pcmccartney1

Rules for the Forum

6 posts in this topic

Can we (non-empirical "we"), rather the admins of the various forums, develop a general topic for how to use forums?

Everything from searching for a specific topic or problem or issue?

How about general rules for how to post?  How to describe a problem or issue?  Maybe Manufacturer, Pat #, Software being used, Software firmware revision level.

For me specifically, how to post files and pictures in the forum?

 

If this is already done, I apologize in advance and ask for a link to the the original posting. 

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As a non-admin, but long time forum participant on multiple industrial controls fora, my observation is that attempts to produce better interaction by establishing ’rules’ is not going to go anywhere.

The fact that many OP’s never return-post beyond their initial post is universal.

The fact that most OP’s do not clearly articulate their problem and leave out critical information is universal.

The fact that some people desperately ’want’ something that is not commercially available is universal.  

The fact that there is continued belief in one-size-fits-all ’secret PID terms’ that somehow just are not published but will be revealed in a forum thread is and will be universal.

The fact that about 70% of my replies come straight out of a publicly available (downloadable from the web) manual or spec sheet will not inhibit those who will not research their own topic themselves.

Just like the saying, ”there are 10 kinds of people, those understand binary and those who don’t”, there are those who understand troubleshooting and those who don’t.   I fail to understand those who stay in a vocational field where the ability to troubleshoot is ubiquitous, but hey, it’s their problem.

Make up all the rules you want to, but just like I don’t bother to read EULA’s, they won’t bother to read or pay attention to new rules.

my 2 cents

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since the question is specifically about posting attachments, my view is that one should use common sense. MrPLC is very generous when it comes to what can be attached or posted but that is not to say that one should abuse it:

  • do not post something that may be sensitive or put this forum in sticky situation. this is addressed in TOS https://www.mrplc.com/terms-of-use.php
  • this is free of charge and very clean place. let's keep it that way. spam etc are not tolerated. posting files just to waste forum resources is not tolerated. 
  • most posts are by people asking for support of some sort. make it easy for people offering advice and support to help you. this means providing details about particular case. This means posting datasheets or links to datasheet, sketches of process/situation, photos of setup etc are welcome. just be mindful of image size and readability. nobody likes slow loading page so consider re sampling/resizing of any photos, rotating them to correct orientation etc. choose compressed file format (JPG or PNG for example) to reduce file size and improve experience of those who may be willing to provide support.

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Good feedback.

Maybe just a little jaded here.  Seems we are answering the same question multiple times per week.  No one seems to want to search for previously posted answers or solutions to their problem.  Completely agree that the mast majority of answers come from available documentation easily obtained with a simple google search.

I am always will to lend a hand or insight or point someone in the right direction.  Not interested in doing their research or thinking for them.

If this is deemed as too harsh, I'll remove the original posting.

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I find myself getting frustrated with vague or overly-simplified requests for help, as well.  Sometimes I think that it would be awesome to have a forum with a form to fill out that asks for pertinent details, then makes those details searchable and filtered by manufacturer, model, symptoms or scope.  I am sure there are some knowledgebase and web-based support forums for products that are like that.  Then I realize the following:

1)  It takes time and effort to create a support forum like that.

2)  If that support forum were created, we would all find things that would be nice to have for it.  Once we added our 'two cents' to the list, the wants list would become too large and searches would either return way too much info or not enough.

3) Those that do provide pertinent information when asking for help will find the required information for the forum to be a juvenile requirement and then probably not use the forum anymore.  This would lead to a reduction of requests and more importantly, a reduction of responses because of the extra time it may take.

4)  Then, the most important one - freewill plus the GIGO principle.  If someone does not provide adequate information (Garbage In) or is simply looking to get their homework done by someone else, we all have the free will to choose not to respond to the request (Garbage In = Garbage Out).  OR, if we have time to help,  we could simply post back the info we need in order to help.

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i hear you but over time i came to conclusion that - this is just the way most people are. one can put ;list of rules or guidelines but most won't bother to read them. More specifically those who would benefit more from reading would fail to do so... :-1

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