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Posted By: Bensheim Suggestion - 09/01/09 05:13 PM
FTM suggestions, it says on the home-forums-main page.

Suggestion.

Would you consider opening up a new board, in the Lounge or alongside it, for topics which are nothing to do with computers whatsoever?

Suggested board titles:

Nothing to do with computers whatsoever
Anything goes
Want an off-topic debate? Put it here
Got a question? Go ahead and ask. The weirder the better.

=========

Reason for suggestion:

There seems little point in starting a new, potentially very interesting, "most folks have an opinion on this" topic, in the Lounge atm where it would get swamped by (sigh) threads about computers.

That's my opinion, FWIW.
Posted By: Gregg Re: Suggestion - 09/01/09 05:28 PM
Yabut, would there be enough topics to justify a new forum? Prediction: a no computer talk allowed forum isn't going to happen here.

You're right about most threads (almost all!) in the Lounge being non-troubleshooting computer-related topics. But then, most threads in the Networking forum have to do with Internet use; from browser questions, to e-mail or chat. (And you have to read the fine print to discover such things are properly addressed in that forum.) Maybe the reason that there isn't a separate forum dedicated to problems with multiple computers on a network is a lack of such topics.

Posted By: donikatz Re: Suggestion - 09/01/09 05:41 PM
Again, the Lounge IS supposed to be an [almost] anything goes forum. That's the whole point of it. Seems like your problem with it, like mine, is that it also merges the old "Tech Issues" forum (see MFIF archives). So maybe the real request is to have tech issues removed from the Lounge, not vice-versa?

Of course much of the proliferation of tech issues in the Lounge is because of the mods moving anything that is not specifically a troubleshooting question there. I think that practice is confusing and not user friendly, especially since most forums don't differentiate between a tech discussion and a tech question the way the mods do here. For example, personally I believe that a discussion of Mac networking without a specific troubleshooting question is just as useful to readership of the Networking forum as a specific question. If the mods want to differentiate, I would either (1) tag questions as such and optionally allow the OP to mark as solved/helpful/etc, while also allowing discussions in the same forum, or (2) create other tech discussion forum(s). Moving useful technical discussions to a catch-all Lounge forum where they sit next to random and often irrelevant threads and are therefore essentially lost to anyone but hardcore devotees doesn't serve the best interest of anyone, IMHO. Never has.
Posted By: Bensheim Re: Suggestion - 09/01/09 05:44 PM
Hi Gregg

This is the terminology I'm using.

Forum = the whole thing. The URL. it. where we are. The finetunedmac. The lot.

Board = a subdivision within. There are many of these, the lounge is one of them. Hence, a board within the forum.

Why do I pernickitynitpick? Because I have my own forum and if I want to open up a new bit, I have to "Create New Board". Ta Daa!

Anyway, Hi Gregg, you predict that a no-computer-talk board isn't going to happen here? Why not, if people think they like each other enough already to want to engage them in some interesting debate about something other than (flipping) computers?

Would there be enough topics to justify a new board? Isn't that somewhat t'other way around thinking? Lets see if there's enough response by opening one up first, surely? If it fails (and who is to say that it's failed?) then so be it. If it takes off, then there's more traffic here and more traffic means more posts and more people joining in and more activity elsewhere on FineTunedMac.

You have to admit, it's kinda quiet here, don't you?
Posted By: Bensheim Re: Suggestion - 09/01/09 05:55 PM
Originally Posted By: donikatz
Again, the Lounge IS supposed to be an [almost] anything goes forum. That's the whole point of it. Seems like your problem with it, like mine, is that it also merges the old "Tech Issues" forum (see MFIF archives). So maybe the real request is to have tech issues removed from the Lounge, not vice-versa?

