I challenge anybody to show me a discussion board where new members show up and dont ask the same questions over and over!!  The topic of discussion here is not all that broad.  If there were not some new folks asking the same questions over and over again, I think the board would slow way down, and our solutions to "old" problems might stop advancing.

Search can help - moving the link or making it larger might help, but it will not solve the problem.  Often times, there will be new ideas and opinions - and answers to questions which will not come up in search.  This is the nature of discussion boards - its a community (a rather big one with about 2000 members), the same topics will be discussed over and over.  This is not new.  Check out the link to our old board! - same stuff, although many of us have learned a bit since then and would probably answer some questions differently now.  Thats been... um - since the old board shut down, about a year and a half!

New folks are welcome here.  its always good manners to do a bit of research before blindly posting to the board... most do.  Most "newbies" are actually folks who have been lurking here, reading and watching for a long time.  I often see repetitive postings, and often I choose not to reply - knowing that someone else might hop in and do it!  Usually they do.  

Regarding folks asking for grant money.. etc...  I think its a bit hard to judge.  I moved that to Classifieds, where it probably belongs.  I folks like that deserve the the benifit of the doubt, Im willing to leave stuff like that on the front page for perhaps a day..
(I think I moved that now to display only in section).

Soon we'll be upgrading the board so that only the more popular postings appear on the front page.  There are a few ways to do this - we're not totallly settled on exactly how yet, but it'll probably involve folks voting stories to the front page.  

Opinions vary - and when there are 2000+ members in a community, I suspect they always will.  As I see it though, the folks here, and the content that gets posted is better than ever.  I think one only has to click on the link to the "old otherpower board" to varify that.  As time goes on we'll continue to upgrade and make little changes as we see fit, but we tend to do that slowly and carefully (perhaps more so than some would like)... we also have lots of other projects going on and time/funds for the board are somewhat limited.

All of what you say may well be true.

However, does the fact that someone is either too stupid or too lazy to research things mean that the people of this board have a requirement to spoon feed them information? I think not!

3 or 4 years ago I did not know a thing about solar or wind electric power generation. You know what I did? I researched it both online and at the library and I spent many many hours trying to find information. Only after that failed did I come into this forum and ask questions that I was truly unable to find the answers to. Not like many people who just say they have searched high and low but can't find the answer. It is particularly irritating when the answer to the question is one of the top 4 hits on google.

I believe it is simple laziness and the desire to get quick answers with no effort on the part of the questioner in many cases. I happen to have degrees in both Electronic and Computer Engineering and I worked hard to get both and it was not cheap, either. So excuse me if I have no sympathy for laziness.

I am completely willing to share everything I know with nearly anyone. I am just not willing to spoon feed information to stupid or lazy people.

Anyway thats my response to your concern about scaring off the newbies. We all started someplace and most of us worked hard to get the knowledge we have so I have no problem with telling people to do a little work and come back when they have sensible questions.

The most scary thing i see lately is absolutely unworkable ideas submitted as useful information and nobody will challenge the false information because they are too nice or they fear getting labeled as a curmudgeon or mean. Well I have and will challenge these false "facts" whenever I can because I hate seeing folks waste time, resources and energy on unworkable ideas submitted by clueless folks who fit the description "Its not what he knows to be true but what he knows to be true that just ain't so"

I guess it comes down to whether or not we want to see this forum flourish as a usable resource or become the dumbed down online equivalent of "USA Today" and written at the 4th grade level. And, being civilized does not require a person to be nice regardless of the situation or to remain silent when you have a differing opinion. Truly civilized people would be up front and honest and not use deception to further their goals. Ohh well I am probably wasting electrons typing this out but there you have it.

Just another 2 cents of mine.

T

The Truth is the Truth, even if no one believes it; and a lie is a lie even if everyone believes it

I am only responding because you quoted my previous comment and I feel it is necessary to point out the following because of that.

Nothing personal, but I seem to recall you also having been in favor of allowing Mister Cool Pants to pollute this board with his mean, misleading and vicious posts with no intervention when he was disrupting things daily. Apparently I do not have your level of compassion or resistance to abuse.

Point taken on the cost of education and internet access as well as the fact that education does not equal knowledge.

I still maintain it is not my duty to make up for the shortcomings of others whether it is their fault or not. It only seems reasonable to me that new [or old] users at least make an effort to post clear questions when they have actually tried honestly to seek the answers.

There is and likely always will be a large gap between those who live in developing countries and those who live in [so called] developed countries. Sorry, but I do not have the answer to this problem nor do I feel it is my responsibility to level the playing field such as it is. If I were well enough off financially I would likely consider traveling and assisting with developing some of these systems where they do not have the resources I enjoy as an American of modest resources.

Anyway, good points which I could argue either side of which do not really change the issues of where this board is going.

I guess it kind of comes down to one fairly simple question:

Do we dumb things down to the level of the least informed or do we try to maintain a reasonable level of usability and information for the broadest cross section of users? I am not an inhuman monster or unaware of the issues of poverty I just don't see where it has any real bearing on this board.

As far as the FAQ is concerned I really don't think very many folks actually read the things. Proof of this can be seen in many posts on this board asking questions that are explicitly covered in the FAQ area we have now.

One nice thing about not being an editor here now is I can say exactly what I think without it being seen as some type of "official" statement. This is good in my mind.

Just honest opinions from a guy with no diplomacy skills.

T

The Truth is the Truth, even if no one believes it; and a lie is a lie even if everyone believes it