Posting Courtesy

[Glenn]

There are a couple of ways, the best being the forum search engine at the top right of the forum page in the tan bar, over the word tailgating.

Enter your key words (what your interested in) and click go. If you want to look in just the titles use the lower text box. The advance search allows you to refine your search even more.

As with any search engine, the better the questions, the better the answers. You need to start a search, do a little reading and then redefine your key words. You need to know a shovel is called a spade, and a paper bag is called a poke, and search for both. When in doubt, there is nothing wrong with asking for assistance.

[nonjic]

Back to the original topic of this thread, how to deal with questionable, or mis-information posted on the site,.

I do not think it would be insulting to the person who posted the information to ask for a citation of their fact in the thread,

If they provide one, great, we all win.

If the fact or information can not be backed up at least there is a ??? there for future readers of the thread so they know the information has not been substantiated.

Mods, you do a good job of keeping it all in shape, not an easy task. It will pay dividends as the site grows as quality information will be much easier to find and use.

[Ten Hammers]

You get this many folks in a room, they like hogs. One bites another's tail and the squealin' begins. I think it is healthy that Bob started this thread. I have typed at some of these folks for quite a while (Glenn, Dale Russell, Rich, Junior and Dodge to be specific). I am sure there are more (Clang and others)

At age 55 if I start a new job and someone wishes to call me a noob, so be it. I was perhaps welding or doing something related to the job before they were born. I DO have the responsability of acting like an adult however. If you consider that lots of folks on the net today are of the age that they have never had to truthfully look hard ( in person ) for information it becomes easier to understand why some folks think google has all the answers (or wikipedia). Granted, there are a lot of good answers from places like I mentioned BUT on a website such as this, you have live warm bodies with experience. Trying to get some folks to listen is near impossible and I do yes expect that trying to reach these folks through this thread is nearly impossible. Remaining civil in my posts should not be too tough a task though. If I can be of help I am honored. I have certainly learned more than I can ever contribute.

Having visited some members shops and homes I feel honored to know many folks here. I stop by when I have time.

[Doug C]

I use a site for software developers that has a simple method of dealing with the quality of a post and with redundancy of posts. All posts are posed as questions so the format is a bit different.

1) As you create a thread / ask a question, a search is done automatically that shows other threads that may already answer your question.

2) Registered users get to vote for a post via a thumbs up / thumbs down sort of method. Each post is clearly marked with the "score" so you can quickly see what is worth paying attention to. High scoring posts to a thread rise to the top.

3) The person who started the thread gets to choose the answer they liked best which always floats to the top of the thread.

This would take some of the burden off of Glenn, Steve and all the others who troll the threads pointing folks at info already in place. It would allow us, the users, to rank answers not people. The big win there is that there is less debate about what is right, less meaningless stuff posted and hopefully good info. Your vote does the talking unless you have something to contribute.

Anyone else seen anything like this? Does it sound reasonable?

[Quenchcrack]

Doug, It is an interesting concept but I think there are so many ways to do things as a smith, it would be difficult to vote for the "best" one. It would be like voting for the best piece of art in a museum. All a matter of taste and experience.

[Frosty]

You're right Robert, ask 10 smiths what the best, whatever, is and you'll get 15 answers.

On the other hand a rating system wouldn't have to be about THE best answer unless someone actually believes there is only one. For the rest of us a top five list is better.

Having a "Disregard! This is nonsense." rating would probably be the most valuable of all.

Besides it'd be a huge bunch of fun when some kid who makes a RIDICULOUSLY IMPOSSIBLE claim comes back with a pic or vid to show us "experts" (I'm placing myself in the category only as a matter of ego you understand. ) s/he CAN indeed do exactly what s/he said. I LOVE those moments. I learn more than you'd believe by letting a student have his/er head with something they THINK will work. (I keep an eye on them to keep things safe of course.) Usually the wild ideas are total busts but every once in a great while they're gems, absolute GEMS nobody with any knowledge would even consider.

The rating idea has merit for sure, whether it'd be practical or desirable for IFI is . . . ?

Frosty

[Dragons lair]

When you stop learning you be daid. Frosty hit it right on the head. I have done a few things that the masters,experts. professionals. said YOU CAN"T DO IT THAT WAY. My rule is if you don't like or can't do it my or some experts way DO it your way. Safely of course.
Ken

[Doug C]

The rating system would be based on the number of thumbs up or thumbs down that a post gets. Each thumbs down is minus one point each thumbs up is plus one. You would get to see pretty quick which answers have merit and which one should be ignored. As for "the best" answer, the site I was referring to allows the person who started the thread the ability to say which answer helped them the most.

Maybe we could reward folks who give the most good answers each month with an IFI tee shirt;)