I've been noticing a lot of tension online recently. Interestingly, I've seen it not just here but on a couple of other non-technical forums I participate in. People I respect have acted completely out of character, lost their patience, and got right down into the mud--even spitting out four-letter words in some cases. Again, I've seen this not just here but in other forums as well. It's strange enough to see out-of-character posts here, but seeing it in multiple forums is just weird.

In any case, I'd like to appeal to everyone here to help make this forum useful and pleasant.

1. If you don't have something useful or friendly to contribute, DON'T CONTRIBUTE. This includes responding to inappropriate posts or flames. If someone posts a flame against others or even against you, the situation is not improved by you responding in kind. Just let it go. The person that flamed you will look like a fool and you will look good by not having stooped to their level. Score their post negatively if you'd like but please don't take threads further off topic by stoking the flames.

2. If someone clearly hasn't searched the forum or Google, please either score the message as "Didn't search first" or simply ignore it. While the answer may very well be found in the Bible or through Google, cluttering up threads with advice to consult these tools is not helpful. The person in question apparently isn't taking advantage of the material already available to him and probably won't take advantage of the material even if we suggest they do--and for the rest of us, seeing the same advice over and over is about as tiring as seeing posts from people that haven't done their homework. If you're not going to provide a direct answer to the question, please just ignore the question entirely. Either someone else will take the time to answer the question or the complete lack of response will drive the person to do some research on his own.

If anyone else has any thoughts on this issue, or has any gripes (and hopefully corresponding suggestions) regarding the general behavior in the forum, please feel free to post here. I think we can do more to make this forum enjoyable and informative and I hope we can all do our part to achieve that goal.

Regards,
Craig Steiner
8052.com Webmaster