Unfortunately, most new users don't even read any newsgroup guidelines
before jumping in with their first question. I find that most times, the
simple questions are asked and answered at least once a week for someone
new. The same question, or generally anyway. I read and respond to at least
12 Borland groups and this one daily and IMO, at least 30% of the questions
are topics covered many times in the past. I must admit that at least in the
IB_Support group, the percentage seems to be lower and the questions are
more tuned to slightly advanced topics than on the Borland groups. That may
be due to more people on the Borland groups or not, I don't know.

I hate to say this, but I sometimes find it disheartening to see beginning
programmers not even take the time to search for previous posts for their
problem before cross posting to a few NGs. Leaving out some pertinent
information is more understandable to me as you never know what one might
want to know as background before answering a question but you are right in
that the basics should at least be given. (version info, language, interface
components, etc.)

I wish that Borland groups had the option to receive posts via email like
this group does. I find it makes it much easier to keep up with if I can see
new posts in real time instead of stopping what I'm doing every few hours to
read the groups. Score one big one for the Lords of IB-Support ! <G>

Woody

From: "Jason Chapman (JAC2)" <jason@...>

> Funny you should mention this, I no longer look at many of the Borland for
> this very reason. I used to skim all Delphi & IB forums, until it just
> started taking 3 - 4 hours a day!
>
> I was thinking how we could still encourage support and have a positive
> impact for newbie's.
>
> It is so important to offer a good support forum for people who are just
> coming to IB for he first time, a few RTFM's is often enough to put people
> off, but it seems required for the dozens of Q's "which is better... how

do

> I.....", which make up much of the traffic. Most of these kind of posts
> have little or no qualifying information at all.
>
> I love answering questions with answers or suggestions, but replying with
> "what OS / version / number of clients / ......", just fluffs up the
> forums.
>
> I thought of two tier groups, but this seems elite-ist (sp), it would work
> on a "anyone post" group and an "invite only" group. People who answer

the

> anyone post group are invited onto the "invite only". The meatiness of

the

> questions and answers on the "invite only" group may make searching

archives

> easier.
>
> I had other thoughts about how to get people to search before the ask,
> without having to be too forceful, this would really need a lot of
> moderation and marking message threads as stopped with a reply "Have you
> searched these sources? list of sources".
>
> Don't get me wrong, the forum is way off from grinding to a halt, but
> already I find myself block selecting 30 or so messages and marking them

as

> read, possibly missing a Q that I could answer and add some value.
>
> just my 2c's.
>
> JAC.
>
> ""csswa"" <csswa@...> wrote in message
> news:a8720f+6lct@......
> > ... which may require IB-support to split in two to better handle the=20
> > traffic? Sometimes I wonder how some of the regulars here (Ann,=20
> > Claudio and Helen spring to mind immediately) manage to provide this=20
> > constant flow of online support and still get the food-on-the-table=20
> > work done. As traffic escalates, this may become more of an issue,=20
> > especially if the experienced members get to the point where they no=20
> > longer have time to skim all posts and reply to those of interest.=20=20
> > Growth itself isn't necessarily a bad thing, but poorly managed=20
> > growth is.
>
>
>
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