Of course much of the proliferation of tech issues in the Lounge is because of the mods moving anything that is not specifically a troubleshooting question there. I think that practice is confusing and not user friendly, especially since most forums don't differentiate between a tech discussion and a tech question the way the mods do here. For example, personally I believe that a discussion of Mac networking without a specific troubleshooting question is just as useful to readership of the Networking forum as a specific question. If the mods want to differentiate, I would either (1) tag questions as such and optionally allow the OP to mark as solved/helpful/etc, while also allowing discussions in the same forum, or (2) create other tech discussion forums. Moving useful technical discussions to a catch-all Lounge forum where they sit next to random and often irrelevant threads and are therefore essentially lost to anyone but hardcore devotees doesn't serve the best interest of anyone, IMHO. Never has.


Don, I completely agree with you. Since I have no way of communicating with you other than posting to you in public here, Don, I completely agree with you.

If you weren't on-line earlier, I had some posts deleted because they were not exactly pertinent to the thread that I posted them in. They were perfectly harmless cheerful bits of discussion but OFF TOPIC, so off they went. Having noticed this, I posted "why". I then had an email, explaining. All those posts are gone now so you only have my (and the Mod in question's) word on this.

All grist to my mill. Let us have an Off Topic forum and there's no more deleting peoples' posts just because they do not 100% comply with solving problems! I'm not a Mod-Basher, but I'm not a child either.

I suppose now I've reported this in public this post will get deleted too. :-(
Posted By: dkmarsh Re: Suggestion - 09/01/09 06:22 PM

Quote:
I suppose now I've reported this in public this post will get deleted too.

Oh fer cryin' out loud!

Your earlier comments were removed because they were the result of a misunderstanding on your part which served only to confuse a discussion which was already off-topic in a thread which itself was off-topic in the original thread from which it was extracted.

If you'd like to see a board here for non-computer-related discussion, I suggest you start a non-computer-related discussion in the Lounge; that's its raison d'être. It baffles me that so many folks seem disinclined to do that, yet cheerfully rush to engage in off-topic repartee in troubleshooting threads.

Am I the only one here who gets annoyed when my transaction is put on hold so the checkout person can converse with a colleague about some personal issue which has no connection to me?

The "crime" is not "being off-topic;" the "crime" is depriving someone requesting help from getting to-the-point answers in the thread he or she created to ask for same. Why is a desire to accommodate such help-seekers—which, yes, marked many moderator decisions in the halcyon era of the MacFixIt Forums as well—viewed as "unfriendly?"

I would think the ones who ignore the original poster's issue in favor of "perfectly harmless cheerful bits of discussion" are the ones who are truly turning a cold shoulder.
Posted By: donikatz Re: Suggestion - 09/01/09 06:26 PM
Quote:
Since I have no way of communicating with you other than posting to you in public here, Don, I completely agree with you.


If only we had some sort of feature where you could direct a message to an individual person. I might call it a "personal message" or maybe "PM" for short... smirk

Yes, this post's off-topicness is purposely ironic. wink
Posted By: Gregg Re: Suggestion - 09/01/09 06:28 PM
Originally Posted By: Bensheim

Forum = the whole thing. The URL. it. where we are. The finetunedmac. The lot.

Board = a subdivision within. There are many of these, the lounge is one of them. Hence, a board within the forum.

... pernickitynitpick?


No, not at all. Words mean things. Consider this however: The "path" to this post is as follows

Home>Forums>FineTunedMac Community>FineTunedMac Feedback>Suggestion

I would equate the above to

Web Site HomePage>Forum List or Board>Forum Category>Forum (one of several)>Topic (or Thread)

Terms taken directly from these pages are italicized. Titles are not italicized.

So you and I do reverse the meanings of Forum and Board, as you observed.

