in reply to Re^4: Special place for RTFM posts
in thread Special place for RTFM posts

I am sure that most people logging onto perlmonks.org for the first time are under the impression that the main box is where you put your question. So what I am looking for is some way of increasing the cost of posting a silly question. I can see the XP loss ultimately does offer that, but this is analogous to the way bridges that suffer from a lot suicides often require a one penny fee to cross the bridge. It makes the potential suicide stop and think before they cross. Saying XP loss ought to be enough to deter them is a bit like saying that "life experience loss" ought to be enough to dissuade suicides. And the analogy is closer if the XP loss drives the potential user away permanently. I think it would be much better to force the user somehow to ask himself, have I done everything I can to answer this question myself. It could be for example a drop-down box listing say my documentation, man pages, book, google etc. Then if the user fails to select one of these rather than fully submitting he gets a message suggest he try those first. Such a drop down box forces a higher transactional cost to asking a silly question, but is less flexible than a text box.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^6: Special place for RTFM posts
by jdporter (Paladin) on Dec 22, 2009 at 19:13 UTC
    ...the main box is where you put your question.

    Really? Just the question? In that case, I guess we need a separate box for the OP's perl code, and a separate box for where the OP discusses the background of her problem, etc.

    I'm not saying that we shouldn't perhaps do something more to encourage SoPW posters to think more about their problem, or maybe even do more work before posting. But adding a separate input textarea is not the solution. And in any case, I really don't see this happening because it would entail a radical change to the site infrastructure (to wit, the addition of a field to a database table).

    What is the sound of Windows? Is it not the sound of a wall upon which people have smashed their heads... all the way through?
[reply]
      Really? Just the question? In that case, I guess we need a separate box for the OP's perl code, and a separate box for where the OP discusses the background of her problem, etc. I'm not saying that we shouldn't perhaps do something more to encourage SoPW posters to think more about their problem, or maybe even do more work before posting. But adding a separate input textarea is not the solution. And in any case, I really don't see this happening because it would entail a radical change to the site infrastructure (to wit, the addition of a field to a database table).

      Only I am trying to discuss is ways of:

      1. Encouraging people to think before pressing submit.
      2. Discouraging people (even better anonymous people) from replying to weak questions with unhelpful RTFM.
      I am not saying that the underlying database be changed. I am just saying that the form could be changed to force a little thought. If that extra hurdle is a text or drop-down box the input would just be merged into the main text with suitable formatting.

[reply]

        How was that or any other RTFM unhelpful? If nothing else it encouraged the people that have seen it to think before pressing submit. If only not to be told to RTFM.

        Jenda
        Enoch was right!
        Enjoy the last years of Rome.

[reply]
      While I am inclined to agree with you, if the fields were optional then there could be some benefits -- the most obvious being enclosing any text entered into the "Code that shows the problem" field within <code> tags.

      Elda Taluta; Sarks Sark; Ark Arks
[reply]
        ... enclosing any text entered into the "Code that shows the problem" field within <code> tags.

        That's basically what we had in the recently shuttered Code Catacombs section. The reasons we had for closing that section equally apply here as a reason for not making the suggested change.

        What is the sound of Windows? Is it not the sound of a wall upon which people have smashed their heads... all the way through?
[reply]

In Section Perl Monks Discussion