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daniweb future/mission
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 279
Reputation: 
Solved Threads: 6
Posting Whiz in Training
cscgal,
I first want to say that you have a great site. I, for one, was extremely happy with the upgrade of visual content. I'm not sure of your motives, or of any time constraints you are working under, but I have some questions about your site. You can ignore them if you want; they are merely for suggestion. I haven't provided any answers to my questions, because I haven't noticed any about or mission statements on your site. Therefore, I didn’t know how to go about answering them. For example, are you the lone creator/admin, do you have help, do you need help? Perhaps you built the site, and now you and a few admins and moderators just maintain what you've got, with no plans for change. These are questions only you know the answers to, but I think at least a little excerpt on an about page would be great for everyone to learn a little bit about yourself and your site.
I’ve noticed there are many pages of unanswered forum posts. Is there a method for moderators to close out forums? Should there be? I understand sometimes posts are purposely ignored and/or just completely ridiculous. However, there are some legitimate, even great questions that have no answer. I also noticed a lot of database and web development questions that any daniweb admin should be able to handle; yet the remain unanswered. Perhaps the problem stems from the available help. Meaning there are just not enough people with relevant experience/answers to post. Have you thought about providing incentives for those who provide relevant help/answers?
I'm not sure where you plan on taking this site in the future, or if you would like it to emulate the functions of other sites such as http://www.computing.net/ or http://www.experts-exchange.com/. Perhaps you don't really have a plan and wherever you go from here is fine with you. Either one is great, I was just curious. Thanks.
J_
I first want to say that you have a great site. I, for one, was extremely happy with the upgrade of visual content. I'm not sure of your motives, or of any time constraints you are working under, but I have some questions about your site. You can ignore them if you want; they are merely for suggestion. I haven't provided any answers to my questions, because I haven't noticed any about or mission statements on your site. Therefore, I didn’t know how to go about answering them. For example, are you the lone creator/admin, do you have help, do you need help? Perhaps you built the site, and now you and a few admins and moderators just maintain what you've got, with no plans for change. These are questions only you know the answers to, but I think at least a little excerpt on an about page would be great for everyone to learn a little bit about yourself and your site.
I’ve noticed there are many pages of unanswered forum posts. Is there a method for moderators to close out forums? Should there be? I understand sometimes posts are purposely ignored and/or just completely ridiculous. However, there are some legitimate, even great questions that have no answer. I also noticed a lot of database and web development questions that any daniweb admin should be able to handle; yet the remain unanswered. Perhaps the problem stems from the available help. Meaning there are just not enough people with relevant experience/answers to post. Have you thought about providing incentives for those who provide relevant help/answers?
I'm not sure where you plan on taking this site in the future, or if you would like it to emulate the functions of other sites such as http://www.computing.net/ or http://www.experts-exchange.com/. Perhaps you don't really have a plan and wherever you go from here is fine with you. Either one is great, I was just curious. Thanks.
J_
>I think at least a little excerpt on an about page would be great for everyone to learn a little bit about yourself and your site.
I think it's pretty obvious what Daniweb is all about. What's not obvious is whether Dani even wants everyone to learn a little bit about her and the site aside from what can be gleaned from actually hanging around here. Besides, I don't know about you, but the only time I look at anything that says "About" is to get a version and build number.
>Is there a method for moderators to close out forums? Should there be?
For legitimate threads that are on-topic for the forum they're in, no, and no. For threads that break any rules, there is a well defined methodology for dealing with them. For threads in the gray areas, such as off-topic or pushing the limits of good taste, it's up to individual moderators to either make a decision or ask for help from the others. This works very well since all of Daniweb's moderators have excellent judgement (present company excepted, referring to myself :p).
>However, there are some legitimate, even great questions that have no answer.
Sadly, some questions don't find their way to someone who is capable of answering them. This can be either because they are in the wrong forum (asking about a balanced binary search tree in the Introductions forum will probably earn nothing but silence while the same question in the appropriate Software Development forum will get a quick response) or nobody feels qualified enough to give an adequate answer.
>Have you thought about providing incentives for those who provide relevant help/answers?
There is incentive, it's just not tangible. But one of the nice things about Daniweb is that those of us capable of answering a question are not obligated to do so if we don't want to. I could answer every question in the C and C++ forum, most of the questions in the Java forum, and so on. But I don't, for various reasons, and I like it that way. There's no pressure to perform, and I imagine the kind of incentive you're thinking of would introduce that pressure.
I think it's pretty obvious what Daniweb is all about. What's not obvious is whether Dani even wants everyone to learn a little bit about her and the site aside from what can be gleaned from actually hanging around here. Besides, I don't know about you, but the only time I look at anything that says "About" is to get a version and build number.
>Is there a method for moderators to close out forums? Should there be?