Sorry if this goes off-topic, but you are the originator, and it's a response to your subsequent post. wink

Posted By: Gregg Re: Suggestion - 09/01/09 06:37 PM
What about when the OP's question has been answered, and said solution acknowledged by same to have solved the problem? If that thread then begins to evolve in another direction, sparked by something someone had written in it, does it still need to be excised and moved? I think not. But, if threads are split, wouldn't it be a reasonable courtesy on the part of the "woodsman"(or woman) to leave behind a post directing a participant's attention to the new location? (perhaps even a link to same?) If one returns to the original thread looking for the continuance of the tangential discussion and does not find it, then a "search" has to be conducted in order to locate it.
Posted By: Bensheim Re: Suggestion - 09/01/09 06:55 PM
Yeah, right, Gregg,

and DKM, here's your credo as set out from the start:

"We're starting small, but we plan to grow by offering the same experienced problem solving in a friendly, supportive environment which characterized the MacFixIt Forums at their best. We're not interested in post counts, putdowns, or showing off; we're interested in making it as easy as possible for folks with Macintosh problems or questions to find answers and advice.

The hallmark of our approach is the long, rambling troubleshooting thread in which the collective efforts of numerous posters lead to a solution which no one could have gotten to on his or her own. Of course, no one searching for help is looking for a long, rambling thread, and a large number of issues are resolved quickly and easily, because we've seen them often enough to recognize the symptoms. But some problems take patience, persistence, and intuition to solve, because the answers can only be found by a process of elimination. And that's where we really excel."

As to "If you'd like to see a board here for non-computer-related discussion, I suggest you start a non-computer-related discussion in the Lounge; that's its raison d'être. It baffles me that so many folks seem disinclined to do that, yet cheerfully rush to engage in off-topic repartee in troubleshooting threads."

That's already been answered in this thread.

It's because the Lounge is swamped with computer threads, when all I'm asking for, to be taken into consideration please, is that we have somewhere to start threads, to talk about, other things, other topics, other subjects, clearly differentiated from computer-threads which are dumped in the Lounge from elsewhere because they contain posts deemed to be Off Topic, or are themselves NOT problem-solving but still on the subject of (flipping) computers.

As to this: "I would think the ones who ignore the original poster's issue in favor of "perfectly harmless cheerful bits of discussion" are the ones who are truly turning a cold shoulder." that's just ridiculous, IMHO.

Turning a cold shoulder? Jeez mate, I'm trying to think of ideas to liven this forum up!

OK now I'm going to say it. I think the moderation policies here are too harsh and it does you* (FineTunedMac) a disservice. You* should consider, IMO, lightening up a little, if you* want this forum to grow.

NB: all the words "you" in the last paragraph are a collective you to the Admin team, not you personally. Now I've explained that twice I hope there's no misunderstanding whether this is a personal attack of some sort, which it is not.

Best wishes
Posted By: Bensheim Re: Suggestion - 09/01/09 09:27 PM
Originally Posted By: donikatz
Quote:
Since I have no way of communicating with you other than posting to you in public here, Don, I completely agree with you.


If only we had some sort of feature where you could direct a message to an individual person. I might call it a "personal message" or maybe "PM" for short... smirk

Yes, this post's off-topicness is purposely ironic. wink



Yeah, well, but they're disabled here. I don't know why either.

Posted By: joemikeb Re: Suggestion - 09/01/09 11:20 PM
Originally Posted By: Gregg
What about when the OP's question has been answered, and said solution acknowledged by same to have solved the problem? If that thread then begins to evolve in another direction, sparked by something someone had written in it, does it still need to be excised and moved? I think not.
I think starting a new thread is entirely appropriate. Consider another user searching the forums for a solution to a problem. They are far more likely to find the secondary thread if it is a stand alone topic and not buried in another topic with a different subject. That is one of the primary reasons hijacking a thread to another topic is discouraged. The other primary reason is it can make following either thread incredibly difficult if not well nigh impossible. Some threads that haven't been hijacked are difficult enough to follow and maintain a coherent path.
Originally Posted By: Gregg
But, if threads are split, wouldn't it be a reasonable courtesy on the part of the "woodsman"(or woman) to leave behind a post directing a participant's attention to the new location? (perhaps even a link to same?) If one returns to the original thread looking for the continuance of the tangential discussion and does not find it, then a "search" has to be conducted in order to locate it.

Yes. But while UBB provides a good mechanism for leaving a move notice when an entire topic is moved to another forum there is no easy or convenient way of leaving a marker when extracting a set of posts from a thread although there is a mechanism for notifying the OP. Who knows, maybe in the next UBB upgrade that feature will be added.

