August 12, 2016 at 12:26 pm
Ed Wagner (8/12/2016)
ChrisM@Work (8/12/2016)
Lynn Pettis (8/12/2016)
Steve Jones - SSC Editor (8/12/2016)
Lynn Pettis (8/11/2016)
Having rules for answering questions makes sense but I have to ask the question, Why? Has as been noted there are several different categories that individuals asking questions may fall into, and many actually fall into several at times. I would be hard pressed to write an article like this as I may not have followed the rules in many past encounters. Every interaction is different and dynamic depending on many variables.
You might be able to provide guidelines, but even then, are you going to enforce them on everyone who attempts to answer a question? We can't all ways get people who ask questions to provide use with what we need to always help, but we still try. Some of us have taken wild shots in the dark and managed to provide the answer (whether the OP understood it enough to support it is another matter).
Rules is probably a poor word choice. Guidelines might be better. We don't have a set of rules for posting, either asking or answering.
However decorum and professionalism have been lacking at times, from all of us. Myself, and I'd say you as well, Lynn. Certainly plenty of others.
These are more here to remind people how to better behave as adults. I get no shortage of complaints on both people asking questions as well as people answering.
Not denying that I have been unprofessional at times, but I have also been called on it fairly quickly. In some cases I have apologized and in others maybe not.
I think SSC does a significantly better job of policing itself than some of the other SQL sites.
There's less idiocy in the replies here than you tend to find in some of the other sites but nevertheless there's room for improvement.
Agreed. I also agree with Lynn - SSC user police ourselves pretty well. I include myself in the group that's been policed.
I am sure that at one point or another most of us have been policed. Either by PM from Steve or another user. Or perhaps more publicly by posting directly in the forum. Count me as a member of all three options. I try to keep it above water but there are times when it just comes out. Of course many of those situations have been eliminated since JC doesn't truly join conversations anymore.
_______________________________________________________________
Need help? Help us help you.
Read the article at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/ for best practices on asking questions.
Need to split a string? Try Jeff Modens splitter http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/.
Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 1 – Converting Rows to Columns - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/63681/
Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 2 - Dynamic Cross Tabs - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Crosstab/65048/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 1) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69953/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 2) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69954/
August 12, 2016 at 12:29 pm
Wow the spam really is getting bold and stupid. We now have a spammer who added a spam rely to a previous spam from a different spammer. This is quickly becoming spamtastic.
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic1809248-391-1.aspx
_______________________________________________________________
Need help? Help us help you.
Read the article at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/ for best practices on asking questions.
Need to split a string? Try Jeff Modens splitter http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/.
Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 1 – Converting Rows to Columns - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/63681/
Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 2 - Dynamic Cross Tabs - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Crosstab/65048/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 1) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69953/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 2) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69954/
August 12, 2016 at 2:16 pm
Sean Lange (8/12/2016)
Wow the spam really is getting bold and stupid. We now have a spammer who added a spam rely to a previous spam from a different spammer. This is quickly becoming spamtastic.http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic1809248-391-1.aspx
I saw that - it was a different pattern. Keep reporting them.
August 12, 2016 at 2:32 pm
The new forum is supposed to have better spam integration. The current SPAM engine just doesn't seem to be learning fast enough
August 12, 2016 at 3:35 pm
Steve Jones - SSC Editor (8/12/2016)
The new forum is supposed to have better spam integration. The current SPAM engine just doesn't seem to be learning fast enough
I hope not. 😛
Long week Steve?
August 12, 2016 at 3:43 pm
TomThomson (8/11/2016)
GilaMonster (8/11/2016)
TomThomson (8/10/2016)
GilaMonster (8/10/2016)
First time in years that I'm flying somewhere just for a vacation, no conferences involved. Scotland, to save anyone from wondering.Any particular place
in Scotland? I'm mostly (not always) not in Scotland these days, but maybe we could meet up for a chat and a drink if you would like that provided your location and mine match at some point.Edinburgh until Monday morning (though planning to spend part of Sunday at St Andrews), then Stornoway for a week.
Sadly I can't get up to Steornobhagh any time soon (can't leave my wife for long enough to get there and back, and getting her there takes too long as how much she can travel on any one day is very limited) - I might be in Glasgow mid week, but that doesn't get us together; and I can't get away from here (Congleton) this weekend. Maybe some other time.
There'll be another time. I'm hoping to get to SQLBits next year, and this is certainly not going to be the last trip I make to the UK
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
August 12, 2016 at 3:46 pm
SSC is becoming SPAMalot??? Hmm... Anybody have coconuts (or am I mixing up Camelot and Holy Grail?)
August 13, 2016 at 7:36 am
pietlinden (8/12/2016)
SSC is becoming SPAMalot??? Hmm... Anybody have coconuts (or am I mixing up Camelot and Holy Grail?)
Spamgasmtastic? I think I just took out three quarters of the first page of "posts added today". 🙁
Thomas Rushton
blog: https://thelonedba.wordpress.com
August 13, 2016 at 8:23 am
pietlinden (8/12/2016)
SSC is becoming SPAMalot??? Hmm... Anybody have coconuts (or am I mixing up Camelot and Holy Grail?)
I believe the coconuts were in Camelot. 😉
August 13, 2016 at 8:39 am
pietlinden (8/12/2016)
SSC is becoming SPAMalot??? Hmm... Anybody have coconuts (or am I mixing up Camelot and Holy Grail?)
Spamalot is a musical, based mostly on the Holy Grail movie but incorporating elements from many other Monty Python sketches and files as well.
I never saw the musical, but according to Wikipedia the coconuts are in the musical.
