Too many repetitious questions

  • Thread starter Thread starter Crusty \(-: Old B@stard :-\)
  • Start date Start date
C

Crusty \(-: Old B@stard :-\)

Many, many news groups, on other web sites, have a mechanism for posting a
"sticky" thread - one that always remains at the top, no matter what! So,
knowing what the responses are going to be, I still must make this
suggestion!

Please - please - please! Someone, ANYONE with the authority to do so, take
the time to create a "sticky" thread of the "25 MOST ASKED QUESTIONS".

NOTE: Could be 10 or could be 50. Whatever!

Give the new users an opportunity to find the relevant answer without too
much of a hassle. It will give the "long term" responders a break also!

If it were to cut down the duplicate questions by even 10%, everyone would
benefit!
 
Crusty said:
Many, many news groups, on other web sites, have a mechanism for
posting a "sticky" thread - one that always remains at the top, no
matter what! So, knowing what the responses are going to be, I still
must make this suggestion!

Please - please - please! Someone, ANYONE with the authority to do
so, take the time to create a "sticky" thread of the "25 MOST ASKED
QUESTIONS".

NOTE: Could be 10 or could be 50. Whatever!

Give the new users an opportunity to find the relevant answer without
too much of a hassle. It will give the "long term" responders a break
also!

If it were to cut down the duplicate questions by even 10%, everyone
would benefit!
Click to expand...

The problem is that those sites are solely web-based forums and this is not,
(even though there is a web access to it)
 
But someone from Microsoft could do this! We all know that they DO monitor
these news groups.

It is well known that there are a "few" actual problems with Windows XP,
right? Sooo, by doing so Microsoft is not admitting to anything that is not
already a well known fact!
 
Maybe they could just add a read-only group
Microsoft.public.windowsxp.general.topissues
and copy the "Best" or most comprehensive
threads into it.
 
Another good thought!

R. McCarty said:
Maybe they could just add a read-only group
Microsoft.public.windowsxp.general.topissues
and copy the "Best" or most comprehensive
threads into it.
Click to expand...
 
-----Original Message-----
Many, many news groups, on other web sites, have a mechanism for posting a
"sticky" thread - one that always remains at the top, no matter what! So,
knowing what the responses are going to be, I still must make this
suggestion!

Please - please - please! Someone, ANYONE with the authority to do so, take
the time to create a "sticky" thread of the "25 MOST ASKED QUESTIONS".

NOTE: Could be 10 or could be 50. Whatever!

Give the new users an opportunity to find the relevant answer without too
much of a hassle. It will give the "long term" responders a break also!

If it were to cut down the duplicate questions by even 10%, everyone would
benefit!
Click to expand...

Good idea, but will not happen. MS has over 2000
newsgroups and it would take a huge staff and a lot of
time to maintain this. MS does have an "unofficial"
presence on these newsgroups which means that
the "softies" you see here are on their own time and do
not keep a regular schedule.

Len
 
If you knew the answers already, why did you further clog the newsgroup with yet another useless discussion? :)

These newsgroups were not meant to be used as chat rooms where people post anything that is on their minds. You can easily count hundreds of messages every day that have nothing to do with technical problems. MS has many resources for suggestions and feedback without clogging the newsgroups. A direct pipeline to Redmond that even the trolls can use to scream their complaints.

Your message may be seen by a microsoft employee, but it is not likely to go any further than his screen.

IT


----- Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-) wrote: -----

Many, many news groups, on other web sites, have a mechanism for posting a
"sticky" thread - one that always remains at the top, no matter what! So,
knowing what the responses are going to be, I still must make this
suggestion!

Please - please - please! Someone, ANYONE with the authority to do so, take
the time to create a "sticky" thread of the "25 MOST ASKED QUESTIONS".

NOTE: Could be 10 or could be 50. Whatever!

Give the new users an opportunity to find the relevant answer without too
much of a hassle. It will give the "long term" responders a break also!

If it were to cut down the duplicate questions by even 10%, everyone would
benefit!
 
Crusty said:
Many, many news groups, on other web sites, have a mechanism for posting a
"sticky" thread - one that always remains at the top, no matter what! So,
knowing what the responses are going to be, I still must make this
suggestion!

Please - please - please! Someone, ANYONE with the authority to do so, take
the time to create a "sticky" thread of the "25 MOST ASKED QUESTIONS".

NOTE: Could be 10 or could be 50. Whatever!

Give the new users an opportunity to find the relevant answer without too
much of a hassle. It will give the "long term" responders a break also!

If it were to cut down the duplicate questions by even 10%, everyone would
benefit!
Click to expand...

Pick up a good book on XP. They will have filtered information for you.
 
Wow! Have you have totally missed the point!

I am NOT concerned about myself. Just trying to make it easier on everyone,
especially the new people to the groups! Really! How many time do we want
the MVP's (and others) to be answering the same - redundant - questions?

