Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Opportunity for Board

Hi all. Just an Interesting thought here. Over the past few years I have seen some basic questions come up over and over again ( many by me ) with the same basic answers over and over again.

Here is where my thought comes in. There are many categories on the board for discussion points i.e. soil questions, creating the food chain ... etc Would it be smart/possible to put together a section where there would be no feedback and no questions but have it devoted to a beginners FAQ. i.e. How to start the food chain, when should I stop areating in the north, ... etc. This could be a good spot to direct new folks to get the basic information to start with instead of having them search many many threads to get bits and pieces of the answers.

I know this would not handle every situation and every side of each question, but it might make it easier for the beginner to get his feet in the water ( so to speak ) and then maybe they would lurk less and ask more meaningful challenging questions sooner.

I truly value every question and answer on here and enjoy the diversity of the responses, but I am remembering back to when I started and how long I lurked because I was sort of afraid to ask something that was so basic.

Well that’s my question for the night. Let me know if you think its a good idea or even doable on here. Thanks!!

Eric, I don't know if this is doable or not but think this is a very good idea.

Thanks! Who would be the person to look into this? Just curious.

Eric,
Very good suggestion!
Send an e-mail to Bob Lusk.

Will Do!! Thanks lets see if there are others who think its a good Idea and maybe we can get this going.

Good idea!

Would FAQ be a good idea for newbies? - Yes.

It would be interesting to see exactly how it affected the forum. I can see where some questions would be answered by the FAQ without ever having to register, login, and post. Some folks we might never meet.

OTOH there aren't likely to be any FAQ about raising bass in a toaster oven, so the Animals of the world would still be with us! :p

:D

The Mississippi Fishing Forum does have that. They are called "Stickies". However, they only pertain to Mississippi. With a national website, and with Rad, international, it will be tougher.

Dave, thanks for the point to the Mississippi Fishing Forum. I will look into that.

I am sure that it might be tougher to deal with a more global type advice, but I am sure there are constants like, don't add the baitfish after the big guys. Or there may be a north south section to deal with the fundamental diffs between the two approaches. I would think that if it was kept to the basics it would be a good starting point to get people more comfy to start asking deeper questions.

We will see when I get an answer back to see if this is even a direction they want the board to go.

In addition to Theo's point consider that Bob told us at DFW that for every person that is registered (all 2400+-) that there are 4 times that many who visit and read . It is good to make it easier to use but we need to encourage more good people to join in the discussion. Often the only way to get them to start is for them to ask an easy FAQ question. Also fairly new posters will feel comfortable answering these type FAQ questions and to make search suggestions based on FAQ they have read , to first time questioners. No easy answers but a lot to think about. I would really like a better division of topics and search ability but don't know what. It is good that we are thinking about how to improve this forum. Eric thanks for starting the topic.

I think the PB fourm has accumulated a large enough history of past posts that we do need to think of maybe a different way of organizing the forum library. Search for a topic is starting to become cumbersome. Especially when two or more topics are embedded in a different title. I'm not sure of an answer to this problem but it continues to become a bigger problem daily. The variety of topics in Questions and Observations is very diverse. Many belong in other headings.

At least you can search all the topics simultaneously now - that's a nice improvement.

YES that new searching feature was a very welcome improvement.

Theo :

All I have been able to do is search all topics in one catagory at one time . Am I missing something ? Plus I sometimes have problems with multi-word searches.

Under "Search Forum" you can now choose "Category: Open" which (I believe from one use) looks in all the topics.

Multiple word searches I still haven't messed around with much here. I need to check and see what Boolean operators are usable.

Theo :

I can only get it to search Q&O from the open category. I think it is limited to searching topics within a Category.

Ewest, No Problem Glad to start something. lol

I would have a slightly different bent on why so many lurk as opposed to ask. I was a bit afraid to ask a few questions early on because I thought they may be stupid questions. I know others who still haven't joined in the conversations because they feel they are not able to contribute. I think giving a basics course may open them up quicker to contributing here. I am also sure the opposite is also true and the FAQ section may hinder some earlier on.

Who knows which was might be best. Either way I agree that thinking f either organizing things better ( but better to who, the novice or expert ) or providing a FAQ would make this better and easier for more to use.

I've been wondering lately about the amount of "lurking." And I do want to stress that I am not thinking of lurking in a negative way.

This forum is great, and it demonstrates a clearly above average decorum on a daily basis. So I've wondered how things would change or what the implications might be if the membership was to grow rapidly. How would things change? Would it be an improvement?

I've been toying with the idea of doing some kind of "Roll Call" type of thread requesting those out there watching to yell "Present," with no strings attached, just to see who all would sound off. I haven't done anything like that because I have no idea if that would help or hurt the board.

As an example of a benefit, I was contacted by a gentleman who has two ponds within 10 miles of my pond; he found me through the forum. I'm glad he contacted me. I'd like to meet more pond owners close by to me.

Just throwing those thoughts out there.

I've met some great pond owners near me because of the forum. NEDOC, SHORTY, Norm Kopecky, Edward Eitel and George Glazener...I've had the pleasure to meet some really good 'uns. The Nebraska Game and Parks forum actually shows at any one time who's visiting at the moment. That would be interesting.

One of my old forum hangouts got so many repeat/newbie questions that we created a FAQ and put in LARGE print at the top of the page "Be sure to read the faq before asking questions".

--- The Result ----

Nobody read it, and we still got all the same repeat questions, but it did give us a quick place to point them for their answer.

Then something strange happened.... The forum regulars started getting "snippy" with the newbies for asking the repeat questions and not reading the faq. In fact, the place became very hostile to the newbs after a while. That's one reason I don't hang out there anymore.

From my short time here so far, I don't believe you guys are the sort to become "newb unfriendly", and the content of this site dictates it only gets a small fraction of the # of lurkers of the site I refer to (a classic gaming site), so I don't think that would be a problem here.

Just thought I'd share my experience w/ the faq thing.


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I think the best basic primer I've ever found is Lusks book "Raising Trophy Bass". I've read it several times.

Being "snippy" to a newcomer could lose us a chance at a great new member.

You never know who that person might be.

Sunil has a good point as does Blackjack . ML has often posted and I agree the strength of this forum is in the quality and knowledge of the people who take the time to post to help others . That attitude of kindness and concern is what makes us different and enjoyable and what keeps members here once they start. Without it we are just like the other sites with name calling , anger etc which is not where I want to go. That is why this is the only forum I participate in -- quality people like each of you with the right attitude about life.

Bruce is right being snippy could lose us a good new member but it can also start an unfortunate change in our approach to each other. Has anyone reported this thread to Bob ? It would be good to see what he knows that we don't wrt the viewership and what might be possible.

I think this is a great idea.
Just remember that every question answered can lead to two new questions.