Site Suggestions

oh, cool never noticed that:cool2:

Canyon:

I got here a couple of weeks ago and prowled around as a visitor until yesterday, so I’m a total newbie here. Found you through a link to a thread on another site.

So far, I like most of what I’ve seen, and I can see there’s a lot here that I need to know. I’m looking forward to it.

Along the way, I’ve had a couple of occasions to wonder about something and I was planning to send you a PM. (That leads to a second item. See below.)

Mixed in with a lot of really good information and discourse on the threads I’ve been into, mostly longer ones, there are a LOT of posts by relative newbies asking for information that’s been posted in the thread previously (sometimes posted many times). It’s good to have a well mannered group of users and to welcome newbies, but the clutter of such newbie posts raises the noise level higher than it should be. Is it out of bounds to quietly communicate the thought that one should look look through the prior posts in a thread before asking what turns out to be a redundant question? Or to suggest that a search engine might be the right place to turn for information?

And for that second point: the PM section in the documentation on the site does not explain what it takes to get access to PM. Hence this post. Is information available somewhere or are newbies on “double secret probation” until initiated?

Thanks,
JumpingJax

Jumpingjax,

It is not out of bounds to point newbies or repeat question offenders to previous threads. I added some features, such as tags, which I was hoping would reduce this, but as you’ve noticed there’s still a lot of repeat posts. We’re fortunate that the composite guru’s who have frequented this place for years are patient and still answer questions.

As for PMs they’re initially disabled for new users, as spammers were abusing them to pester legitimate users. However I’ve enabled yours now so it should work.

Thanks for the feedback! Let me know if you have any other thoughts