Quick Questions Thread?

[Azure]

While I was searching for some things to buy, I had a little trouble finding some of them at big name websites, then I thought about creating a thread to help me find one item, but then I felt that that would be a waste of a thread, so then I thought about this suggesstion. How about creating an official "Quick Questions" Sticky Thread in the Off-Topic discussion forum. In the thread, people would ask quick questions, like "Where can I buy such-and-such at a good trust worthy website?," "Is paying $X for XXX worth it/a good deal?," "Is it safe to buy from XXX.com?," "Is it okay to use windex on an LCD TV?, etc. You know, all those <5 post threads. Those threads could just be based in this one big thread. Then, whenever you have a quick simple question that you need to know the answer to, you just post it in the thread, get a quick answer back, and then the thread awaits another person to ask another quick question.

What do you guys think?

 

[Tobriand]

Nice idea... but I do think every reply to a question would have to include a quote of the question itself, so others knew what they were responding to. Or something...

 

[Ernest]

Yeh i definately think this a good idea.

 

[declaration]

I dont see a problem just having seperate threads as long as they are in off topic. They would be easier to manage, view and moderate, and its not as if off-topic is flooded at the moment.

 

[Dozer]

Couldn't the FAQ thread be used for that?

 

[BaDToaD]

The only problem I can see is that XXX at $xx this month is a good deal but in a couple of months the price may have halved. eg. SMCs have plummeted in price over the last few months. Other than that I think it's a good idea.

 

[Crocomire]

great idea mate

 

[finty]

I just use the spam thread.

 

[Azure]

Couldn't the FAQ thread be used for that?

The FAQ thread is for the GP32, this is for anything.

BaDToaD - What's your point? This won't be a reference thread. If a question has already been asked, and you check 1-2 pages back and you still can't find it, just ask the question again.

 

[Dozer]

Couldn't the FAQ thread be used for that?

The FAQ thread is for the GP32, this is for anything.

BaDToaD - What's your point? This won't be a reference thread. If a question has already been asked, and you check 1-2 pages back and you still can't find it, just ask the question again.

Ah yeah, sorry should have picked that up with you mentioning buying stuff in your first post.

 

[generalnmx]

I've already got something like this in the works. I'm thinking of Beta-Testing it with the "I need help..." board.

 

[BaDToaD]

BaDToaD - What's your point? This won't be a reference thread. If a question has already been asked, and you check 1-2 pages back and you still can't find it, just ask the question again.

You may think of that. So may I and so may many of the other regulars but the noobs will be lucky to find the thread let alone read back through it.

I still think it's a good idea though.

 

[Azure]

BaDToaD - What's your point? This won't be a reference thread. If a question has already been asked, and you check 1-2 pages back and you still can't find it, just ask the question again.

You may think of that. So may I and so may many of the other regulars but the noobs will be lucky to find the thread let alone read back through it.

I still think it's a good idea though.

Huh? You're post confused me. I said it won't be a reference thread.

 

[Rico]

I think it's a ridiculous idea, notably because people are going to discuss it further than 5 posts. Tangents will be made as people hear an answer that interests them. All of a sudden you have 3-4 conversations in one thread.

The questions will get out of date, but not only that, they'll be repeated. Newbies will ask the same questions a lot, which is what the FAQ was made for obviously. People wanted to find specific answers won't be able to easily search the thread so instead they'll have to ask again. The thread will also get ridiculously large and all-encompassing, throttling any life out of the other threads in the help forum as they become redundant.

These forums aren't one giant thread, they're lots of threads and a lots of categories. We have an entire forum for help, use it.

I'm aware a lot of my stuff could be countered with you quite quickly ("it's not a reference forum"... oh but you damn well better believe it'll be used like that by some people) but bear with me. There are roughly 1252 topics in Off-Topic alone. Do you really think it will bother people if new topics are made for questions? If they're answered, then either might happen: they'll stagnate. Drop off the first page. Or, they'll provoke discussion (which is why a lot of us are here) and live longer. Either way everybody wins.

Of course, nobody is stopping you from trying this idea right now, so I suggest you go ahead regardless.

 

[Azure]

The questions will get out of date, but not only that, they'll be repeated. Newbies will ask the same questions a lot, which is what the FAQ was made for obviously.

Woah, there's an Off-Topic FAQ!?

It's not supposed to be a GP32 related thread, it's supposed to be in the Off-Topic Forum.

 

[Rico]

The FAQ part was only pertaining to GP32-related questions which are bound to occur at some point. I do love the way you disregarded the rest of my post to rebute that single point, though.

 

[generalnmx]

I agree with Rico. The main problem with merging or consolidating all questions into one thread is that it will not be easily searchable. Consider each post to have 5 replies. Now let's say we have a total of 10 questions in a month (usually more then that). That's 50 posts to search through!!!!

A better solution may be to have a "Popular Topics" sticky like I've done for the "I need help..." and General Talk boards, but the front page of that sticky will have to be edited by the mods and updated "whenever we feel like it". Until then, the sticky would serve your purpose by providing links to other threads in its replies.

 

[Azure]

generalnmx - Well, each question would generally have only 1-2 replies, as that is all that's needed to answer a "quick question." Then you would have around, maybe, 2-3 questions a day, which is 4-6 posts a day, which isn't much. And you would only have to search through 1-2 pages of posts to check to see if your question has already been answered.

Rico - Sorry about that. I didn't want to counter you because you said:

I'm aware a lot of my stuff could be countered with you quite quickly ("it's not a reference forum"... oh but you damn well better believe it'll be used like that by some people) but bear with me

From this, I gathered that you didn't want to hear my arguments and didn't want to start a "debate," so then I just decided to correct the assumption that it wouldn't contain any GP32 questions because the thread would be in the OT forum.