Tech Boards: On Topic + Descriptive titles

[Caretaker]

Just a humble reminder to keep things on subject (+ use good topic titles) in all the tech boards (& maybe all the other boards as well :O).

New question = new topic. And if any discussion for some reason drifts away from the original content (forum jargon: topic hijacking), please take the discussion to a new topic, and in the correct board.

Reason for all this? We've got 1000's of visitors\readers here, much easier for them to find help and info by trusting and following topic titles, good info may end up buried beneath a totally different title and in the wrong board category.

Basically, it's all about the topic title accurately reflecting the actual content of the topic.

Thanks

[Caretaker]

Please use the tech boards for tech content only, and (try a little harder to...) stay on topic (ref. the topic title).

Apart from an OP's request for advice and help, also take into consideration many topics has 1000's of visitors reading it and looking for relevant help & info, have a look at the stats > Top 10 Topics (by Views), + everything ends up on Google etc. Please present them with good and informative content when they find a tech topic they want (and need) to read.

In the tech boards, I'd gladly trade less posting for highest quality and relevance. For the more relaxed stuff we've got the boards in 'Bikes, Pictures, Stories & more'.

So, if needed (hope not), I'll use this funny smiley now and then (got it from another forum i frequent a lot, they are ruthless in the 'on topic' dept., much more than what's expected here). & any post or content which is drifting out at sea may be edited, moved or deleted.



Thanks.

[morris]

Point taken, E.

I guess it's our old sods tendency to drift away from a subject, whilst trying to remember what we were talking about in the first place......

[bsa-bill]

Oh dear reckon I'm guilty at times , will try harder, trouble is like Morris by the time I navigate to the proper board I'll have forgotten what is was I was going to say, I'm also lax about looking to see what board I'm on, do you have another little flashing "Pay Attention"

[Caretaker]

Examples:

- Some members are starting having some kind of private chat (with very limited general interest) inside another member's topic. So, in "Clutch, Primary & Gearbox", we end up reading about who makes the best pizza sauce in South Italy. Then it's comments about the charging system on a 70's Ford in a topic titled "A7 primary chain adjustment". You get the point.
> Use PM, email or post in 'chat & offtopic'.

- Original Poster (or other member) posts a new question within an existing topic, now we read about "Magneto bearings" in the Frame board, in a topic named "Tank chroming".
> Simply start a new topic, in the correct board.

- Then make some interesting combinations of the 2 occurrences above, and welcome to the offtopic nightmare.

[RichardL]

Hey guys, what tire treads do you recommend?    Just kidding. I will also try to stay on topic.

Richard L.

[RichardL]

Just to see how easy it is to use the tech boards, I took a look at "Luces, Electrical, Ignition".  The topic list is 22 pages long. This doesn't count the actual posts, of course. In trying to get a grip on how to do research on a particular topic, I clicked the word "Subject" on the column heading. This clarified the matter a lot by putting all topics beginning, for example, with the word "magneto" together in the same place. If you do this before starting a new "magneto" topic, maybe you post on an existing thread and the technical info gets more refined. What would help this approach would be the use of the subject word first, so, instead of "Points disaster in my magneto," "Magneto, my points disaster."

OK, I know this is expecting too much from too many (maybe, including myself), but it seems like it could be part of the way forward.

Richard L. 

[Caretaker]

^^^ Very good report from the CEO of the Research Dept.