What's wrong with our forum moderator staff?

[EarthDog]

Originally Posted by Kreij

It's up to the person asking for assistance to question any advice they feel may not be right.

Humor me...how would you propose someone who comes here looking for help on a subject they dont know anything/much about questions the answers they are given?

If I dont know about a subject and come here to ask about it, chances are, Im taking the responses at any forum seriously and more over do not have the knowledge in the first place to say, "hmmmmmmm, I dont think your advice is right"...otherwise I wouldnt be asking the question. Right?

Its the members here (along with an informed staff) that should have that information...People come here FOR the answers, not to questions the answers given.

[qubit]

Originally Posted by Kreij

No elite people here ... just all us geeks and geekettes trying to attain world peace through overclocking and coding.

Awesome.

[Easy Rhino]

why do people get all bent out of shape over a tech forum like this? if you are not having a good experience then don't come back.

[cadaveca]

Originally Posted by Easy Rhino

why do people get all bent out of shape over a tech forum like this? if you are not having a good experience then don't come back.

I guess it depends on what brought you here in the first place.

[Easy Rhino]

Originally Posted by cadaveca

I guess it depends on what brought you here in the first place.

the ladies.

[qubit]

Originally Posted by Easy Rhino

the ladies.

You mean Tatty's sexy lady avatars?

[Kreij]

Originally Posted by EarthDog

Humor me...how would you propose someone who comes here looking for help on a subject they dont know anything/much about questions the answers they are given?

If I dont know about a subject and come here to ask about it, chances are, Im taking the responses at any forum seriously and more over do not have the knowledge in the first place to say, "hmmmmmmm, I dont think your advice is right"...otherwise I wouldnt be asking the question. Right?

Its the members here (along with an informed staff) that should have that information...People come here FOR the answers, not to questions the answers given.

Considered yourself humored.

You can make assessments on the answers in your thread by the replies.
If everyone pretty much agrees on things, good chance the info is correct or at least sufficient to get you going.
Occasionally a thread with a lot of contention will crop up. Then you google around to try to get even more information so you can try to make an "educated guess".
That's what I do anyway. (shrug)

[JrRacinFan]

Originally Posted by Kreij

Considered yourself humored.

You can make assessments on the answers in your thread by the replies.
If everyone pretty much agrees on things, good chance the info is correct or at least sufficient to get you going.
Occasionally a thread with a lot of contention will crop up. Then you google around to try to get even more information so you can try to make an "educated guess".
That's what I do anyway. (shrug)

What i find is that if someone doesn't know anything about the topic they should just freeze and refrain from posting. Then again, not many people think before they speak up.

[EarthDog]

Yay! Humor!

Ok, that I see... I guess Im just backwards in my methods. I try some googlefoo first and if that doesnt yield the results/answers Im looking for, I post in a forum to get the braintrust's opinion/answer.

[Kreij]

Interesting. I come here first and do a search. 9 times out of 10 I don't need to google as the answer is buried in the TPU archive somewhere.

Anyway, we are here to help everyone if we can. From the person who just realized that clicking the mouse buttons does something to the person trying desperately to pencil mod their Intel IGP.
IF we don't share our knowledge the next generations are going to be crap overclockers and coders.

[Kursah]

Knowlege and a kickass forum environment brought me here. I came, I learned to OC, I OC'd, I saw good OC's, next thing I know I'm browsing the forums before work and happen to stumble upon a thread where a fellow new member was asking a question I just happened to freshly have the answer to. That's where the addiction to being a part of TPU happened for me. I've always loved helping people, and I was super appreciative of this place for helping me get my P4 oc'd, back when Tigger helped me with my first Core2 build, and OC it, etc. I've always been a researcher of products, how to use them, value, tweaks, mods, etc...and google has been my good friend for years on that aspect.

That's why no matter what faults this place has, the people here make this place. The mods and staff give us a few guidelines that are easy to follow for a free service and place to visit and enjoy. It sucks when people feel unfairly treated, but thankfully this isn't a perfect world...I've been shit on many times in real life...I don't cry when I'm treated unfair because it accomplishes nothing...on TPU I've seen it come with great deals such as temp and perma-banning, flaming, destroyed help threads, ego wars, fanboi wars, more banstick, kind of a shame really. This place is great, no need to change it IMHO. Because really, especially you new faces that haven't been here through the changes in years past, this place is already quite different from what it used to be, but still has that familiar TPU "feel" to it, something no other place on the web can do right. So do take that as food for thought when you feel there needs to be more rules, less rules, more mods, less mods, more control, or change this, change how this person can reply to what thread, etc, etc...odds are it's the new guy that needs to take a step back, see how things work and see if it works for them or not, give it time, as with anything new to ya...you gotta break into it, and it needs to break into you. This place, once you're accustomed to it, is like a favorite pair of shoes or your lucky hat, or whatever...and there's nothing else like it anywhere that'll ever be right. So enjoy the moment, because someday it will change (again)...will it be drastic like the April Fool's had us scared of? Who knows, but great things don't always last forever. Get what you can and donate what you can, keep this place in a good light, and let's enjoy the entity that is TechPowerUp! Happy Holidays!



