daniweb future/mission

[J_Search]

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_

[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. ;)

>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.

[J_Search]

>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. ;)

I guess what I'm looking for is more of a formal feel regarding daniweb. We all know what McDonalds "is all about", but they still have a mission statement. Perhaps cscgal wants to keep everything as informal as possible; something only she knows. But thanks.

>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).

I don't agree. Forums should be closed out if the question is answered and the user is satisfied. People (meaning users who post responses/help) shouldn’t have to waste time reading an entire forum or even part of a forum that has already helped the user. I know the user can choose the "problem/issue solved" but this is almost never used. Perhaps an additional rating or status for posts regarding the level of help provided or still needed. Or if the original poster doesn't need any more help, the moderator or system could give a warning, then lock out the post if the original poster no longer requires help. To take some burden off of the moderator, an auto-email could be sent to the user who started the post asking them if they are satisfied, or if they still need more help.

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.

>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.

Again, although this, as well as the other questions, were directed towards cscgal, I appreciate your input.
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_

[Narue]

>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?

[Rashakil Fol]

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. ;)

About that. I noticed that your website's about.html page doesn't specify your version and build number.

Being a little hypocritical, aren't we? ;-)

[Narue]

>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. ;)

[Dani]

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).

[Dani]

And as far as our future: We're always improving. Yes, I have plans in store for the near future. Stay tuned :)

[server_crash]

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_

Experts Exchange? Oh yeah, those are the turds that charge you out the butt for the same FREE help I get here.

[J_Search]

to cscgal,

Thank you.

to Narue,

I honestly don't have any more energy. Think what you wish.

J_

[Narue]

>I honestly don't have any more energy. Think what you wish.
You show up and make vague claims about problems with Daniweb (having obviously not done your homework beforehand), fail to offer concrete suggestions for improvement while implying solutions that would be difficult or impossible to implement successfully, then act surprised that someone actually disagrees with you.

This is seeming more and more like a troll, since all you're doing is raising issues that aren't really issues, and then getting defensive when someone questions you.

[J_Search]

Narue,

I took a nap, so here it goes...

You show up and make vague claims about problems with Daniweb (having obviously not done your homework beforehand)

Why because I couldn't find the www.daniweb.com/aboutus.php page?

fail to offer concrete suggestions for improvement while implying solutions that would be difficult or impossible to implement successfully,

I explained why I couldn't answer my own questions at this time. Most of my questions were answered by cscgal.

then act surprised that someone actually disagrees with you. This is seeming more and more like a troll, since all you're doing is raising issues that aren't really issues, and then getting defensive when someone questions you.

Normal disagreement is healthy. Pushing your opinion on others is another story. Everything that I mentioned can be implemented in some form or fashion; you know it and I know it. Whether or not that would be good for efficiency, the user, or daniweb as a whole may or may not be true, but at the least debatable. They’re not quite empirical questions as you are suggesting.

J_

[server_crash]

Thanks for the entertainment j.

[goldeagle2005]

Everything that I mentioned can be implemented in some form or fashion; you know it and I know it. Whether or not that would be good for efficiency, the user, or daniweb as a whole may or may not be true, but at the least debatable. They’re not quite empirical questions as you are suggesting.

What good is an idea or an implementation of an idea if it isn't good for efficiency, the user or the site as a whole?

I'm pretty sure people can come up with all sorts of ideas and suggestions. But we have to draw the line somewhere. Someone could suggest replacing the entire HTML site with a flash heavy version. But that would lock out millions of users who access this site with dial up lines. The point I'm trying to make is that even though there are many, many things that can be done, is it feasible? Can the means always do justice to the end? I don't think so.