Another Thread about the Q&A
TappedOut forum
Posted on Feb. 12, 2015, 6:31 p.m. by hyperlocke
I'm a little hesistant to put up this thread, because there have been many threads about this, and I guess Epochalyptik repeatedly pesters yeaGO about it; but to my knowledge, no thread gave an answer to why this hasn't been addressed yet, so here it goes...
Maybe it's just me, but the last weeks seemed to introduce a new flood of rules questions asked in the forums while the Q&A stays empty. As said above, there have been threads about this, and there were many suggestions, for example
- Rename the MTG Q&A to "Rules Q&A" or similar
- Move the Q&A to forums
- Have a disclaimer like this on the main forum site and on each sub-forum:
Rules questions don't belong in the forums. Ask them in the MTG Q&A (see top banner)
I really don't want to be too pushy about this, but it seems like Epochalyptik and ChiefBell are constantly moving rules questions to BE. Implementing one of these shouldn't be too much of a problem (although I don't know about the second one), it would take at least a small amount of work off our admins and keep he forums clean.
This is a problem that has crept up again and again. There are constant updates to this site, and this seems like a relatively minor one that would do a lot of good. The whole point of this rant is: Is there a reason this hasn't been done yet? And if not, could you please do it?
The biggest problem with this I do not feel is due to placement of the Q&A.
The issue comes from the users. People don't read the Forum rules.
People don't look before they post to make sure they are doing so correctly
While sure maybe moving things could cut it a little bit, but there is only so much that can be done about people just not paying attention.
February 12, 2015 6:57 p.m.
vampirelazarus says... #4
You must be new here :3
This sort of thing has been going on probably since before I was even around, and it feels like Ive been here for ever and a half :P
These ideas you have, they are pretty good ideas, and are similar to things Ive seen suggested by Epoch himself, but since he doesn't exactly have access to the site's internal code, and Mr. Go is on a "originality" binge (which is a good thing, sometimes, Go, dont get me wrong :P) and as such, probably has reasons for not implementing the ideas.
There is also the possibilty that the code itself for the system is too obfuscated to implement the ideas. I don't know, as I've never seen it, but I do know that I've gone back after a couple months, looked at some program I wrote and went "What the hell is this supposed to even do?"
February 12, 2015 7:01 p.m.
MindAblaze says... #5
Yeah, no matter what we're going to run into users who don't read the screen and are just looking for a place to ask a question. It happens every time a new set come out as new users are looking for clarification on how the new set interacts with the old world. I do see the point of having a mock forum heading that redirects to the Q&A section though, then when people go to the forum home page they see something that corresponds to what they're looking for.
February 12, 2015 7:01 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #6
Some progress is better than no progress. We can't really force people to read the rules every time they post. We might be able to devise a more intrusive system that makes users consciously pick what they're doing, but that's about it.
Maybe instead of the quick post window in each forum, have a link to a central thread creator that forces users to pick one forum from a dropdown?
I suspect part of the problem is that people are posting by going directly into the forums they like, so they don't see or read the descriptions for the forum listings.
February 12, 2015 7:04 p.m.
Can we just make a new part of the forums that is for a q and a because that would remove an extra part of the website and give people who dont read that much but still post on the forums at least them we would have a controlled place for the q+a thats not all over the forums
February 12, 2015 7:16 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #9
@cjk191997: You're missing the point of the Q&A, I think. I like the fact that you can select an answer for active questions and that resolved questions never get bumped regardless of how many times they're necroed. Those are extremely useful features.
The point is that we need to make the Q&A more visible.
Another thing: we're seeing a lot of confusion about where certain kinds of threads go. Commonly, we see a deck help thread that gets put in the format forums because people don't read forum descriptions.
yeaGO, would it be possible to create the central posting system that I mentioned earlier? I'm thinking something like this:
What kind of post are you writing?
Select forum: (Appears only if user checked "I have another kind of post.")
This would help avoid misplaced threads that result from users posting from within a forum without knowing or selecting a more appropriate option.
February 12, 2015 8:21 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #10
Maybe add another checkbox between the above two that says "I want advice on one of my decks."
Checking the first box would force the thread to the Q&A.
Checking the deck advice box would force it to Deck Help.
Checking the last box would bring up a drop down selection of the remaining forums.
I'm just thinking that it's beneficial from an organization standpoint to remove at least some of the chance for user error. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that the users read forum descriptions or warning banners before posting something.
Epochalyptik says... #2
I've been trying to get yeaGO to add a notice to the posting screens and to create a mock forum listing for the Q&A to stick at the top of the forum page.
I want to keep the Q&A as is, though, because the ability to select and highlight an answer is what makes it more useful than a regular forum.
February 12, 2015 6:55 p.m.