Old questions asked again

[Jon26 0]

Whenever someone asks a question that has been asked before on the forums you get a tonne of people, usually long-time users and / or moderators telling them to search the forums before asking their question.
This annoys me. If someone asks a question you don't want to answer / you've answered before / someone else has answered before, you can easily just not reply. There will be plenty of others, new or otherwise willing to answer. People who themselves haven't seen the old threads either.
True, anyone can search for old threads and maybe get the answers they need but a lot of the old stuff is exactly that, out-of-date.
It doesn't hurt to bring up an old topic and get a fresh answer. It can only be expected because new people are naturally gonna want to ask the same questions the oldies did when they started out.
Some of the posts you read from the oldies can sound discouraging and probably put a good deal of people off using the forums.

[bigway 4]

Repost. Try the search the function for many threads of this nature.

Go KIWIS

.Karnage Krew Gear Store
.

[slotperfect 7]

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This annoys me.

If you take some time to understand why we encourage users to search the forums first before posting, it may help calm your annoyance.

These forums have been up and running for seven years. Since then, we have grown to nearly 68,000 users that have made almost three million posts in well over 170,000 threads. There are users among us who are pioneers in our sport, gear manufacturers, aero club board members, dropzone owners, world champions, instructors with jump numbers in the five figures and instructional experience measured in decades, and many other examples of folks having a wealth of knowledge to tap into. There have been excellent questions asked over the past seven years, and many thorough, well though out answers given from highly qualified individuals. That information is there to be had simply by using the Search Posts feature.

Here's an example . . . let's say a jumper who is rather new to skydiving and even newer ot the forums has a question about the 3-ring release. Since the Gear and Rigging forum best fits that topic of discussion, that would be a logical place to search first. There are nearly 11,000 threads in that forum, which happen to include some excellent discussions about the 3-ring release. A large portion of those excellent discussions come from the man who invented and patented the 3-ring release, Bill Booth (billbooth), who has been a dropzone.com user since March of 2002. He is a regular contributor to boot.

Searching the G&R Forum for "3-ring" results in 490 posts. Browsing those threads, one might discover that Bill has been a huge contributor in those discussions, who he is, and why his opinions are so valuable on the subject of the 3-ring. Changing the search parameters only to include posts in G&R by billbooth on the subject of the 3-ring yields 41 posts. That in itself is a wealth of information.

Now, Bill cares about the sport a great deal . . . that's why he posts here. And, he has been known to answer the same question more than once over time. BUT, those of us that know Bill (including some of us long-time users and Moderators) know that he is a busy man and that the user may find what he is looking for in some of Bill's previous posts if he searches the forums, and that this might be a lot faster than waiting for an answer to his new thread on the subject.

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a lot of the old stuff is exactly that, out-of-date

True, but a large portion of the information here is still quite accurate, and learning the history and evolution of a topic (especially gear) can be extremely valuable.

The Search Posts function is a great tool to access a wealth of information. That's why we encourage people to use it.

Arrive Safely

John

[Jon26 0]

I agree with you totally that using the search tool is an awesome way to access a massive amount of helpful and useful info. and is well worth randomly searching through even when you don't necessarily have a specific question that needs answering, even just as a learning tool.
I was just saying that a lot of the time (not all the time) someone will post a, maybe fairly basic, question and almost immediately a post will appear that is written in a kind of "i'm sick of hearing that question" way.

[bigway 4]

Just ignore that sort of stuff mate. You will get that in any forum on the net. They call them 'Repost police'. Ignore those type and dont take it to heart.

I aggree with you as well. Even if there are old thread from 2 years ago sitting in the forums. You may want to show the same photo or the same joke and the someone gives you shit for it. It is not your fault that there is a person who has been around for years and knows ever thread, new people should be able to show the photo without feeling stupid that it was posted a year ago. Just ignore them, obviously they have not got much else to do.

.Karnage Krew Gear Store
.

[slotperfect 7]

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almost immediately a post will appear that is written in a kind of "i'm sick of hearing that question" way.

You may be talking about "dead horses." Certain topics have been discussed ad nauseum here in the forums (e.g. the 45 degree rule), and some pictures/videos have been reposted dozens of times with subsequent repetetive discussions (e.g. Scott Lutz). Those are going to get locked or removed by a Moderator in accordance iwth the Forum Rules:

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Use existing threads on your topic to continue a discussion rather than starting a new one. Posts that are repetitive in nature (i.e. Dead Horses) may be removed or locked at the discretion of the moderators.

Of course, if there is new content regarding a dead horse subject, that will be allowed to continue - new ideas, new spins, new information, new conclusions add to the topic of discussion and are obviously worth the read.

I would encourage any new user, or any expoerienced user who has not done so, to read the following thoroughly to help understand what this online community is all about and how they can help make it thrive:

-The Forum Rules and Policies
-The Forum FAQ

Arrive Safely

John

[JohnRich 4]

The "search" function, however, also brings up tons of useless stuff, and it's difficult to find what you're looking for amidst all the chaff.

Another forum I visit frequently maintains an alphabetical index of common topics, and that index points you to the "best of the best" threads about that subject.

I think something similar would be useful here. Of course, someone would have to maintain the index, with links to the best threads on each topic...

[slotperfect 7]

Are you talking about the generic "Search" window with the drop down in the upper right hand corner or the Search Posts link in the toolbar of link in the upper left?

Arrive Safely

John

[Baksteen 84]

I've said this before, but I would suggest that expereinced dz.commers simply modify their reply a little.

If you know that a topic has been discussed before, why not simply include a link to it? That way the "repost police" can actually make themselves useful with their experience and replies

"That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport."
~mom

[JohnRich 4]

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Are you talking about the generic "Search" window with the drop down in the upper right hand corner or the Search Posts link in the toolbar of link in the upper left?

I was referring to the "search posts" function, which is what I usually use, to try and limit the responses to what I'm specifically looking for, within a forum, time frame, user, etc.

But now that you mention it, I've tried the generic search window, and it seems to produce much cleaner results targeting what I'm after.

I experimented with both using the phrase "contact lenses", as an example of a topic that keeps coming up again and again.

So what's the difference between these two different search functions?

[slotperfect 7]

I can't say I have ever used the generic search function. The Search Posts function is intended to search the forums only, with many definable parameters.

Using your example, I would search all of the forums using the words "contacts" and "contact lenses." Sometimes you have to fart around with the exact wording to find the pot of gold. You can even mess with the spelling to get more info: e.g. search "CYPRES" and "CYPRESS" and see what the different results are. Another example: search "S&TA" and "ST&A." Those are common mistakes for common topics.

Arrive Safely

John

[BIGUN 1,053]

On more than one occasion, I've educated them about the search function and answered their question at the same time with something along the lines of:

Search Function Results:

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=search_results&search_forum=all&search_type=AND&search_string=3+rings

Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.