There is an exception to leaving a link to a moved topic or moved posts within a topic which is posts that are removed for cause, ie. they violate the board rules. Those will be removed without notification.
Posted By: dkmarsh Re: Suggestion - 09/02/09 12:03 AM

Let's see, how about we list the features or non-features which currently seem to disturb the FTM population:

1. No post counts.

2. No titles.

3. No private messages.

4. The general taxonomy of the forums ("internet" topics in "networking," no non-troubleshooting tech threads in the troubleshooting forums, no non-troubleshooting tech-oriented forum/no non-troubleshooting non-tech-oriented forum).

5. Excessive enforcement of on-topic principle, leading to excessive relocation of threads or subthreads (and insufficient notice to the off-topic participants when a subthread is moved).

6. Insufficiently flexible/polite/friendly/professional admins/moderators.

I'm surprised that you haven't divined our secret purpose yet: to take away, bit by bit, every feature that folks could possbily want, in order to discover just what it is that folks like about this place.

Next, we're going to remove the Mac troubleshooting content. WIll any of you even notice?

Lest you all think that staff sucking the fun out of this place is a one-way street, l'll try to set the record straight: I'm working harder at FTM than I did at MFIF, and I'm freakin' miserable. I'm having no fun at all.

When the opportunity to reprise our MFIF roles at FTM arose, cyn and the mods all jumped to make the commitment. Even though I'd entertained thoughts of some other projects I was thinking I'd have time for, and despite the (extremely slight) cut in pay, I thought the chance to try to rebuild the MFIF community elsewhere would be worth the time and energy, and so did my colleagues.

I'm really starting to think I was mistaken.
Posted By: roger Re: Suggestion - 09/02/09 12:18 AM
I can understand how you might feel that way, dk, and I'm sorry for my part in that.

it's a fine line between keeping things helpful and having a place where people feel comfortable following a thread where-ever it might lead. spoken conversations often take tangents, and it's hard not to do that in a forum, especially when people find each other friendly and often of like-mind.

I understand the desire to have everything where it belongs (though I'm sure you can tell I have a cluttered desk, and ask my fiancé about the house...), but I also know where everything is. but a newcomer wouldn't. but, they can use the Search function, and find things, no matter where they might be hidden. and that's when I run into the difficulty of the hard line that is taken with on-topicness. I appreciate the effort, and thank you all for it, but sometimes it is done with a tone that is not very friendly. I see comments that would make me feel very small if they were directed at me. perhaps they are meant with a smile, but use a smiley.

I mentioned in another thread about liking the "Users Online", because I like to feel like I'm somewhere. a café perhaps, and it's nice to know who's around. I still would like to feel that way. I understand the post count thing, too, but it often would give me insight into a poster, to know that this was their first or second post.

it's a tough thing to build a community, even one that already has some roots. the honeymoon is over, and we're into the stormy part of the relationship. but we'll get through it, and have a deeper connection because of the struggle.

thanks to all.

"Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing there is a field. I'll meet you there. - Rumi"
Posted By: Gregg Re: Suggestion - 09/02/09 12:54 AM
Originally Posted By: roger
spoken conversations often take tangents, and it's hard not to do that in a forum, especially when people find each other friendly and often of like-mind.

I had the same thought the last time I was reading this thread.

Originally Posted By: roger
when I run into the difficulty of the hard line that is taken with on-topicness.... sometimes it is done with a tone that is not very friendly.

Yes, and not just with the this-goes-there notices.

Originally Posted By: roger
I mentioned in another thread about liking the "Users Online"

Oops! Missed (at least) one! grin

P.S. Roger, to be consistent, you need to lay off of the shift key when using the first person pronoun referring to yourself. wink
Posted By: roger Re: Suggestion - 09/02/09 12:59 AM
Originally Posted By: Gregg
P.S. Roger, to be consistent, you need to lay off of the shift key when using the first person pronoun referring to yourself. wink


ee cummings I ain't! cool
Posted By: Gregg Re: Suggestion - 09/02/09 01:01 AM
Originally Posted By: joemikeb
I think starting a new thread is entirely appropriate.