Edit: And Kreij, I think all of you new and old staff members are doing a kickass job. Granted I never see the drama, I report the crap I can, and am thankful we have you guys keeping this place in check. I feel no remorse for anyone that runs into a mod, argues with them and get's banned. As the mods I know are fair and consistent, and if a mistake is made (OMG...mods are HUMAN?!?! NO WAAAYYY...lol! :P ), it is always fixed from few I've seen (which are very few). So thanks again TPU staff, sure you might not make me breakfast before work, or serve me that first frosty cold one after work, but you make my TPU experience a good one!

[micropage7]

Originally Posted by Kreij

No elite people here ... just all us geeks and geekettes trying to attain world peace through overclocking and coding.

i agree, we are on the same level (the difference is only on the title) and thats why we need to help each other

[Arel3]

Originally Posted by EarthDog

Humor me...how would you propose someone who comes here looking for help on a subject they dont know anything/much about questions the answers they are given?

If I dont know about a subject and come here to ask about it, chances are, Im taking the responses at any forum seriously and more over do not have the knowledge in the first place to say, "hmmmmmmm, I dont think your advice is right"...otherwise I wouldnt be asking the question. Right?

Its the members here (along with an informed staff) that should have that information...People come here FOR the answers, not to questions the answers given.

Thanks! And I thanked/kudo'd. That is my point of making my suggestion. If there's no experts labeled as staff or experts here to rely on...how they heck is someone less educated on whatever they're asking about to know the advice they receive is safe enough for them to attempt?

That is the exact reason the other sites I belong to have 'elite' members who are labeled as Developers, Staff, Support, etc...so people know who knows their schitt, what advice to accept and try, and what advice to be skeptical with.

Wizz asked for suggestions on how this site and it's forums can be made better.
That is the answer; Label the experts.

[garyinhere]

Originally Posted by Arel3

how they heck is someone less educated on whatever they're asking about to know the advice they receive is safe enough for them to attempt?

Common sense Should tell you to use common sense when needed... and most hardware wrecking advice is given with a disclaimer to try at your own risk ie flashing a GPU bios ect... and imo the people who accidentally screw their stuff up tend to know how not to screw yours up later

and giving some elite status would make fighting worse imo

[Kreij]

Originally Posted by Kursah

sure you might not make me breakfast before work, or serve me that first frosty cold one after work

HEY !! You're the one who never followed up on the open invitation to come south and visit. Home-made omlettes in the morning, endless supply of beer ... heck I might even take a shower and change my underwear for the occasion.

Back on topic ... Not a bad idea having "known experts", but who decides who is an expert? The drama that would create would be legendary on the internet.

[Easy Rhino]

Originally Posted by Kreij

HEY !! You're the one who never followed up on the open invitation to come south and visit. Home-made omlettes in the morning, endless supply of beer ... heck I might even take a shower and change my underwear for the occasion.

Back on topic ... Not a bad idea having "known experts", but who decides who is an expert? The drama that would create would be legendary on the internet.

I'm an expert with the ladies so I will require proper labeling.

[Kreij]

So change your title. lol

[Arel3]

Originally Posted by garyinhere

Common sense Should tell you to use common sense when needed... and most hardware wrecking advice is given with a disclaimer to try at your own risk ie flashing a GPU bios ect... and imo the people who accidentally screw their stuff up tend to know how not to screw yours up later

and giving some elite status would make fighting worse imo

You're right. Some people that come to sites like this don't have any sort of common sense though. Even people without any common sense *should* know which advice to listen to if the advice given's poster has a label or image next to their name saying "General TPU Computer Support Agent" or whatever...vs attempting the advice from someone that doesn't have that status/label of which the poster is blowing smoke trying to show off and be something they're not.

IF something like that was in place and someone who asks for advice doesn't have enough common sense to even understand that...their problem.

I actually tackled this problem years ago on Nukeplanet.com by making a post basically saying "Anyone here is free to reply to any post with their own advice and we appreciate it when they do. However please keep in mind that if they don't have an image under their name, such as mine that says "Developer" to the left of each post, they are not a part of our staff. They are simply someone attempting to help. We are not responsible if you accept their advice and suffer losses because of it."

Yes it may be a completely different area but it's the same concept. We accepted donations at that site, people also paid us individually for our help or services. Which, that I've seen so far, doesn't happen here. I assume there's a disclaimer here too but I haven't personally seen it myself.

I'm not attempting to step on toes or tell TPU how to run their site or anything like that. Please don't take it that way. I just made a suggestion, as asked, that might help improve the site and make it better for everyone.

You could also be right about it causing more fights. If a system like I suggested were in place a simple low-level observing member couldn't hold a stick to someone in the TPU Technical Support group. So all the person that's arguing would be doing is making a bigger ass of them self.

[Mussels]

not to mention that expertise seems lacking in some areas.


i've seen some people who seemed to know a lot about one area of a subject (say, the fine knowledge of OCing their CPU and ram) and then in another thread ask what dual channel means.