For legitimate threads that are on-topic for the forum they're in, no, and no. For threads that break any rules, there is a well defined methodology for dealing with them. For threads in the gray areas, such as off-topic or pushing the limits of good taste, it's up to individual moderators to either make a decision or ask for help from the others. This works very well since all of Daniweb's moderators have excellent judgement (present company excepted, referring to myself :p).
>However, there are some legitimate, even great questions that have no answer.
Sadly, some questions don't find their way to someone who is capable of answering them. This can be either because they are in the wrong forum (asking about a balanced binary search tree in the Introductions forum will probably earn nothing but silence while the same question in the appropriate Software Development forum will get a quick response) or nobody feels qualified enough to give an adequate answer.
>Have you thought about providing incentives for those who provide relevant help/answers?
There is incentive, it's just not tangible. But one of the nice things about Daniweb is that those of us capable of answering a question are not obligated to do so if we don't want to. I could answer every question in the C and C++ forum, most of the questions in the Java forum, and so on. But I don't, for various reasons, and I like it that way. There's no pressure to perform, and I imagine the kind of incentive you're thinking of would introduce that pressure.
New members chased away this month: 4
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 279
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Solved Threads: 6
Posting Whiz in Training
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Originally Posted by Narue
>I think at least a little excerpt on an about page would be great for everyone to learn a little bit about yourself and your site.
I think it's pretty obvious what Daniweb is all about. What's not obvious is whether Dani even wants everyone to learn a little bit about her and the site aside from what can be gleaned from actually hanging around here. Besides, I don't know about you, but the only time I look at anything that says "About" is to get a version and build number.
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>Is there a method for moderators to close out forums? Should there be?
For legitimate threads that are on-topic for the forum they're in, no, and no. For threads that break any rules, there is a well defined methodology for dealing with them. For threads in the gray areas, such as off-topic or pushing the limits of good taste, it's up to individual moderators to either make a decision or ask for help from the others. This works very well since all of Daniweb's moderators have excellent judgement (present company excepted, referring to myself :p).
Additionally, having page after page of unanswered posts seems ridiculous. Are these users still waiting for help? Have they lost faith in daniweb because no one answered their question? The unanswered post problem should be identified and remedied.
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>Have you thought about providing incentives for those who provide relevant help/answers?
There is incentive, it's just not tangible. But one of the nice things about Daniweb is that those of us capable of answering a question are not obligated to do so if we don't want to. I could answer every question in the C and C++ forum, most of the questions in the Java forum, and so on. But I don't, for various reasons, and I like it that way. There's no pressure to perform, and I imagine the kind of incentive you're thinking of would introduce that pressure.
The kind of incentive you are talking about doesn't drive most people, although it should. As far as pressure goes? What else motivates people to help? If you were a person's friend and they called you on the phone, would you feel pressure to perform? Perhaps, but it's much easier to just ignore a post. I think an incentive would help.
J_
>I guess what I'm looking for is more of a formal feel regarding daniweb.
To the best of my knowledge, Daniweb is professional-informal. We're a close community, but still professional enough to inspire confidence in the help that's given. IMO we've succeeded at that kind of feel.
>Forums should be closed out if the question is answered and the user is satisfied.
Aha, but who is the user? Do you only consider the original poster? What if someone has something important to add? What if the accepted answer was wrong in some subtle way? Sure, after several months of no activity, a thread can be safely closed if someone feels the need, but we don't get enough resurrections to warrant that kind of effort. The way I see it, you're suggesting a strict gestapo closing of threads immediately after the OP is satisfied, even if the accepted answer is incorrect. That flies in the face of the nature of public forums, where if someone makes a mistake, others can jump in and correct that person before any damage is done.
You're also ignoring the potential for interesting and educational tangents. This happens more often than you'd think, and it's usually two or more experts tossing around ideas and debating. By simply following these exchanges, the OP (and anyone else interested) can learn a great deal more than if the thread was closed immediately after a suitable answer was given.
>The unanswered post problem should be identified and remedied.
There's no remedy for the "problem", as should be immediately obvious if you think about it for a bit. But if you compare the number of threads that are answered with the number that aren't, you'll notice that we handle most of the legitimate questions. Not many forums can boast that.
>The kind of incentive you are talking about doesn't drive most people, although it should.
Funny, I can think of 51,275 (at the moment) people who are driven by that kind of incentive. :mrgreen:
>I think an incentive would help.
It might, but with a huge pool of volunteers, I honestly don't see the need. What kind of incentive would you suggest that wouldn't be a bitch to implement and maintain?
To the best of my knowledge, Daniweb is professional-informal. We're a close community, but still professional enough to inspire confidence in the help that's given. IMO we've succeeded at that kind of feel.
>Forums should be closed out if the question is answered and the user is satisfied.