Sure, but the question here is whether or not it must be the only acceptable course of action, be it the original thought of the person engaged in the exchange of ideas (also known as "conversation" - see above) or the imposition of rules by those charged with watching what's going on.

Originally Posted By: joemikeb
there is no easy or convenient way of leaving a marker when extracting a set of posts from a thread

Yeah, I was thinking about that after I posted.
Posted By: Gregg Re: Suggestion - 09/02/09 01:04 AM
Originally Posted By: Bensheim
Yeah, right, Gregg,


But, but, but.... you glossed over (perhaps missed) my previous post (#2660).

Posted By: cyn Re: Suggestion - 09/02/09 02:35 AM
Originally Posted By: Bensheim
Having noticed this, I posted "why". I then had an email, explaining.

In case that reads to anyone else like I contacted you only after your "why" post, I'd like to point out that in fact I sent the email to you right after removing the posts and before you asked what happened to them.

I tried to be considerate in my handling of the situation, but apparently that was a waste of time.

Regarding PMs, as I explained when you asked, the main reason they're disabled is because IMO hosting private conversations isn't a good use of site resources.
Posted By: Dave Re: Suggestion - 09/02/09 03:08 AM
Seems to me, years ago I read a book called something like "This Is the FineTunedMac Forum: It's Supposed to Be Fun".

Could be wrong. Dunno.
Posted By: donikatz Re: Suggestion - 09/02/09 03:47 PM
Sorry if I've sounded ungrateful DK, certainly not my intention. I definitely appreciate your work and the work or the other mods and admins. Without you guys we wouldn't be here, we all know that.

It was my understanding that opinions and suggestions were not only welcome but requested; at least that's how it's been presented. To then be frustrated when opinions are voiced is a bit unfair, is it not? Unfortunately with all new IT projects, the discussion and planning stages are almost always the most time-consuming and frustrating parts of the process. Since FTM was such a necessarily rush-to-market launch, we are still in effect in that planning stage. Nobody expects admins to make immediate changes to our whims nor to act on all requests, but that doesn't mean these discussions aren't useful for future planning for when there is time to roll out enhancements.

That said, I'll ask how many of the feature requests you listed actually are asking for effort. Some are just asking to turn back on defaults that the admins went out of their way to turn off. Similarly, suggesting the mods relax policy a bit or restructure some forums rather than having to constantly actively move things around, are in fact suggestions to create less work for mods, not more, whether the mods agree with the suggestions and/or care to implement them or not.

We know how much time and effort you guys put in here, greatly appreciate it, and I think everyone just wants things to move forward smoothly. If my tone sometimes gets sarcastic, well, sorry for that; my mom's been trying to beat that out of me for decades...

As for the fun, well, the fun will happen as the site grows, attracts more users, and stabilizes fundamental framework. This is the tedious phase of the project, unfortunately that was inevitable; I'm sure Franklin's not having much fun with the server-side problems either. But I'm sure everyone's hard work will pay off in the end -- and thanks again for that!
Posted By: ganbustein Re: Suggestion - 09/03/09 05:43 AM
Originally Posted By: donikatz
Again, the Lounge IS supposed to be an [almost] anything goes forum. That's the whole point of it. Seems like your problem with it, like mine, is that it also merges the old "Tech Issues" forum (see MFIF archives). So maybe the real request is to have tech issues removed from the Lounge, not vice-versa?

Of course much of the proliferation of tech issues in the Lounge is because of the mods moving anything that is not specifically a troubleshooting question there. I think that practice is confusing and not user friendly, especially since most forums don't differentiate between a tech discussion and a tech question the way the mods do here. For example, personally I believe that a discussion of Mac networking without a specific troubleshooting question is just as useful to readership of the Networking forum as a specific question. If the mods want to differentiate, I would either (1) tag questions as such and optionally allow the OP to mark as solved/helpful/etc, while also allowing discussions in the same forum, or (2) create other tech discussion forum(s). Moving useful technical discussions to a catch-all Lounge forum where they sit next to random and often irrelevant threads and are therefore essentially lost to anyone but hardcore devotees doesn't serve the best interest of anyone, IMHO. Never has.


