In my dreams, every poster would read a 'sticky' thread or a Newbie FAQ that, among other things, explains to them how the incredibly generous vets here are glad to help them, and probably open every new thread, they do not need to withhold their topic from the thread title. I honestly think they do it on purpose. I have encountered quite a few polite new people (i myself am only a newbie-and-a-half)and a few really rude lately. But you can't tell from the thread title. I think a reached the breaking point over the last couple of days with the occureance of several true true classics like "HELP!" Frankly, I DON'T open threads with good, specific topics if it is WAY away from my interest or ability to help. So yes, those people might not get my eyeballs on their issue. However, I always have to open the classic withhold threads, because they may turn into a really important discussion that I will either learn a lot, or perhaps help some, even though I am only half-baked at this time. That does not seem fair. So new people...put your problem in your thread titles and trust that the right people will find it. Solution B: With all due respect, Renderosity could get a new server that would be lickity split and I would not have a 3-6 second delay between clicking on a thread title and getting to the page. Then I WOULD open every thread. ::::: Opera ::::: P.S. That newbie sheet should also teach them how it is polite to search first.

I generally skip them unless they get long or I'm really-really bored. However, I do like the trend, of some folks, to follow up the original post but also completing their Subject line. & nothing implied by the revised subject line here, just that yours reminded me of a line by old hippie Larry in a scene on the Dharma & Greg sitcom that cracked me up, - as no one had actually asked him to calm down. (i.e. yours had the appearance that you anticipated, after reading your thread, someone might suggest that you needed help)

lol i THAT context, I DO need help! ::::: Opera :::::

I usually read all the threads even ones that have subjects I am not particularly interested in. The thing that annoys me more is when someone asks for help without saying which version of poser they are using.

what i do not like is when they delete the original post

I generally skip them unless they get long or I'm really-really bored. <<
Same for me.

The thing that annoys me more is when someone asks for help without saying which version of poser they are using.<<
Oops! I am one of those sometimes. And am ashamed when others must ask what version I'm using. I am shaping up though. Good to be reminded!:oP

"That newbie sheet should also teach them how it is polite to search first" I guess the problem is sometimes you do not know, what to search for... One of the more common questions is the one where the answer is turn off smooth polygon for that figure/prop. Now, which word would you enter into the search box? Just remember, that you're new to the program and all you see is some weird behaviour of some items in your scene? Ultimatly this will lead to a post with a topic like... "help - weird behaviour of some items in my scene" ;)

...and how helpful it would be if the so-called self-styled "search" facility was actually usable. I'm not saying everyone would use it, but it seems to be very hard to search for something that you know is there. Searching for something which you believe to be the first occurrence of its kind - "I add clothes, my figure disappears" - must be very difficult.

From this post it seems none of you want to help with anything. When I first came here a couple weeks ago, I was greeted with "ask any question", "no question is a dumb one", "we are here to help". I've used the search and I'm sure most can't even see where the word is above to use it. Try searching for "importing textures into poser 5" or "importing textures" -- nothing I can use so I would ask here. Is that something that would not get the attention and help I was looking for? quote "what i do not like is when they delete the original post" hey I put something up that was the wrong thing, and I went about it the wrong way. I was going to post again but didn't realize it would leave the old message in place. didn't I buy somethings from you? I hate it when there are posts like these and make us "newbie" want to go somewhere else

At least I got you to read this post, which TEACHES you one thing, right? In case you missed it: Put something about your issue in the subject. Second, it's posts like yours that make more experienced people want to not help, because you are throwing your hurt feelings around. Oh, by the way, it teaches you something else, which is in my first paragrah and which I hoped you absorbed and honored: The premise of the message to a new person is not "watch out, don't offend the forum", it is this: The members are incredibly generous. They will help. If you want to amplify the generosity, here's one small thing you can do to both show respect and help them help you. Put something about your issue in the subject. I will say one more thing. When someone posts a topic like "HELP!!!" and then the text inside is a question that has been answered many many times, it is an indication that the person has NOT taken the time to come in, read a few threads, get the 'lay of the land', do a search and attempt to do things like they are done here, which is good advice for any civilized person in any walk of life. Frankly, it's somewhat rude. We still help you, but it was been a fractious interaction rather than a rich one. So, welcome to this helping place. ::::: Opera :::::

Hey no hurt feelings here... I had all my questions answered fast and very informative and I appreciate that. If subject is what you want, then subject you will get. And yes there are people that show up, ask one question and then they are gone. Thats the way it has always been on BB's. hey this is a great place and lets get back to it.

well I am sure that in some cases having you delete the post is a nessisary feature, which is why it is there. And I hope that you do not think that I am talking about you in particular jnln.

it's all good man... have a good one

It would really be better if the first post in a thread couldn`t be deleted at all. If it was something that had to be deleted there could be some system of asking a co-ordinator to do it. Another thing they could do is if you want to delete the first post it would say, are you sure you want to delete this message, it will NOT delete the whole thread?

