I'm a newbie.
If I start a thread I have first shearched for other threads where my post would fit.
Most of my threads are of no interest to any other FM's as they usually disappear off the page within 5 minutes!!

Not all newbies are desperate for attention or serial thread starters

I can think of some long-established members who can be worse than "newbies" in that respect!

Yes, but as was said, please do not tar us all with the same brush. I have been on other forums on DS if you looked through my posts and am mainly on here now as it is what I am watching....but I do contribute to others.

If I was told I could not start threads because I started as a newbie last month due to not having the net, and then not finding this place until too late, I would find that quite horrible and cliquey. (As the 'They' comment feels a bit ) I would rather have a rule based on what you posted once you joined rather than a ...sorry, you are new so cannot post rule for everyone.

Where does it stop....I have watched BB since series one but only just got the net..so what catagory do I go into?

I understand about the tons of threads on one subject in two seconds..I really do..but that isn't all of us. Most of us do check and follow the DS rules.

Newbies have to join forums or forums do not evolve.

Something needs to be done to improve the mess we have at the moment (or more specifically, earlier this everning). I can't recall things ever being this bad in previous years.

seems to be a lot busier than it was last year which may be why

As I said earlier..there are 10 more HM's up for nomination this week than normal...that is probably why there are even more threads than there are on a Tuesday...more people to write about.

Even when there are multiple threads about the same subject, I usually find that most just drop off after a while anyway. This forum moves very quickly even without multiple threads, I really don't think it's worth stressing over.
I love this forum, it gives me a chance to express my views, laugh out loud, get exeedingly angry and have fun with a bunch of like-minded people I have never met!
And as for uing other forums on DS, well I haven't, but I don't think that should prevent me from contributing on this one.

All IMHO, of course

Well, I don't know about that. I remember a quite fascinating* thread from last year on the very same subject. Click here...

(And why do I remember the thread? Well, it's one of the few I've ever started... )



*Self-mockery alert!

I agree with your sentiments Swipe.

Adherence to the current rules would prevent the untidy forum that we currently have. Because of an earlier thread, I got to looking at the posts from 2001/2002 and forgot just how rigorously the rules were applied then.

Sadly the current number of moderators cannot handle the ca. 100,000 members now, as opposed to the <1000 members at that time.

However, I also understand the potential problems that would ensure if the current quantity of moderators increases (i.e. lack of consistency)

I have no magic answers - sorry

We were all newbies once and probably made the same mistakes posting multiple threads or posting at the exact same time as someone else. I know I've done it in the past.

I think as the new people become accustomed to the forum they slow down and read more instead of rushing to post. I think a level of that is to do with trying to get your name known to other members. Well it was like that for me at the beginning until I changed my name and my posts started at zero again.

Now I just prefer to read other people's threads and add my tuppence worth and only really start a thread if I think it's got any value (which is not often) and yes I've had zero replies to posts as well.

So I wouldn't apply any hard and fast rules other than what already exists. Someone else mentioned that they soon calm down when there's nothing much happening in the house.

Welcome to all the newbies by the way.

I guess this would need to be balanced against the number of current/former FMs who are not returning because of the current conditions. And that includes the new FMs who give up after their initial few posts – this forum is certainly not currently a place for a newbie to quickly settle in and feel welcome.

the forums getting busier and busier...so that's good for DS as it's making more money (i'm assuming the banner ad at the bottom is money per view rather than click...as that's why it's at the bottom)

There are no major problems with the forum at the moment...yes sometimes there are multiple threads on the same subject area but they are usually dealt with pretty swiftly...

Erm yes, but only if it is off topic like this non BB thread

But this thread is extremely relevant to the forum on which we're posting, and that must concern quite a lot of us...

I think it's a brilliant idea. Today has been the worst. Just too many duplicate threads about nothing.

And I'm sure that is one reason why this thread is being allowed to continue by the moderators.

It gives feedback on the current condition of the board (i.e. whether FMs are happy, unhappy, not fussed) and the potential to suggest how to improve the forum, if required.

My take on the matter (for what it's worth )

Firstly I might be wrong but I don't think this kind of limit is possible within the confines of the software.

It used to be that new members couldn't start threads until they'd been members a few days but this increased the number of people who thought that new members were of less worth than old ones and that's not something we want to encourage - we were all newbies at one point.

There is a problem with duplicate threads but it's usually under control, a lot of merging does go on and warnings are issued where required.

We're also removing more threads, in particular those which are an extreme violation of the terms and conditions and those who don't follow the requests in the 'Important' box above.

Beth.

yep...can't be done in vBulletin...though vBulletin can be hacked

Ah well, Beth, I wish you luck! You're going to be kept busy over the next few weeks, I think... Sometimes your job must seem like trying to organise diarrhoea!

Still, maybe the overtime will be lucrative? No doubt DS are the soul of generosity?

yes .

Of course, all this extra activity has absolutely nothing to do with the increase in computer sales, the growing number of Broadband users since 2000, and the fact that computer usage is spread across a much broader social, geographic, and economic plane.

Yours "A. newbie".

But it isn't really "extra activity" that this thread is about; it's about FMs who post quite unnecessary duplicate, triplicate, quadruplicate (is that a word?), and (let's go for it) quintuplicate threads.

Or, to cut the waffle, it's about people who can't be bothered to check whether it's worth starting a new thread when most of the time they could easily post their unoriginal ideas in an existing thread!

No, they shouldn't. Next?

To clarify, `social and economic`. Far be it for me to say that we were more polite back in the `old days`, but communication standards have dropped, and i think we are seeing an element of the `look at me me me` youth culture appearing here.

(Uni`s on break?)
On a constructive note, subdivide the BB forums into serious debate and bubble gum rantings?