I agree with all of this. The day Snow Leopard came out, I walked over to the Apple store to pick up a copy, but before installing it I came here to see what experience others were having.

Imagine my surprise that all the Snow Leopard-related posts had been moved to the Lounge! To me, the Lounge is the place where all that boring, idle, non-technical chit-chat goes. I have better things to do with my time. But here, the very information I had been looking for had been moved out of the OS-related forum it had been posted to, into a place I would never have expected to find it.

And with it, I found a lot of other technical threads that I might easily have overlooked. Now, in order to access that information, I have to wade through all the non-technical fluff that actually does belong in Lounge.

OK, we now have a forum specific to 10.6, but the problem remains. Even now, the rule as I understand it is that that's only for trouble-shooting Snow Leopard. If I've discovered a cool feature of SL, one that I have no problem with and even like, and want to tell the world, I have to post in Lounge?!? Really?

Sure, we do a lot of trouble-shooting here, just like we did on MFIF, but it's also a source of tech information. The notion that technical info doesn't belong in a technical forum unless the poster is specifically looking for a solution to a specific problem seems bizarre to me.

Free our tech topics! Let them live in the forums they relate to. Don't condemn them to Limboounge
Posted By: dkmarsh Re: Suggestion - 09/03/09 12:09 PM

Thanks for taking the time to express your support, doni.

I don't have a problem hearing opinions contrary to my own, as I think our mutual relish for locking horns over topics ranging from the Australia strategy to the Bloomberg candidacy has proven.

It's certainly easier to feel receptive, though, when those doing the opining show some evidence of having taken the time to get a feel for where I really come down on the important issues of online communication. I chose to reply to you because you've earned my trust and respect over many years of MFIF participation.

It's a bit harder to listen to someone I don't know from Adam exhibit a complete lack of awareness of the larger history of our community and the roles various of us have played in its evolution. I may come down on the opposite side of many specific issues from a lot of other folks, but I don't think I or any of the other mods or cyn have to prove our bona fides to people who've only been fully active in this community in the last few weeks or so.

As for specifics, I'll just say this: other than titles and post counts, no features that were present at MFIF have been turned off. I'm not going to rehash the public discussions on those two items, nor get into the private discussions among staff, but one way to look at it might be this: since we've never not had those features enabled, and since, by all accounts, no one who's cared to comment on the issue here has ever experienced the disabling of those features on any other forums...why not give it a chance?
Posted By: crarko Re: Suggestion - 09/03/09 10:14 PM
Remind me to come out and buy you a beer sometime soon, Dave. wink

For all those who think this is no fun, go back and take a peek at CNet for a while, and reconsider what 'no fun' is.
Posted By: Dave Re: Suggestion - 09/03/09 11:16 PM
Originally Posted By: crarko
Remind me to come out and buy you a beer sometime soon, Dave.


Posted By: dkmarsh Re: Suggestion - 09/03/09 11:53 PM

Your money is no good here, Craig. wink

But by all means let's hoist a few!

Aside to ganbustein: hopefully it's obvious in context, but my reply to donikatz was entirely unrelated to your intervening post. ( I composed it long before I actually posted it, in accordance with the principle that it's often better to see how things look in the morning before saying what one wanted to say the night before, just in case.)
Posted By: Hal Itosis Re: Suggestion - 09/04/09 04:16 AM
Originally Posted By: ganbustein
Imagine my surprise that all the Snow Leopard-related posts had been moved to the Lounge! To me, the Lounge is the place where all that boring, idle, non-technical chit-chat goes. I have better things to do with my time. But here, the very information I had been looking for had been moved out of the OS-related forum it had been posted to, into a place I would never have expected to find it.

