[IMOG]

OCF is one of the LARGEST tech forums on the intarweb, and the level of posting activity is accordingly huge. With that many members and that much activity, there are going to be posts of all types, and there are going to be people of all types. It boggles my mind, how Audiman could be ANYWHERE for a couple years and have the amount of posts he has, but muck up a cooling setup that bad.... But like I said, we get people of all types.

With only 7,000 members, I commend you guys because you have a reputation of being a great resource, largely thanks to the work of phaestus. You also need to understand though, that with such a small memberbase, it is easy to make sure everyone gets all the information they need. At OCF, it is a serious challenge to keep up with the level of activity and make sure some errant n00bs don't slip by.

A lot of the n00bs start out in the cooling forums. I used to frequent them all the time in the first year of my OC membership, and I can't tell you how many times I posted correcting mistakes and making really contributional posts for people who were obviously fairly lost. Over time there, I naturally branched out and now I never enter any forums directly, I only use the view new posts function and search to find new thread topics to post in.

To point a finger at the moderators at OCF as though it is their fault is ridiculous and seriously unfair for the work they have on their shoulders there. You know where the fault lies?

It's the fault of posting in the way which Greenman100, squeakygeek, and thorilan have posted. "REad and search". And that is all they offer. And its not just them, there are others also. How does this improve the level of knowledge around the forum? Very slowly, if at all.

Like pHaestus recognized, there are a lot of knowledgeable people and information within OCF, and we need more people willing to dig that information up and share it.

Instead of lazy b@st@rds telling people to search for their answers, we need knowledgeable, friendly, helpful people who will take the 30 seconds to pull a quote and a link to the information that is needed - everything you need to know is right there, and those of us who have been around know how to find it already, unlike the n00bs. All that needs to be done is connecting the people with the information, but some people are too lazy to help. pHaestus just said this himself greenman, and I just told you the same through PM - what is stopping you from taking this advice from those of us who have been around the block for a while?

As a senior member there, I would also like to make it clear that people are not threatened to be banned without due course. No one has ever been banned without atleast going through the process of multiple initial warnings, then a 3day ban, then a perma-ban if the problems continue - and the process usually is more like 10 or more warnings throughout that progression. Bluntly stating something is no grounds for banning and no one has ever been banned for such. The only members who get banned show a blatant disregard for the rules.

We are a G rated forum though, so your definition of blunt may be different than my own, but bluntly saying something is no grounds for banning. Bluntly being an ass will make you show up on the mod-radar pretty quickly though. Bonking people on the head and saying "search stupid" is not going to help many people though... Not everyone is a forum fly who just sits around and reads everything, with a memberbase as large as ours, we get a lot of people just passing through and who want quick answers to their problems. A simple link and quote would help them and take only a minute, but we have some knowledgeable members who are unwilling to offer as much.

They'd rather bluntly say "Read, Search, then post", than be an active positive contributor to the forum. This sort of attitude is the problem I see at the cooling forums at OCF.

I apologize if any point I make comes across rudely, but seeing knowledgable members of our forums just complain about the problem and do nothing to help, then point fingers at it being the fault of our few members who act as moderators just doesn't sit right with me.

Does what I say not make sense?

EDIT: It has come to my attention that members like Greenman believe that they are "teaching members" by "helping" in the way which they post. In all fairness, I thought I would share that in light of what I said about that sort of posting above. If they want to teach, should they not be encourageing?

I do not see kids learning arithmetic from teachers who say "read the book stupid", it is all there. If we are to teach members, we must offer helpful guidance in getting to the knowledge. If all we needed was information, why are there so many teachers in the world?

A good teacher will connect his students with the right information in the quickest way possible.