I am sure the new users don't want to be labeled as "jerks" because they
didn't use Outlook Express, and then "search" for relevant information!
 
Nobody should be allowed to post any questions before they have studied...
Kelly`s..Dougknox.. and Aumha websites. Not kidding.. Phil
 
No. I completely understand the point. It's just that this is not the
forum for realistically doing it. There is little in the user interface
for newsgroups that extacts and retains "knowledge". The best is
pointing people to FAQ's published by some. But that's only in reaction
to the repetitious question already had been asked.
 
Any knowledgeable person here could set up a website for this very purpose.
You could have 10 or 25 easy questions answered on it. If everyone giving
advice here had faith in the answers provided there, and referred posters to
it, then it would gradually become the "virtual" sticky thread we need. One
advantage would be that the most complete, detailed answers could be given
where called for, e.g., "Home vs Pro."
 
And most of the repetitious questions come from people who can't spell FAQ,
so what likelihood is there they'd read one?
Val
--
***************************
Practice safe eating -- always use condiments.
***************************

in message No. I completely understand the point. It's just that this is not the
forum for realistically doing it. There is little in the user interface
for newsgroups that extacts and retains "knowledge". The best is
pointing people to FAQ's published by some. But that's only in reaction
to the repetitious question already had been asked.
 
I think there must be at least 4 or 5 such sites referenced
here every day.
Here is a short list
http://www.kellys-korner.com/
http://www.blackviper.com/index.html
http://www.aumha.org/index.php
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/





| Any knowledgeable person here could set up a website for
this very purpose.
| You could have 10 or 25 easy questions answered on it. If
everyone giving
| advice here had faith in the answers provided there, and
referred posters to
| it, then it would gradually become the "virtual" sticky
thread we need. One
| advantage would be that the most complete, detailed
answers could be given
| where called for, e.g., "Home vs Pro."
|
|
|
| "Rob Schneider"
| in message
| > No. I completely understand the point. It's just that
this is not the
| > forum for realistically doing it. There is little in
the user interface
| > for newsgroups that extacts and retains "knowledge". The
best is
| > pointing people to FAQ's published by some. But that's
only in reaction
| > to the repetitious question already had been asked.
| >
|
|
 
Many of these web sites already exist (for quite some time), in
particular: www.microsoft.com/support plus many 3rd parties. In
addition, Microsoft provices "help" which will answer a very many
questions. Despite existance of the resources, they seem not used. At
least that's my observation.
 
Many of these web sites already exist (for quite some time), in
particular: www.microsoft.com/support plus many 3rd parties. The
gradual "sticky" thread has been started thousands/millions of times.
I'm not saying don't keep trying; but be realistic about what is really
going on.

In addition to these 3rd party web sites, Microsoft provides "help"
which will answer a very many questions. Despite existence of the
resources, they seem not used as a first point of call for many people.

At least that's my observation. Books can be written on that behaviour
(or have already been!).

I have a simplistic model which I call "Noise to Knowledge"

Noise <-----> Learnings <-----> Knowledge

Information flows back and forth between these nodes. The "buckets" in
which information sits in each node is different, and can be described
with examples:

Noise:
Discussions which may or may not be relevant or correct. In email,
newsgroups (NG), conversations around water cooler or pub. Nuggets of
information which may or may not "live".

Learnings:
"the last posting" in a NG thread which confirms and finalizes the
conclusion and/or learning. The "wrap-up" in a meeting. Stored in
emails, "last posting", FAQ's, memos, etc. "One-time" then (maybe) file
type of documents.

Knowledge: compendium of learnings (including what's remaining to be
learned). In articles, published papers, books, maintained web pages,
encyclopedias, etc. "Documents" that get written, checked, edited,
published, maintained.

Information flows between notes due to Processes, deliberate or
"natural", that push and pull the information through "filters".

In general, due to their nature, participation, and the user-interface
of the relevant tools, newsgroups about computing topics are pretty much
no more than "noise" with some "learnings". Many learnings get lost;
hence the repetitious questions. We have "pointers" to knowledge, but
there are few processes here that work to move the information from
"noise to knowledge". This appears to be not unusual for many "computing
information/knowledge" communities (maybe because the information has a
short "half-life" value). I've observed other "communities" where the
nodes and processes I mention are more complete and hence more knowledge
is retained and propagated.

It's just an observation.
 
R. McCarty said:
Maybe they could just add a read-only group
Microsoft.public.windowsxp.general.topissues
and copy the "Best" or most comprehensive
threads into it.
Click to expand...

The problem though is that of getting the newbie to go read such a
group. Or to look for posts here. It is bad enough getting them to
come back and look for their own posts and answers - and to wait longer
than about ten minutes. If we could get rid of those repetitions and of
the troll fests that would help a lot.

There is a new second version of the web interface just being brought in
which may help quite a bit. A much improved longer term third version
will need quite a wait
 
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