And with it, I found a lot of other technical threads that I might easily have overlooked. Now, in order to access that information, I have to wade through all the non-technical fluff that actually does belong in Lounge.

OK, we now have a forum specific to 10.6, but the problem remains. Even now, the rule as I understand it is that that's only for trouble-shooting Snow Leopard. If I've discovered a cool feature of SL, one that I have no problem with and even like, and want to tell the world, I have to post in Lounge?!? Really?

Sure, we do a lot of trouble-shooting here, just like we did on MFIF, but it's also a source of tech information. The notion that technical info doesn't belong in a technical forum unless the poster is specifically looking for a solution to a specific problem seems bizarre to me.

I also feel that a tech-only / non-troubleshooting forum needs to exist. I can appreciate how memories of the old 'Tech Issues' forum has left a bad taste in the mouths of most MFI veterans. When OSX was initially released (beta thru Puma), that entire forum got hijacked by a handful of hooligans... and every thread transformed into a battlefront. That was most unfortunate.

But... having a separate, friendlier Tech Talk (non-troubleshooting) area is still a good idea. We shouldn't mix threads about snakes and cats and terminal diseases in such close proximity with computer stuff. It's just too... as you said: bizarre.

--

Also... where should 'tip & hints' be posted? "Mac FAQ Discussion"? Or should one wait until a troubleshooting thread appears, before posting a script which provides some solution? [not complaining here... i'm really grateful that FTM was established so nicely... thanks.]
Posted By: macnerd10 Re: Suggestion - 09/04/09 06:12 AM
I agree. Welcome back!
Posted By: Ira L Re: Suggestion - 09/04/09 04:06 PM
I second Joel's comments above. For those of us who remember the old MFI, the CNET version is rather bland. Whatever your complaints about FineTunedMac and its forums may be, it is still one of the better trouble-shooting sites around--and the freedom of discussion is unparalleled. And now that "Hal Itosis" has found this site (as discussed in a posting elsewhere), I am sure he will bring his intolerant and sardonic wit smirk to bear on all of us!
Posted By: Hal Itosis Re: Suggestion - 09/04/09 09:37 PM
Originally Posted By: Ira L
And now that "Hal Itosis" has found this site (as discussed in a posting elsewhere), I am sure he will bring his intolerant and sardonic wit smirk to bear on all of us!

Perhaps not "all"... but rather: only a few chosen fortunate ones, on occasion. wink
Posted By: cyn Re: Suggestion - 09/06/09 08:49 PM
Doni, Gan, Hal: the mods and I are discussing possible options for non-troubleshooting/non-help-request tech topics.

Hal, I'm not sure about tips & hints posts. While MFIF's Mac OS X Tips & Hints forum was a great idea in theory, in practice the "limit replies to supplemental suggestions about the initial tip" guideline was problematic. If someone disagreed with a post or even wanted to suggest an improvement or alternative, it could be difficult to do so without the thread turning into a discussion/debate. Haven't yet figured out a way around that.

Some of the posts in MFIF's Tips & Hints are possibilities for the not-yet-opened Mac FAQ forum, and I'd love to see them posted in the Mac FAQ Discussion forum for review. If you think a script would be a good FAQ entry, go for it!
Posted By: donikatz Re: Suggestion - 09/06/09 09:42 PM
Thanks cyn.

Re. Tips & Hints & FAQ, etc: often other forums that have stickied info or FAQ threads or such will allow each thread to become a debate or discussion (as long as on topic), but the original post remains the latest "official" version and is maintained and updated as deemed necessary. So the original poster, assumed to be an expert on the topic, therefore becomes a de facto moderator of the thread (along with anyone else who mods that section). This keeps it easy for most folks to drop in and get the desired info up front, but also allows that info to grow and be updated as needed. Sure the threads can eventually get very long even if on topic, but anyone who is devoted enough to the subject to want to help update an "official" FAQ would be best to know the history of the discussion anyway. I've always thought that was a pretty good approach to it, FWIW, but it's obviously just one approach.
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