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Why do people go out of their way to answer questions that we know should be in a different forum with people we know abuse the system? Like, what's the impulse to be the sucker? Not really referring to peeps we know who don't do nothing but abuse the system over and over, but to those who blatantly do not care and 100% of their posts is nothing but questions in the lounge.
And sure, we've all done it at times (myself included). And at times I'll attempt to help if there's no forum suited for the query in question that I know of at the time of replying and it's someone I know. Like for instance, Sander just had a networking question and only now do I realize there's a hosting and servers forum. Oops. So, I guess I'm a hypocrite. 
But, we know Sander and know he's not intentionally breaking the rules. Can't say that for some in the lounge (won't mention his name). So, why? Surely, doing nothing but answering tech questions to people exploiting this fact is not a dev's idea of being "social"?
Jeremy Falcon
modified 2 days ago.
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Not to mention there is still someone trying to answer his questions in appropriate forums... 
"In testa che avete, Signor di Ceprano?"
-- Rigoletto
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I think it's partly because folks know their post will be seen pretty much immediately in The Lounge.
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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^ This.
It's not laziness, it's just increasing the odds someone that possesses knowledge on some obscure/very specific topic will see it and offer a response.
Who in his right mind regularly looks at all the forums?
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I think it is nothing more than people liking to help others. Sure, they should refer the questioners to the appropriate forum, but in many cases it's much easier to answer the question.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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And that's noble, in theory. But, if they liked it that much it's just as easy to go to a forum to help keep them active. Side note, it's also called enabling and liking the helping so much they're willing to be blatantly exploited and manipulated.
Jeremy Falcon
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I agree with Dan.
CP is somewhat of a free form learning and teaching forum.
"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger
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I have an idea/suggestion/solution: it shouldn't be too difficult to give a select few (editors, protectors, whatever) a tool to move a thread to the appropriate forum, eventually informing OP of the change of venue. Not only would this free the lounge of the occasional misplaced thread, it might also breathe life in other forums. In particular, the forum you mentioned, "hosting and servers", hasn't seen a new message since October of last year.
Mircea
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I think mods can already do that. I've had my convos moved on occasion when I posted in the wrong place, like insider news instead of the lounge.
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
And my IoT UI/User Experience library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/uix
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That's a brilliant idea, and a great point about the other forums... there's a reason they see no life.
Jeremy Falcon
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Jeremy Falcon wrote: Like for instance, Sander just had a networking question and only now do I realize there's a hosting and servers forum
You and me and probably a few more out of the nearly 16M registered members.
The one steadily enforced rule is "no programming question", not "use the obscure forum that was created for that one time someone had a question on that topic and nobody even knows exists, which now includes the guy who created it in the first place". For a software developer site, "Programming vs everything else" seems pretty straightforward to me.
When you have too many subgroups, the end result is that nobody will see the post, and the poster will never get a response.
I'm 100% okay with the current arrangement.
Maybe what we need is some way for an admin to move an entire (non-programming) thread to a different forum, after the fact, if it contains some information that could be really important and useful to a significant number of people, and we don't want to let the thread scroll out of view, get lost in the noise, never to be found again.
But I sure wouldn't want that job.
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dandy72 wrote: You and me and probably a few more out of the nearly 16M registered members.
16M registered members is not the same thing as the unique members, active members, and the amount of people that frequent the lounge. Don't fall into the trap of not knowing what a number really means. We all know who the regulars are here, and it's not too hard to tell when we have a rogue trouble maker actively exploiting people.
dandy72 wrote: The one steadily enforced rule is "no programming question", not "use the obscure forum that was created for that one time someone had a question on that topic and nobody even knows exists, which now includes the guy who created it in the first place". For a software developer site, "Programming vs everything else" seems pretty straightforward to me.
I eluded to the solution to this in the original post when I mentioned even I'll do it at times if I know the person and there's no appropriate forum I'm aware of at the time of my reply. Thus, the solution would be to see if it matches an existing forum. Also, it's easy to tell when someone is exploiting the system or not. This is very, very easy to tell.
dandy72 wrote: When you have too many subgroups, the end result is that nobody will see the post, and the poster will never get a response.
True, but then trim the sub groups as a solution... don't poison and dilute the lounge as the answer.
dandy72 wrote: I'm 100% okay with the current arrangement.
Without any categorization, you're just as bad off. None of us want to be honest here and are stuck in the past it seems. Things could be improved.
dandy72 wrote: But I sure wouldn't want that job.
