Moderator's Notes: On General Questions

Factual Questions
1

As you doubtless have noticed, traffic in General Questions has increased recently, seemingly exponentially.

The traffic comes from a combination of a crush of new members and from increased posting activity from our more seasoned members. These are both very good things – for the Board, for the Fight Against Ignorance, and for each other.

But I fear that we’re in danger of having too much of a good thing. Right now, a good but difficult question that does not get a response disappears from the first page in less than 3 hours during the peak afternoon weekday period, and in less than 12 hours regardless.

I’d like to ask the members’ cooperation in keeping General Questions the best place on the internet for finding information. You can help by doing several things.

First, before opening a new thread, search the archives! There are thousands of threads in GQ, and over 2,000 questions (with answers) in the archives of Cecil’s columns and Staff Reports. Many threads in GQ never need to have been opened, and the OP could have received a complete answer more quickly by spending a little time in the archives. Remember to reset the “search by date” indicator to "any date” before you check the board archives.

Second, please take some time to consider if your proposed thread is really a General Question. There are two categories here. Many threads are really seeking opinions (IMHO is the place) or seeking to advocate a position (Great Debates). Perhaps more importantly, many queries can be solved with a simple web search. Please do not clog General Questions with simple definition/pronunciation questions, “where can I find this product” questions or similar things until you have run a search through Google.com or another quality search engine. This applies especially to “what are the lyrics” threads, since reproducing them on the boards without scholarly context is illegal in the first place.

Also, try to limit the “me, too” posts. If a member has asked a question about a legal matter, for instance, there is no need for everyone who ever got a ticket to post a story. A certain amount is worthwhile to make a point (and we are a community of shared interests, after all), but too many thread live beyond their useful lives because someone wanted to share a story which is only slightly on-topic. Please exercise discretion.

This is not to discourage threads or posts! The SDMB and this forum in particular rely on a constant stream of high-quality questions, accurate answers and witty wisecracks to stay alive. In particular, if you have a good joke that fits in an existing thread, go right ahead and post it.

I simply hope that folks will exercise some judgment when opening a new thread or prolonging a dying one. I don’t want GQ to collapse under its own weight.

Thank you for your cooperation, and I hope you continue to enjoy General Questions for many years to come.

2

bump :slight_smile:

I think this was about to fall off the first page. I think it a valid and worthy subject, though it’s not really a GQ. :wink:

3

(Just a joke! See → :smiley: )

4

Very nicely put, manhattan. Perhaps this should be stuck as an announcement at the top of the forum? That way it won’t keep drifting off the first page - like it almost has already, less than three hours since the last response.

5

I’m sure any person can make their own divisions, but it seems to me that within General Questions, there are two general types of questions: Intellectual questions, and… hmmm… more mundane, almost “pop-culture” type questions. Is there any opinion on splitting General Questions into something, well, less general?

Quix

P.S. Like I said, I’m a newbie, so if a veteran feels that a better differentiation could be made, shoot.

6

What is more difficult? Closing a thread, or moving it. What makes a better point as to where a type of thread belongs? Closing the thread, or moving it to the desired board.

I do understand what you are saying, but threads have been closed that have made me wonder, Why? Threads have been allowed to remain indefinitely, then surprisingly closed on an apparant whim (maybe you are not fond of the answers). Threads have been closed because the question was not phrased in the form of a question (is this Jeopardy?).

I respect your effort, and maybe the growth has been a bit overwhelming, but there lack of consistency in your actions.

7

And you could also create a new forum for Automotive, Power, Energy and Environment threads, and make me the Moderator… :smiley:

8

Just a comment- I’ve always thought that questions re: pop culture stuff should be in MPSIMS. Like, “What’s this song?” sort of things.

Perhaps we could have a General Questions and a Mundane Questions. :wink:

9

Ah, for the days when every topic was in one of two forums: General Questions and Comment on Cecil’s Columns. This was back on AOL. MPSIMS was just a long-running, all-purpose-any-topic thread, and debates, questions, polls and flamings were all fair game under GQ. I miss those days. It seems like since then, TSD has grown so much that it has had to departmentalize types of forums, and I realize this was necessary due to the high number of posters. Just being nostalgic–AOL SDMB was a bit more fun, IMHO. <Sigh>.

10

Yeah, I realize that probably most of the problems could be solved by people actually paying attention to which forum they’re in. I know that I’m cookied so the message board recognizes me. Maybe that cookie can be augmented? Whenever someone with under 100 posts (or whatever) goes to make a post, have a screen before the posting screen saying, “The forum you’d like to post to is General Questions. It is for BLAH, BLEH, and BLECH. It is not for polling, flirting, or condemning everyone to hell. If you’d like to poll, click here to post onto MPSIMS. If you’d like to condemn everyone to hell, click here to post onto Great Debates. If you’d like to flirt, click here to send an email to manhattan.”

Just a thought.
Quix

11

I like schief2’s idea. On the message board home (the forum index), have a “Asking a question for the first time? Click here” When the person clicks they get a screen saying stuff like manhattan said above.

12

I would respectfully like to request (if it hasn’t already been in ATMB) a separate forum for computer questions in the line of “How do I make my PC do this?”/“What’s wrong with my PC”

These questions are numerous (I just counted 8 on the first two pages). They aren’t “Straight Dope” type questions. For the most part, they are only of interest to the questioner and to the techies answering - other readers aren’t going to have the same question/problem. I have had questions that I would like to pass by the board techies, but I didn’t want to put it in GQ, and MPSIMS doesn’t necessarily get the techie crowd.