August 13, 2016 at 10:23 am
Ed Wagner (8/12/2016)
ChrisM@Work (8/12/2016)
Lynn Pettis (8/12/2016)
Steve Jones - SSC Editor (8/12/2016)
Lynn Pettis (8/11/2016)
Having rules for answering questions makes sense but I have to ask the question, Why? Has as been noted there are several different categories that individuals asking questions may fall into, and many actually fall into several at times. I would be hard pressed to write an article like this as I may not have followed the rules in many past encounters. Every interaction is different and dynamic depending on many variables.
You might be able to provide guidelines, but even then, are you going to enforce them on everyone who attempts to answer a question? We can't all ways get people who ask questions to provide use with what we need to always help, but we still try. Some of us have taken wild shots in the dark and managed to provide the answer (whether the OP understood it enough to support it is another matter).
Rules is probably a poor word choice. Guidelines might be better. We don't have a set of rules for posting, either asking or answering.
However decorum and professionalism have been lacking at times, from all of us. Myself, and I'd say you as well, Lynn. Certainly plenty of others.
These are more here to remind people how to better behave as adults. I get no shortage of complaints on both people asking questions as well as people answering.
Not denying that I have been unprofessional at times, but I have also been called on it fairly quickly. In some cases I have apologized and in others maybe not.
I think SSC does a significantly better job of policing itself than some of the other SQL sites.
There's less idiocy in the replies here than you tend to find in some of the other sites but nevertheless there's room for improvement.
Agreed. I also agree with Lynn - SSC user police ourselves pretty well. I include myself in the group that's been policed.
Yes, I agree too. This site is much better than others I know for responses to technical questions, both for technical quality of the answers and for treating people with respect in teh question and answer forums.
Tom
August 15, 2016 at 1:45 am
Someone was a little overzealous with spam removal over the weekend. On Saturday morning there was a new thread entitled something like “Hash match estimates miles out”. The OP had noticed the change in behaviour of the CE concerning IF EXISTS() queries and was looking for an explanation. This particular change in behaviour was covered by one of the talks at the last SQL Bits so I knew enough about it to be able to Google for a decent reference. It wasn’t until Sunday evening that the opportunity came up to revisit the post, by which time it had disappeared.
For fast, accurate and documented assistance in answering your questions, please read this article.
Understanding and using APPLY, (I) and (II) Paul White
Hidden RBAR: Triangular Joins / The "Numbers" or "Tally" Table: What it is and how it replaces a loop Jeff Moden
August 15, 2016 at 2:08 am
ChrisM@Work (8/15/2016)
Someone was a little overzealous with spam removal over the weekend. On Saturday morning there was a new thread entitled something like “Hash match estimates miles out”. The OP had noticed the change in behaviour of the CE concerning IF EXISTS() queries and was looking for an explanation. This particular change in behaviour was covered by one of the talks at the last SQL Bits so I knew enough about it to be able to Google for a decent reference. It wasn’t until Sunday evening that the opportunity came up to revisit the post, by which time it had disappeared.
I wonder if there's a way to find the post and resurrect it?
Thomas Rushton
blog: https://thelonedba.wordpress.com
August 15, 2016 at 3:52 am
ThomasRushton (8/15/2016)
ChrisM@Work (8/15/2016)
Someone was a little overzealous with spam removal over the weekend. On Saturday morning there was a new thread entitled something like “Hash match estimates miles out”. The OP had noticed the change in behaviour of the CE concerning IF EXISTS() queries and was looking for an explanation. This particular change in behaviour was covered by one of the talks at the last SQL Bits so I knew enough about it to be able to Google for a decent reference. It wasn’t until Sunday evening that the opportunity came up to revisit the post, by which time it had disappeared.I wonder if there's a way to find the post and resurrect it?
I saw a couple of Bob Hovious' (hope I remembered how to spell his last name) posts get whacked. Damned automatic spam detection is whacking good posts and letting spam through. The same happened to me a couple of months ago.
This is also why I'm not a fan of supposed "machine learning" except maybe for search-engine suggestions. I'd rather see the "captcha" thing for new members, instead. That would slow down the bots and the people doing the spamming. If it came to it, I'd even use "captcha" for posts to make it less possible for bots.
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
August 15, 2016 at 4:46 am
Jeff Moden (8/15/2016)
ThomasRushton (8/15/2016)
ChrisM@Work (8/15/2016)
Someone was a little overzealous with spam removal over the weekend. On Saturday morning there was a new thread entitled something like “Hash match estimates miles out”. The OP had noticed the change in behaviour of the CE concerning IF EXISTS() queries and was looking for an explanation. This particular change in behaviour was covered by one of the talks at the last SQL Bits so I knew enough about it to be able to Google for a decent reference. It wasn’t until Sunday evening that the opportunity came up to revisit the post, by which time it had disappeared.I wonder if there's a way to find the post and resurrect it?
I saw a couple of Bob Hovious' (hope I remembered how to spell his last name) posts get whacked. Damned automatic spam detection is whacking good posts and letting spam through. The same happened to me a couple of months ago.
It could be an artefact of the spam-handling process when dealing with a single spammy post on a hammy topic / thread. The UI for dealing with these things manually isn't brilliant either.
This is also why I'm not a fan of supposed "machine learning" except maybe for search-engine suggestions. I'd rather see the "captcha" thing for new members, instead. That would slow down the bots and the people doing the spamming. If it came to it, I'd even use "captcha" for posts to make it less possible for bots.
+1 for captcha. Machine-learning has its place, but machine rules can be too heavy-handed as well - we regularly have occurrences of high-ranking contributors on AskSSC getting blocked due to the repetition rules in the anti-spam function there.
Thomas Rushton
blog: https://thelonedba.wordpress.com
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