[garyinhere]

Originally Posted by Arel3

You're right. Some people that come to sites like this don't have any sort of common sense though. Even people without any common sense *should* know which advice to listen to if the advice given's poster has a label or image next to their name saying "General TPU Computer Support Agent" or whatever...vs attempting the advice from someone that doesn't have that status/label of which the poster is blowing smoke trying to show off and be something they're not.

IF something like that was in place and someone who asks for advice doesn't have enough common sense to even understand that...their problem.

I actually tackled this problem years ago on Nukeplanet.com by making a post basically saying "Anyone here is free to reply to any post with their own advice and we appreciate it when they do. However please keep in mind that if they don't have an image under their name, such as mine that says "Developer" to the left of each post, they are not a part of our staff. They are simply someone attempting to help. We are not responsible if you accept their advice and suffer losses because of it."

Yes it may be a completely different area but it's the same concept. We accepted donations at that site, people also paid us individually for our help or services. Which, that I've seen so far, doesn't happen here. I assume there's a disclaimer here too but I haven't personally seen it myself.

I'm not attempting to step on toes or tell TPU how to run their site or anything like that. Please don't take it that way. I just made a suggestion, as asked, that might help improve the site and make it better for everyone.

You could also be right about it causing more fights. If a system like I suggested were in place a simple low-level observing member couldn't hold a stick to someone in the TPU Technical Support group. So all the person that's arguing would be doing is making a bigger ass of them self.

So if you were Wiz how would you implement this into the forums? ie get people to volunteer(that are certified) and have liability insurance for mishaps? Or, would you pay the experts? Give us some idea's!

[cadaveca]

One thing I've learned is that in order to remain an expert in any subject, you continually need to go back to school.


Does this mean TPU is gonna offer scholarships?



Personally, I'd never lose the humilty to claim to be an expert at anything, nor do I listen to those claiming to be one. Any such title or whatever here would kill what this forum is about...a bunch of non-experts helping each other out.

No wonder you have issues with the forum.

[95Viper]

And, who would be the one/ones to issue such titles of knowledge?
And, who would grace that party/parties the power to judge others worthy?

For thirty plus years, I had to re-engineer the junk the ones with titles of knowledge & technical certifications/degrees put into the field.
IMO, the ones who flaunt their titles of knowledge are the ones who really are the least believable.

Anyway, it seems to me, at least on TPU, most know what they speak of.
(even the PSU/ups/surge protector annoying geekazoid has moments. Not mentioning any names, but how in heck does he pop up when those phrases are mentioned?)
And, wrong or not, I do use the post count\thanks count as a judge of reliability.
I figure the longer they last with out getting tossed out, the more believable they are.
Just my opinion.

And, 99.5% of the mods do a fantastic job.
.5% are so-so. Joking!

It is a community, enjoy it.

Disclaimer: If this post in anyway causes harm, it is your own fault for reading it.

[Cold Storm]

Sheep and sheep hearders... I guess thats the way it should be

Nah, if tpu became a site like all that.. we'd have so many hacks that it's not even funny.. It's pretty sad when even at my place of work, the ones that have the "Certifications" are the ones that seem to know the lease to problems.. That's a flipping hospital..

This is a braintrust of people that come here for the same soul purpose as the next person.. To learn something they didn't know about. Threw the famous... Wait for it... Wait for it since the popcorn is now popping.... Question and Answers...

You don't need to be the "expert" in the area to help a person.. I guess I shouldn't of went and tried to raise money for a person since I don't have the sheet of paper that tells me I'm a Humanitarian?

[btarunr]

Originally Posted by Arel3

My suggestion, which I believe will greatly improve the service these forums provide, would be to keep the ignorant from replying or giving advice until they prove their knowledge either by submitting their certifications and experience on an application to become a TPU support agent, or by kudo/thanks ranking on public discussion forums.

If you want a forum full of only "certified" people. Go to MSDN or RedHat community. You'll find a lot of amusement there.

We love outdoing "certified" people while being "uncertified". ASUS and Gigabyte brought us up, Dell and HP brought "certified" people up.

Bottomline is certifications and academic qualifications are moot here. A geek with decent knowledge of overclocking can outdo a PhD in a 3DMark 11 contest.

[btarunr]

Originally Posted by EarthDog

Humor me...how would you propose someone who comes here looking for help on a subject they dont know anything/much about questions the answers they are given?

If I dont know about a subject and come here to ask about it, chances are, Im taking the responses at any forum seriously and more over do not have the knowledge in the first place to say, "hmmmmmmm, I dont think your advice is right"...otherwise I wouldnt be asking the question. Right?

Its the members here (along with an informed staff) that should have that information...People come here FOR the answers, not to questions the answers given.

If you're in a mission-critical situation, you'll obviously hire a tech-support firm to give you 99% definitive answers to your questions.

Sure, "People come here FOR the answers, not to questions the answers given.", but "People come here FOR FREE answers". Did you miss that "free" part? People who answer you do so voluntarily, out of courtesy, or for whatever other reason. It's totally up to you to try every idea out till you get your solution; and your responsibility if something bad happens to your PC as a result of following an idea. That's how free user forums (such as TPU) work.

Therefore, it's not the staff or the community's headache to sort the genuinely knowledgeable from the not.