13

I’ve always considered this forum to be for questions that you would actually write Cecil to ask about. If you don’t think he would ever answer such a question, maybe you should reconsider.

In fact, maybe the missing forum on this board is Advice. People needing advice on anything from PCs to cars to pets need information, but that doesn’t make it General Questions.

14

Can someone tell me what happened to my Music subgenres thread? I can’t find it anywhere on this board. If it’s “too long” or “too vague” or “not really asking a question” or whatever, someone please tell me. I don’t know what the unwritten rules for these things are.

As for how to deal with the influx, I suggest that we have a new board for specific questions. That would be for questions that have one specific answer. What song is this, what was the result of this case, how does this book/movie/tv series end, etc. General questions would be for those questions that are open to interpretation or otherwise don’t have simple answers (which I’m pretty sure music subgenres would fall into). Don’t bother trying to subdivide based on “seriousness” or “relvance” or whatnot; it’s not going to work.

15

Been there…

Done that…

[pout]
Then why do some intelligent posts never get answered? Is this truly the “Teeming Millions” or “Teeming Couple of Hundreds”? Nobody could answer this question?
[/pout]

I do agree with much of what was said above:

But disagree with some, too:

There a seperate boards dedicated to these types of questions. SDMB is trying to fight ignorance…not play tech support.

16

Zyada said:

There are a lot of so called generall questions like this where people are seeking answers to questions aimed at people in specific (usually professional) fields (PC techs in the above example). Others are:

“I’m bleeding from both eyes, what should I do?” (seeking an MD opinion)

“I slapped my neighbor’s dog- am I liable for battery?” (seeking legal advice)

“My cassette player works only on one channel” (seeking electronics repair advice)

“Flying saucers land in my back yard every second Tuesday- what should I do?” (seeking psychiatric help)

I would be the first person to discourage people from seeking legal advice via the internet, I think what most people are really asking with these sorts of questions is “Has anybody else ever experienced this, and if so what did they do about it?”, or “…what was the outcome?”

Perhaps a new forum addressing these sorts of issues might take the load off of GQ. I’m sure that you’d want a big bold disclaimer below the forum heading stating that the Straight Dope, et al. makes no claims… and does not assume liability… and recommends you seek 1-on-1 advice from professions… and strongly encourages those who are bleeding from both eyes to call 911… and so on.

Having just re-read what I’ve written, I’m liking this idead less & less. I know there are many places on the WWW where these questions can be better answered, and I suspect that The Administration would rather discourage this sort of acticity than encourage it. But these sorts of questions still keep appearing in GQ without being locked, so there must be some reasonable level of acceptance.

I personally think that the forum list is near reaching critical mass, and realize that one more forum means at least one more moderator and probably an additional drain on server resources. But as long as we’re brainstorming here…

17

Maybe GQ needs a name change. I have a sneaking suspicion that folks who aren’t paying attention see “General Questions” and think, “Oh, that means any old question can go here.” I don’t think the name emphasizes enough what manhattan is always reiterating: GQ is for questions of fact.

So how about “Questions of Fact” or some such? Not a terribly brilliant or clever name, I know, but more suggestions are welcome. I’m thinking the word “fact” is important, though.

(I realize this probably wouldn’t make a huge difference, but it might help.)

18

Manny said:

Or how’z about just making improvements to the search engine? I’ve seen several threads asking about the longevity if CDs, and there’s always a statement like “I’ve searched for previous threads but didn’t find anything yadda yadda yadda…” But since I know there have been at least three past threads on this topic, I searched myself for related threads. Searching for “CD” didn’t turn up much, then searching for “lifespan” turned up a bunch of threads but nothing related to the question at hand, then searching for “how long” or something goofy like that finally gave me the results I was looking for. What’s more, the thread did have the term “CD” in it. Don’t know why it wasn’t found in my first search. In fact, trying this right now, I get 31 results when searching for “CDs” (I sure didn’t get that a few days ago!) but when I search for “CD” I get only 7 matches. How can that be? Shouldn’t any match for “CDs” also be a match for “CD”??

Brainstorming idead #2: Can the software be made to search the archives & past threads by default when any new GQ or GD topic is posted? Let’s say that somebody wants to post a creationism thread in GD. As soon as they hit submit new thread, a page appears that says:

**The following 3 threads have been found that may relate to your new thread.

• Gerrymandering - is there a better way to create Congressional districts, etc.?
• Are all people created equal?
• THE “BIBLE” Created or Evolved

Do you want to submit it anyway?**

(There were actually only seven matches to the word “create”, which I find hard to believe)

THis may cause some to think twice about sumitting a new thread if it looks like it has already been covered.

19

That can’t be a good sign.

20

DKW’s Music Sub-Genres thread. Hint–put “sub-genres” into General Questions/Entire Message Since 10 days ago into Search.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=55645

Malaka, sometimes “intelligent questions” don’t receive answers simply because nobody knows the answer. I’ve noticed that these frequently tend to be pop culture questions, like “Who first put pennies into penny loafers?” Nobody really knows off the top of their head, and those of us who are interested enough to open a new window and go cruising around on Google aren’t able to find an answer, either. So instead of tying up the server by posting “I went and looked for it but I couldn’t find anything”, we just shrug and move on to the next thread.

Don’t sweat it, 'kay? Don’t interpret it as a personal insult, “Oh, that Malaka, nobody wants to talk to him, he’s such a loser”, because it’s not like that. Bump your question once (but only once :slight_smile: ), preferably during a weekday morning or a rainy Sunday afternoon, and you’ll have a better chance of getting an answer.