It's not that hard. I used to moderate message boards as a teenager for AOL under the computing channel. I dunno why we make so many excuses though.
Jeremy Falcon
modified yesterday.
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Jeremy Falcon wrote: Don't fall into the trap of not knowing what a number really means. We all know who the regulars are here,
Clearly. I don't know if Chris would share that number or not, but I suspect the active community is but a tiny fraction of the whole.
Jeremy Falcon wrote: Also, it's easy to tell when someone is exploiting the system or not. This is very, very easy to tell.
This is the crux of your original post, isn't it? The repeat offenders. They know they can get away with it, and after a while, it gets annoying for everyone. I can't disagree there. OTOH, you have to pick your battles, so I try not to let these get to me and just move on. Otherwise I'd only be contributing to threads that shouldn't even exist in the first place, making matters worse.
Jeremy Falcon wrote: Without any categorization, you're just as bad off. None of us want to be honest here and are stuck in the past it seems. Things could be improved.
Things can always be improved, but I'm also keeping in mind the rule of good intentions and unintended consequences. I was saying it's okay now, but could easily be turned into something worse--much worse. So, go ahead and make the investment now, then try to roll things back after everybody gives up? Is it worth the time and effort?
Jeremy Falcon wrote: It's not that hard. I used to moderate message boards as a teenager for AOL under the computing channel. I dunno why we make so many excuses though.
Hard, no, time-consuming, exceedingly. If you'll pardon the meme, the excuse is "ain't nobody got time fo' dat". You did it as a teenager. I probably did something similar. Teenagers have tons of free time on their hands to do things no adult would bother with. Real life settles in, other things take priority, and suddenly curating an online discussion board doesn't seem like much of a worthy cause.
Maybe AI will help. [snicker]
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Just a heads up, I'm the one that upvoted your post. One of the things I enjoy about chatting with you, is even when we may not always agree (nobody ever does all the time) we still find a way to keep things civil. It's a totally rare thing.
dandy72 wrote: I can't disagree there. OTOH, you have to pick your battles, so I try not to let these get to me and just move on.
Where's the fun in that? (I'm kidding... well maybe. )
dandy72 wrote: Is it worth the time and effort?
Time is the number one excuse not to do something. It's usually always a matter of priority, and to that I would say yes it's worth updating a site that is your bread and butter. Also gotta mention, people can hire out other devs to help with the time factor. Imagine if everyone said "hey let's stop improving" just because they got older, I seriously doubt humanity would even have computers if that were the case for everyone.
If you had a family that depended on you and you financially depending on a website, that's all the more reason to keep improving on it. Unless, they're just bored of the site now.
dandy72 wrote: Real life settles in, other things take priority, and suddenly curating an online discussion board doesn't seem like much of a worthy cause.
Totally agree 100%, but that also means the site is on a decline. Nothing stays the same forever and its evident by a lot of the old timers having moved on. This is just the life of being in business, you cannot stop improving or you'll eventually die out.
dandy72 wrote: Maybe AI will help. [snicker]
Jeremy Falcon
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Jeremy Falcon wrote: even when we may not always agree (nobody ever does all the time) we still find a way to keep things civil. It's a totally rare thing.
Respect, bro. One has to develop the ability to identify those who will only waste your time, vs those who have valuable opinions that you just have to bring yourself to respect. Next thing you know, you learn people have different perspectives, and they're not wrong. Imagine that.
When it comes to CP's rules, the primary reason I'm okay with the status quo, and I kinda alluded to that (maybe indirectly), is that some sites find a good formula, with some flaws, which someone then tries to address and ends up making things worse - and then it's too late and those with valuable input have moved on, and you just can't go back to how things were no matter what you try.
I've been on CP for over 20 years, and there's a good reason for that. Try to tweak the rules just a bit too much and there might be a big exodus, and we'd lose what made this site so unique. Personally I'd call it being risk-averse.
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"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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had to look it up.
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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Happiness will never come to those who fail to appreciate what they already have. -Anon
And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music. -Frederick Nietzsche
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Ok, I have had my coffee, so you can all come out now!
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I thought, "that's a pretty weird way to start a conversation"
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
And my IoT UI/User Experience library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/uix
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I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I try to make friends
but I just can't get the DNA sequencing right.
"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger
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Me to hubby: "Maybe you were just pondering in your mind, about how to articulate your thoughts to speech. Therefore I couldn't listen".
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