Forum/BBS subject line pet peeves rant
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Am I the only one that gets irritated by dingleberrys who post really bad subject lines? This sort of a rant about them...
I hate the term "newbie". No particular reason. It just irritates the crap out of me.
The term "newbie" implies that anyone who knows anything shouldn't bother reading this post. Naturally I don't because I don't want to take the time. BUT, as we all know there are no stupid questions and just because you are new to SQL server doesn't mean it's not an interesting question that could enlighten those of us who have been using SQL Server for some time. What it says to me is "Hi I'm self concious and stupid so I am going to waste your time by not giving you the slightest clue about what my questions are until you open this post."
Many subject lines are just not informative. I hate it when I am searching the forum for an answer to a question and see a stupid subject lines like anything involving the term "newbie" or helpful ones like "Database Problems" (Duh! Really?) and "SQL Server Error" (Why else would you be here?)
It just makes me want to scream!
<whew> Ok, I feel better...
"I met Larry Niven at ConClave 27...AND I fixed his computer. How cool is that?"
(Memoirs of a geek) -
Tolerance, man, tolerance! Wonder if yours is the first post with dingleberry in it?
Seriously, there is merit to your points, but most first time posters are a bit self conscious as you note and hard to change that. That's why we try so hard to make sure everyone gets a reply and gets treated nicely. Hopefully people new to the site (or new to posting) will see that even the most basic questions get a polite answer. The issue of decent topic lines is worth a little more work, we'll kick around ways that we can help on that.
Andy
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Yeah, a big peeve but easily ignored. If the subject is too generic and doesn't grab me, I ain't clickin'! Sorry newbies...
How about if your number of posts is < 5 then display a popup window with "posting guidelines". Also, fix your search and in your posting guidelines, instruct them to try searching for a similar thread first.
I really don't see how you guys stay sane answering the same questions over and over!
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The popup idea isnt a bad one. Will add that to list of ideas for topic control! Considered also just running a search based on the topic and showing the answers, suggesting that there might be one with the answer already. Dont know.
As for repetitive questions, we do get them and thats part of fixing the problem with topics I think. Upside is that those same newbie posters get a chance to pass on what they learned earlier, start to contribute. My hope anyway!
Andy
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Sorry!
I know I have a tendency towards being cranky, sarcastic and cynical. As for the newbie thing it just bugs me when people are timid about asking questions. With regard to the subject line complaint I think that's valid. I spend a fair amount of time working out an informative subject line for posts and emails. Not everyone seems to be quite as anal about as I am but they should be!
"I met Larry Niven at ConClave 27...AND I fixed his computer. How cool is that?"
(Memoirs of a geek) -
Not to play devil's advocate, becuase I get as annoyed as anyone with subject lines that don't pertain to the message. Same with cross posts.
However, the have been times that I amn't (my son's new word) sure what subject to post and post something generic. However, it does make sense to at least have something related in the subject.
The pop up isn't bad. Maybe for people with less than 10 posts that are starting a new thread, we do a search on the subject before letting them post? Not sure this works. Not sure we want to dig too deep into this forum code. We are testing new versions, so things will be changing anyway.
Take a deep breath, get some coffee and feel free to vent to us hosts.
Steve Jones
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I agree that at times it's a pain to come up with a relevant subject line.
I think people should keep in mind that it's more important to contain keywords than it is to be a sentence. (Or sentence fragment.)
Maybe you could offer a view that not only showed subject line but underneath it showed a list of keywords generated from the post.
(I'm envisioning something like the main forum page that has a title then a brief description in a smaller font.)
You'd have to come up with some sort of keyword generator/extractor routine. Doesn't seem like it would be too difficult. Just have it match terms from a list of SQL Server topics that you decide make the best keywords. That way you could exclude helpful things like 'Database', 'SQL Server' and 'Problem'. You could even Alias terms.
For instance:
Subject line: "Newbie Question"
Message: "I have a database question. How do I create a table in SQL Server Enterprise Manager
Extracted Keywords: Create Table EM
"I met Larry Niven at ConClave 27...AND I fixed his computer. How cool is that?"
(Memoirs of a geek) -
Really old thread I know but I had to respond to a thread that had both "dingleberry" and "amn't" in it.
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
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I know I have a tendency towards being cranky, sarcastic and cynical. As for the newbie thing it just bugs me when people are timid about asking questions. With regard to the subject line complaint I think that's valid. I spend a fair amount of time working out an informative subject line for posts and emails. Not everyone seems to be quite as anal about as I am but they should be!
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