Aha, but who is the user? Do you only consider the original poster? What if someone has something important to add? What if the accepted answer was wrong in some subtle way? Sure, after several months of no activity, a thread can be safely closed if someone feels the need, but we don't get enough resurrections to warrant that kind of effort. The way I see it, you're suggesting a strict gestapo closing of threads immediately after the OP is satisfied, even if the accepted answer is incorrect. That flies in the face of the nature of public forums, where if someone makes a mistake, others can jump in and correct that person before any damage is done.
You're also ignoring the potential for interesting and educational tangents. This happens more often than you'd think, and it's usually two or more experts tossing around ideas and debating. By simply following these exchanges, the OP (and anyone else interested) can learn a great deal more than if the thread was closed immediately after a suitable answer was given.
>The unanswered post problem should be identified and remedied.
There's no remedy for the "problem", as should be immediately obvious if you think about it for a bit. But if you compare the number of threads that are answered with the number that aren't, you'll notice that we handle most of the legitimate questions. Not many forums can boast that.
>The kind of incentive you are talking about doesn't drive most people, although it should.
Funny, I can think of 51,275 (at the moment) people who are driven by that kind of incentive. :mrgreen:
>I think an incentive would help.
It might, but with a huge pool of volunteers, I honestly don't see the need. What kind of incentive would you suggest that wouldn't be a bitch to implement and maintain?
New members chased away this month: 4
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Join Date: Jun 2005
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Originally Posted by Narue
Besides, I don't know about you, but the only time I look at anything that says "About" is to get a version and build number.
Being a little hypocritical, aren't we? ;-)
All my posts may be redistributed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
>I noticed that your website's about.html page doesn't specify your version and build number.
You shouldn't ask a girl her age.
You shouldn't ask a girl her age.
New members chased away this month: 4
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Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 12,056
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I was doing some schoolwork and I just came across this thread. I have to get back to work, but I'm going to quickly answer some of the questions that were posed.
As far as a mission statement is concerned, guest (non-member) visitors see the following yellow notice near the top of every page:
Whether you're a software developer, web developer, IT professional, or just a computer hobbiest, here you'll find everything Information Technology related all in one convenient place. To take advantage of everything our knowledgable and exciting online community of 51,283 members has to offer, please register. It's free!
It is assumed that once you have seen that notice and subsequently registered, it is obvious what the site offers, and the notice just becomes wasted space.
In addition, we have an About Us page - www.daniweb.com/aboutus.php
Additionally, as far as closing threads is concerned, we have a feature which allows moderators or the thread starter to mark a thread as Solved. What this does is basically just show the words Solved next to the thread title on the forum display page ... it's meant mostly for those of us who want to help out by answering questions, so we can clearly skip over the ones that have already been solved. It could have other uses too I guess - to some extent it's just something else that should be taken with a grain of salt. Closing threads is reserved for those which violate our policies and limiting deletion to the offending post(s) is not sufficient for one reason or another (usually because the thread contains only one post).
As far as a mission statement is concerned, guest (non-member) visitors see the following yellow notice near the top of every page:
Whether you're a software developer, web developer, IT professional, or just a computer hobbiest, here you'll find everything Information Technology related all in one convenient place. To take advantage of everything our knowledgable and exciting online community of 51,283 members has to offer, please register. It's free!
It is assumed that once you have seen that notice and subsequently registered, it is obvious what the site offers, and the notice just becomes wasted space.
In addition, we have an About Us page - www.daniweb.com/aboutus.php
Additionally, as far as closing threads is concerned, we have a feature which allows moderators or the thread starter to mark a thread as Solved. What this does is basically just show the words Solved next to the thread title on the forum display page ... it's meant mostly for those of us who want to help out by answering questions, so we can clearly skip over the ones that have already been solved. It could have other uses too I guess - to some extent it's just something else that should be taken with a grain of salt. Closing threads is reserved for those which violate our policies and limiting deletion to the offending post(s) is not sufficient for one reason or another (usually because the thread contains only one post).
Dani the Computer Science Gal 
Follow my Twitter feed! twitter.com/DaniWeb
And if you're interested in Internet marketing there is twitter.com/DaniWebAds
Follow my Twitter feed! twitter.com/DaniWeb
And if you're interested in Internet marketing there is twitter.com/DaniWebAds
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Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 12,056
Reputation:
Solved Threads: 129
And as far as our future: We're always improving. Yes, I have plans in store for the near future. Stay tuned
Dani the Computer Science Gal
Follow my Twitter feed! twitter.com/DaniWeb
And if you're interested in Internet marketing there is twitter.com/DaniWebAds
Follow my Twitter feed! twitter.com/DaniWeb
And if you're interested in Internet marketing there is twitter.com/DaniWebAds
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Originally Posted by J_Search
http://www.experts-exchange.com/. Perhaps you don't really have a plan and wherever you go from here is fine with you. Either one is great, I was just curious. Thanks.
J_
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