When should we start a new thread?

Ironheart

So we'd rather have every new member ask the same darn question every time? Or have one of us politely say "We've already answered that question 27 times, pick one of those threads and ask there?" One of the things that first attracted me to the old site was the draconian measures the mods took to "herd the cats" into the right buckets so that the site wasn't a complete mess. I kinda miss that...

PB_PM

Heavy handing moderating is sometimes required, but I have to say that the level used at some points on the old forum was over the top. Posts were closed and people were banned simply for making a point that disagreed with a particular moderator's viewpoint, and that's not a very productive way of doing things. Sadly things have somewhat gone too far the other direction in years since.

Ironheart

Agreed, I don't miss the undeserved crackdown/ban of folks (although I have to admit I sometimes found it humorous :-?? I do think we can figure out a way to keep the topics at least loosely organized, and prevent folks from going down a DX/FX rathole. I really miss the "how to" postings of PitchBlack and the heated discussions of DoF or some other technical deep dive, as long as it is on a proper thread.

I do think we need a "newbies guide to NR" including how to search and how to ask a question that may or may not belong on an existing thread.

spraynpray

@Ironheart: We already have forum rules and do a search stickies, but if any member (you?) with special talents in driving our search function wants to put together a (fully tested) 'how to' for the search function, I dare say we could find a special place for it. :-) It would be good if we could maybe leave it open so it could be added to by others with something useful to say but then it would likely turn into a moaning session.

spraynpray

Nobody want to contribute a useful thread on advanced use of the search facility?

Ironheart

I will take a crack at it.

funtagraph

Nobody want to contribute a useful thread on advanced use of the search facility?

I can only talk for myself: I'm not familiar with "advanced Google search", otherwise I'd have posted that. I tried to exclude old forum search matches, but I failed. I tried to search within a time window (last two months, i.e.) and failed again.

spraynpray

Me too, which is why I asked for someone who does to assist.

sevencrossing

Rather than use the nrf search box
you can go to Google Advanced Search
a bit better
but as the threads are not divided in a categories , you need to know what you are looking for

NSXTypeR

Not to say that one shouldn't search the forums first for old threads, but I think fearing that your topic might be discussed already is a bit excessive. Besides, if it is a duplicate topic, you can just close it.

The whole point of a forum is to discuss, so there isn't any reasoning behind overthinking whether or not to post a topic or not.

If it's an old topic of discussion, there's always a few members around that will post the old relevant thread for the new member. If it's a topic you'd rather not answer, you can choose not to open that thread and move on. I don't think it's all that big a deal.

I've been on a forum where it's all just old members and no real new theads- you also definitely don't want to scare off new members, it becomes dreadfully quiet.