time a new person has a comment to a Cecil or SR column, we have to remind him/her to link to the column in question. While of course that is good so that we know what they are talking about, to be honest, from the newbie’s point of view, there is no way for them to know this. The “comment” button on the article in question takes them automatically to the forum in question, they don’t know that we have no idea what they’re talking about.
Is there a way of letting them know, either a sticky up top (that basically says “link to the column in question” in the title so that they don’t even have to read the article), or alter the code somewhat of the “comment” link so that it puts it automatically in the title? (like how you can add a subject to an email “mailto” code so the recipient knows where you cane from on the site)
We pretty much are a broken record with newbies on CSR and CC, but really, it’s not the newbies’ fault …
As moderator, I certainly understand that it’s not their fault and do my best (and encourage others) to be welcoming. Yeah, it’s a broken record, but that’s doesn’t seem to me such a huge issue. I think we looked at a technological solution as you suggest, but it was impractical to implement. Newcomers are supposed to read the forum rules and registration agreement, butnewcomers seldom do: they’re eager to post their comments and they don’t want to be bothered with lots of technical reading. I think we’re stuck.
I do my best to use the same boiler-plate language, so when you’re reading a thread you can skip over it 'cause you know what it says. Otherwise… I got no ideas.
While I understand that putting the actual URL, one of the other ideas has promise. I know you can alter the theme on different boards. Maybe we could use that to add a note to the Reply screen in CCC and CSR, preferably in a color like red.
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Please remember to include a URL of the column, so we know which one you’re talking about.**
Looks pretty good, no?
At the very least, there should be a sticky in those forums with something like that in the title. People aren’t going to click, but they might at least read. (If it were in red, they almost definitely would.)