I'm kind of frustrated when I posted programming-related questions, often no much help is given, in fact I have ended up answering my own programming thread (feels dumb really). I'm wondering is it just people reluctant to share their knowledge in here or this forum really lacks programmers. In fact I don't think those are tough questions since I'm more or less still belongs to the beginner level. There are so many ways to do programming, I was looking forward maybe to compare code see which solution will be more efficient but to no avail. I notice more posts are found in the Lounge section alone compared to other sections. Also it's always the same bunch of members posting, which makes me wonder why new members don't really stay on. Maybe this forum needs to offer something more than contests to increase visitors, I noticed contest participants left after contests ended. And some threads just make me wonder why these spams are not deleted in the first place. clarification: if you think this post is flame, delete it anyway. It's just my thought about this forum.
I wish I can help. But I can't. I'm not exactly a good programmer. But don't forget, this is still technically a tech website, so most members here are more familiar with PC tech related questions, and recently, photography (especially for most of the admins). Well, we are always open for suggestions to improve the forum. Everyone knows we need more active members. Nah, it's not a flame, but it would be better if you can provide suggestions to improve the forum further.
To be honest, I think the forum's quality degrades because I saw quite a few spam threads. And I know I'm not the only one who have the same opinion. I'm a member myself, if I got useful helps from the forum (which is plainly the main factor why people participate forums in the first place --> to discuss and seek help for problems!), I will definitely stay. the contest magnet will not last. If the forum got the "it" factor, members will just stay regardless of having contest or not. Since you guys said this is basically a tech forum, what else can you offer in this particular subject?
Heh.. Chai's right. If this were a programming-specific site and forum, I would understand your frustration. But it's really a PC tech site. What we, as admins, have to do right now is expand the community. A big community will have experts in all sorts of matters. Yes, including critical matters like ear digging and what nots.
Well, if you are talking about your pick-pocket thread, that is a bad example. It's not really a discussion material in the first place. There's nothing much to discuss about other than warning active shoppers, or users' rantings if they are victims themselves. As a tech forum, we have been answering all sorts of questions, from our article related questions to having trouble booting up PCs. That's basically what we are supposed to specialised in, and of course, Adrian himself for being the 'BIOS expert'. But what we admins can offer is limited. We can't spend all day posting in the forum answering every single question. Members are supposed to be helping each other.
Actually, when it comes to the contests, we take so much time to organize them because we hope to reward our loyal forum members and visitors. We also hope to be encourage participants to check out our forums and maybe stick around. Please note that having loads of forum members won't really benefit us. It's mainly for our community. The larger the community, the more feedback the members get for their questions. That's why it's important for us to look for people with expertise, not just people who are looking for free gifts. We hope our current members will spread the word about our forums to their friends and relatives so that we will have a bigger, more diverse and more technically-competent community. As for what we offer, well, that's pretty simple. The forums' main purpose is to assist others in their problems. That is if we are capable of addressing them. It would be sheer folly for us to tackle questions that we know we are not capable of handling. I am aware of some forums where forum members are allowed to simply post their "opinions" or comments, even if they have little idea of what the issue is all about. You get tons of responses, but virtually 90% of what's posted is crap. That's really not what we are after. We hope that we can settle issues in as few posts as possible. Our purpose is to help others solve problems, not increase our post count or show others just how clever (or stupid!) we are.
and.... if you guys think the first one is not spam and yet the second one is, I find no need to reason with you anymore.
Erm...Neither of them are spams. Did I say that the pick pocket thread is a spam in any way? I don't recall and certainly didn't mean that. What I was trying to say is, your post is a good reminder to all shoppers, but your post does not necessarily generate good discussion. I don't think either of them are classified as spam. On the other hand, we have loads of 'legit' spams in our recycle bin.
We do our very best here. ARP is very tightly moderated. We're a tech site like adrian said. No one really knows programming here (myself included) apart from a handful of people. But ask about hardware and pc troubleshooting... We like to create a nice enviroment for ALL our visitors here. And TBH, upholding that can sometimes be INSANELY painful at times. Just ask any of the other admins and mods. I personally like to keep things informal and humorous. I don't want a zombie community. Sorry u have to answer ur own questions though. I'm sure u can find the answer to the question in ur signature just as easily..
ROTFL!! That was a joke! Don't take things so seriously! Look, no one said either were spam. In fact, why all the humdrum over those threads? They are in the lounge, not any of the technical forums. Regarding your technical questions, it's unfortunate we don't have that many programmers in the community. Like I said, that's something we TRY to improve on, by encouraging the growth of the community.
LOL! You might not mind paying a subscription fee, maybe something like what HardwareZone does. But I'm sure others do. Ads keep ARP free for everyone.
rotfl .. subscription fee to remove ad .. how much per year ... rotfl .. bad idea if the person keeps visiting the babe thread.. that one will take up a lot of bandwidth .. hehe