Would it be possible to edit the message even to change the subject line for it instead of deleting it? I agree completely with the fact that it is not good to write only things like "HELP!" in the subject line. As for asking newbies to use the Search feature here... HA! Is that a joke or what??? Even those of you who have been coming here for years are having problems using this search feature! So how can you expect a newbie to 1) know what to search for and 2) understand the way the Search feature works (or rather DOES NOT work) here? Another thing that wasn't mentioned in this thread is that there are many newbies for whom English is not their first language. These newbies have another handicap to overcome and might not know the correct terminology to explain their problems, even less so trying to write a subject that would specify what the problem is in 1 single line. This being said, when I started in Poser last year, I came here and I asked LOTS of questions and I've always had replies and most people were kind to me. I am one of these non-English Poser users but I had one thing going for me in the fact that I had helped lots of people in other forums so I already knew about not writing HELP! in the subject line and I also thought of stating that I HAD tried to use the Search Feature without success before asking the question. Not all newbies have that kind of experience with forums. Thank you for reading this and have a wonderful day all of you, newbies or not! lolll France

I really don't mind if the question is one that is has been asked a million times-- with V2 it was eyebrows-- with every Poser it's how do I conform without losing the main figure. How do people know that those questions have been asked so often? Some obsessives, like me, read the darn forums for three months while waiting for your software to arrive. This was three years ago and I had trashed my P4 disks. So I learned most of the essentials in that time-- and I still clicked on the wrong thing to add clothes.LOL! Some people are so darn scared of getting blasted they just post a question and run away hoping noone will flame them. There actually are places like that. We are not one of them-- they don't know that, especially if English is not their primary language. Three years and more of working Poser and I still can't get the forum search engine to work reliably. Either nothing comes up, or 300 pages come up, none of which have anything to do with my problem. I never blame anyone for not using it. It gives me the collywobbles. But, please, oh please, if you, operaguy could get people to mention basic prob in the title, and list the operating system and version of Poser, Vicki,Judy,Mike etc-- whether you upgraded to the fixes on P5-- you should get a medal!!! Two medals if people stop deleting their first post! How are others to learn if everyone deletes their mistakes. I bless and applaud everyone who's mistakes helped me to learn more. It's the only way. Good thread. Emily

I agree with francemi about the search it is not very good. I used it a few minutes ago to find a post I did and I couldn`t find the post. If it is hard to find your own posts with the search it is going to be harder for someone new to poser searching for something when they might not know how to phrase the search.

it's easy to find your own posts... just search on your username now xantor, you've been here a long time...that would be a lot of posts, but for me...that's what I do. ::::: Opera ::::

re searching for your own posts, ... shoulda picked a nick that wasn't a part of other very common graphics related terms: luminance, chrominance, anotherstupidpostbynance...

lol nance, you are dead in the water! ::::: Opera ::::: <------ not 3D related

Xantor isn`t 3d related, I just found out recently that xantor was a minor baddie in a spiderman comic (in the first spiderman film bonus disk).

I really get the impression some people don't bother to read the message base here before posting a question. That's why we see the same old questions at least twice a week. Come to think of it, how many people read the Frequently Asked Questions? I've used the Search feature several times, and always found helpful results.

New threads often don't have a descriptive title. I recently posted a message spreading the word about the free Emotiguy. I didn't see a thread someone else had started because that title was not descriptive. There had been another "cute guy" thread about a character created by PhilC, I believe. I skipped that one.

Some people don't think about telling us their Poser version and operating system, but that's very useful information. It helps us get their answer faster. Some people seem evasive, when you have to keep asking about their configuration, and they keep giving bits of information at a time.

I spend a lot of time helping people to learn Poser. But I see it as a two-way street. People need to know how to ask a question, and understand the answer. They also need to do some work themselves. If someone wants to know where to find freebies, I ask "have you looked in Free Stuff yet?"

Message edited on: 02/16/2005 00:15