One month rule?

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Tony

White bear (Admin)
Admin
Apr 16, 2003
24,131
1
1,877
53
Wales
www.bushcraftuk.com
That's rather a case of You will not discuss politics or i'm out but I do believe that you don't have the right to pitch an idea to the other forum members.

I don't have any intention of imposing such things on members but I can't see the harm with people making suggestions, I'm surprised that anyone not interested would spend the time reading the thread and then even more effort commenting when there's so much else going on.....

Have to agree wtih you Martyn - Nowt as funny as folk. :rolleyes:
 

william#

Settler
Sep 5, 2005
531
0
sussex
That's rather a case of You will not discuss politics or i'm out but I do believe that you don't have the right to pitch an idea to the other forum members.

I don't have any intention of imposing such things on members but I can't see the harm with people making suggestions, I'm surprised that anyone not interested would spend the time reading the thread and then even more effort commenting when there's so much else going on.....

Have to agree wtih you Martyn - Nowt as funny as folk. :rolleyes:

what and miss a good chance for a moan - im british therefore moaning is a past time i share with most of my country men lol
 

Mirius

Nomad
Jun 2, 2007
499
1
North Surrey
I use another forum that has a seven day restriction. It was put in place to stop impulsive registration of a second account in order to anonymously flame. In order for that to work you need to be able to identify duplicate accounts. But regardless it is somewhat frustrating for new members who often have joined because they have a burning question, which may or may not be resolved by search - often the problem is that they don't have enough knowledge to actually frame the question they really want to ask - hence the 'what is the best' type questions when really they needed to know 'why' something is the best and how that relates to them - search only really works if you know what you are looking for.

But rambling aside, and I know it's now something of a dead issue, but my experience of it is that it doesn't particularly work and the frustration, mild or otherwise, is counter productive.
 

Aaron

Need to contact Admin...
Dec 28, 2003
570
0
42
Oxford/Gloucs border
As I said in an earlier post in this thread, one month was just a figure plucked out of the air - my point is that I think that there should be some kind of probationary period where you shouldnt be allowed to post in order to prevent repetivity and stop people coming on here just to have a rant about something bushcraft related that has happend to them or their mother - the recent 'Woodsmoke' episode springs to mind. Had he not been allowed to just join and publically air his greivances (without first even introducing himself) with Woodsmoke Cowshedder might have used the time to broach the matter privately with them first. I hope that he didnt just join to have a rant and becomes an active contributer to this forum.

Anyway just my thoughts as you point out Tony there is nothing wrong with prevoking debate or making suggestions, wether they are adopted or not.

Cheers Aaron:D
 

xylaria

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
The people on this forum are good trusting people, I don't like seeing that trust abused by others intent on defamation and libel. I don't mind the newbee questions,I feel sympathy for the moderators for where some of the new threads are placed, but none of that is intentional. It is the new thread been started purely to make a vailed attempt to harm reputations or validate a closet racist I have the problem with.

I am only on one other forum and thats wild about britian, they have some very wierd forum rules, and I can't work out what earns a ban. I like the way this forum is run, and I don't want resrictions on new members in the way WAB has, but maybe more assertive moderation of the " i read in the daily mail that polish immirgrants are stealing vodka off my alcoholic mother" types threads. Or a least bump them to other chatter, with occasional little reminding of the forum rules, the law on insightment, and defamation. The right to free speech comes the with responsibility to show some care for rights of others.

Or as some them smarty pants yanks said
You can't control people, you can only ask for co-operaton and boot them if they won't comply.
 

decorum

Full Member
May 2, 2007
5,064
12
Warwickshire
I think that the ability to search for information would be greatly enhanced if some of the forums were to be split into sub-forums. It would be easier to find info in Kit chatter (the largest forum:D and where most of the repetiton seems to occur) if it were split into various sub-sections - shelters, sleeping bags, clothing, footwear, stoves etc.

I'm still a relative newbie and I started a thread about how to store boots over night if you use a hammock and yes I did a search first. What you're faced with if you search for info on hammocks is 500 threads - that 20 pages, each of which have 25 threads - totalling 21,572 posts (and yes I've just counted) - thats not threads about hammocks, it's all the threads with the word 'hammock' in them. Needless to say I didn't find the information that I was looking for and no I didn't read all of the posts or threads :D But I do think this is why repetitive questions are asked.
 

Martyn

Bushcrafter through and through
Aug 7, 2003
5,252
33
58
staffordshire
www.britishblades.com
...on the other hand, running a search on "hammock boots overnight" returns eight results....

See...

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/search.php?searchid=218640&DoReWrite4

If your first search returns silly numbers, just refine the search. You can also use boolean operators (AND, NOT, OR) within the search engine. It's very powerful and yeilds good results when used properly.

This might be what you were after...
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19674&highlight=hammock+boots+overnight

Regards,
Martyn.

;)
 

Hoodoo

Full Member
Nov 17, 2003
5,302
13
Michigan, USA
Repetitive questions are to be expected on forums. Comes with the territory. People who are tired of "how do I sharpen my knife" questions shouldn't open the thread. Just ignore it. That's what I do. In forums like this, there's always folks who will step in and share what they know about it. By the same token, just because there are 21,572 posts on a topic, doesn't mean you have to read them all. I'd be willing to bet that if you sorted through them you will find your answer quick enough without reading all of them. However, with gear, that info could be dated so there's it's never bad to have a rehash of a topic because you never know what new information might crop up, especially concerning people's experiences with the gear.

