< sigh > So, no one actually answers him, folks just respond snidely and snarkily, and then are surprised that he’s upset and says he’s leaving?
In case you return, JimH52: formalized forums using academic categories (like “economics, history, physics”) don’t work for us. We get questions and discussions that are too difficult to classify. So instead of classifying by topic, we started out by classifying by “type of discussion.”
Comments on Cecil’s Column was meant for discussion of any of Cecil’s columns, which is the basis of our existence as a website.
Discussions about factual questions with factual answers go in General Questions forum
Discussions about questions that have no answers (politics, religion) go in Great Debates
Discussions about personal issues go in MPSIMS
Discussions about personal opinions go in IMHO
Flaming and insults go in BBQ Pit.
THere are a couple of more recent forums that do go by “topic”, thus Cafe Society for discussion of entertainment/arts and Game Room for discussion of games/sports.
There is a logic to it, but I agree that it’s a little peculiar and takes some getting used to. I hope you’ll overlook the somewhat childish responses you’ve got so far in this thread, and reconsider.
I was kind of annoyed by the insta-snark, too, but I honestly had no idea what he was talking about. I would have had no way of responding to his concern if I wanted to, as he gave no clue as to what exactly he found so screwy. Glad you were able to figure it out.
No one answerd him because he didn’t appear to ask a question, other than “you don’t mind that so few people return?” All he said was “your forums are screwy.” No explanation, no comment, nothin’.
Heck, I’m as polite as the next person (assuming that person is very polite!) but I think he got the responses he deserved.
My first thought (after that the snark wasn’t really needed) was the same thing Dexter “figured out”. It wasn’t a really well thought out OP, but I could see what he meant (assuming both of us got it right).
Maybe he didn’t deserve an answer from* you*, but he did deserve an answer from the mods. And Dex was able to somehow glean what the OP might have meant, and I was able to glean it too. It really wasn’t that hard.
Marley did ask for clarification, though, so that’s cool.
He didn’t even check the place out long enough to see if he liked it or not before signing up and posting about how he didn’t like the place. He’s gonna catch some snark if he’s going to be like that.
For shame, people. On more refined boards, new posters who announce “you guys suck and I’m leaving!” are showered with gentle words, forgiving kindness, and fruit baskets.
But he didn’t really ask a question, all he did was say that the forum topics are screwy. He didn’t elaborate, he didn’t ask for clarification, he didn’t sound like he wanted explanation. He just bitched that we don’t do things the way he thinks we should, and didn’t even elaborate on what that should be.
Of course he got snark. Newbie posts a whine without any content that suggests we don’t do things right. What is there to answer?
I disagree. It’s clear to anyone, and especially to a newcomer, that our forums are screwy. Just because we’re used to them, that don’t mean they’re not pretty much off-the-wall. They’re not categorized in the way 94.2% of other boards are categorized. Even long-time members are occasionally perplexed “mundane and pointless” being applied to, say, an obituary. I don’t think it takes any great leap of imagination to understand what a new comer means when they say that they don’t unnerstand our forums.
You think the HIS comment was “bitching”?? I guess it’s all a matter of how one reads tone. I read it as a somewhat cutesy way of saying, “hey, this is confusin’.” One can, remember, read “good morning” as a dismissal.
He has over 80 posts. That seems to me to be checking the place out, plenty.
