Upon posting a question, I am often told that I have choosen the wrong forum for my topic. Being new to this, can some one set me straight? I read the discription for the forum, but often seen to make a mistake. Or, are some of you just picking on the new kid?
This is my understanding of how the forums should and shouldn’t be used:
“Comments on Cecil’s Column” MUST relate to something written by Cecil Adams. Although this is the forum that you are most likely to receive a reply from Cecil it is NOT the appropriate place to submit new questions to him. E-mail or a letter would be the way to submit new questions.
“About this Message Board” is for technical and policy questions concerning the use, operation, and administration of the SDMB itself.
“General Questions” is for just about any question that at least has the possibiliy of an objective answer.
“MPSIMS” is for generally light-hearted observations and queries, surveys, and petty social commentary.
“The BBQ Pit” is for those times that someone has pissed you off to the point where rational discussion just won’t suffice to express yourself fully. When it gets personal, take it to the pit. It used to be that when someone wanted to start a topic that was sure to be bitterly devisive, it was wise to just post it here to start with. Those topics can now be raised in the “Great Debates” forum.
“Comments about Mailbag Questions” is pretty self explainitory.
“Great Debates” is the place to argue topics that can only have open ended and subjective answers. This where you want to go if you enjoy arguing. A warning though; personal attacks still belong in the Pit.
I think if you give a little more thought about where you post, using the above guidelines, you should be able to avoid those annoying “This topic doesn’t belong here…” replys. Some people are just born to direct traffic and they’ll do it every chance they get.
BTW - This topic belongs in the “About this Message Board” forum!
Note that Papabear used the phrase “should … be used,” indicating that in fact the forums are used incorrectly.
For instance, jdv’s 10K challenge was never about receiving an objective answer… it was just to piss off people. Similarly, there are a lot of threads criticizing the United States and its policies in this forum that don’t belong either.
The unofficial rule is that if you want a lot of people to look at your question/comment, post it in the General Questions forum because it is the one that most people visit.
“[He] beat his fist down upon the table and hurt his hand and became so
further enraged… that he beat his fist down upon the table even harder and
hurt his hand some more.” – Joseph Heller’s Catch-22