In general, though, questions are always good. They help keep the conversation going. However, I do tire of individuals who treat a forum as if it's sole purpose is to serve them. Try giving back eh. Post in other people's threads, not just the ones you started.

And for god's sake, use the search engine. ;)
 

Matt Weir

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jun 22, 2006
2,880
2
52
Tyldesley, Lancashire.
What we need is an anti-social looking smiley holding a placard with SEARCH FUNCTION? written on it!

:D

Something along the lines of...

smilies-33740.png


You mean Spam?

:D
 

Aaron

Need to contact Admin...
Dec 28, 2003
570
0
42
Oxford/Gloucs border
In general, though, questions are always good. They help keep the conversation going. However, I do tire of individuals who treat a forum as if it's sole purpose is to serve them. Try giving back eh. Post in other people's threads, not just the ones you started.

Umm... Excuse me 'mate' but that is just what I am trying to do - by making a productive suggestion that can be debated. And in the four years that I have been registered on this site I have only started 5 threads - the other 150 posts or whatever have been contributions (sometimes helpful, sometimes I will admit not so helpful). The reason that I have made so few posts is that I choose to spend most of my time outside rather than sat inside at a computer talking about being outside

I have contibuted where I have been able, but unlike many others where I do not feel confident I leave my opinions to others who know more than I do rather than wade in or cut and paste off of other sites on the web. Anyone who knows me from meetups knows that I am more than prepared to help out or demonstrate a skill where I am able.

Equally I tire of the same people who seem to take offence at attempts to stimulate debate
or improve things. So do or dont adopt a probationary period, I would never want the idea of one person to be adopted over the wishes of others. Hence we find ourselves back to the initial reason for my post.
 

Hoodoo

Full Member
Nov 17, 2003
5,302
13
Michigan, USA
In general, though, questions are always good. They help keep the conversation going. However, I do tire of individuals who treat a forum as if it's sole purpose is to serve them. Try giving back eh. Post in other people's threads, not just the ones you started.

Umm... Excuse me 'mate' but that is just what I am trying to do - by making a productive suggestion that can be debated. And in the four years that I have been registered on this site I have only started 5 threads - the other 150 posts or whatever have been contributions (sometimes helpful, sometimes I will admit not so helpful). The reason that I have made so few posts is that I choose to spend most of my time outside rather than sat inside at a computer talking about being outside

I have contibuted where I have been able, but unlike many others where I do not feel confident I leave my opinions to others who know more than I do rather than wade in or cut and paste off of other sites on the web. Anyone who knows me from meetups knows that I am more than prepared to help out or demonstrate a skill where I am able.

Equally I tire of the same people who seem to take offence at attempts to stimulate debate
or improve things. So do or dont adopt a probationary period, I would never want the idea of one person to be adopted over the wishes of others. Hence we find ourselves back to the initial reason for my post.

Aaron, I think you made the mistake of thinking my post was aimed directly at you. It wasn't. It was a general comment.
 

decorum

Full Member
May 2, 2007
5,064
12
Warwickshire
...on the other hand, running a search on "hammock boots overnight" returns eight results....

My reaction to my initial search 'Hammock' :yikes:
My reaction to the refined search 'Hammock and boots' :eek:

Although I was specifically looking for advice about storing boots overnight I didn't think about using the phrase 'hammock boots overnight' :slap:. It wouldn't have answered the specific question but it would give a reasonable level of assurance that I wasn't re-asking a much posted query.



When I was a complete newbie to this forum I used the search box in the top right corner; and rarely found what I was looking for (which is another possible reason for repeat questions) - I didn't realise the difference between the two search boxes :banghead:.
No, not all of the search posts need to be read - I was to trying to illustrate that some people could be daunted by the amount of results a search can retrieve - having refined my search and still not found the answer to my question I started a new thread to see whether anyone could enlighten me.
 

match

Settler
Sep 29, 2004
707
8
Edinburgh
Just a thought (and yes, a technically complicated one requiring some extra coding and maybe moderating) but might it not be better to have a system whereby useful threads can get votes attached to them - i.e when a member reads a thread and thinks its useful, they can flag it as such?

That way if someone posts a really good thread on different hammocks, it should in theory get extra points, whereas someone posting 'what hammock shoulld I buy?', and getting one answer pointing them to the above thread wouldn't get any. you could use this in ranking search results.

Or even take the Google approach, and rank threads in the search based on the number of pages in BCUK forums that link to that thread?

Just a thought... I'd possibly be able to contribute some actual code towards this kind of thing if it was thought worthwhile...
 

ganstey

Settler
I registered on this site a long time ago, and then due to various reasons didn't come back until recently. So in my case the probationary period wouldn't have made any difference.

However, I do think a well publicized/easy to find FAQ would be really useful. There is a "How do I" forum, but its a long way down the page and you have to know its there in order to find it.

G
 

leon-1

Full Member
Just a thought (and yes, a technically complicated one requiring some extra coding and maybe moderating) but might it not be better to have a system whereby useful threads can get votes attached to them - i.e when a member reads a thread and thinks its useful, they can flag it as such?

Hi Match, I don't know if you can see this hence me asking, but at the top of the thread there should be a few little headings like search this thread, rate this thread and display modes.

There is already a facility in place to rate threads. I just don't know if it's available to everyone or if it's just the mods that can see it.
 

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