PROPOSAL: Earning "Full Posting Privs" badge format

Community Website and Forum
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A request for consideration and implementing the following...

As you know, the new-to-the-forum user must achieve badges to post a new topic, but is only requested to follow a few dozen "how-to" threads.

My suggestion is for new users to earn a "full posting privileges" badge by being re-directed to post in a pre-formatted page (similar to a "contact support" page on any technical web site) with three clearly defined blocks reading: (1) "TYPE/PASTE YOUR QUESTION HERE" followed by a second block, (2) "PASTE YOUR SKETCH/CODE HERE" which is already in <code> mode, and through web-page-coding, the new user's code is IDE-style formatted, and the third block, (3) "UPLOAD YOUR DESIGN/DRAWING HERE" and this re-direct would continue until the new user earned a "full posting privs" badge.

This would nearly eliminate all the requests for posting code, requests for formatting the code, and requests for reading "how to post"... and further clear the category fora for questions at the top, rather than the litany of sticky posts, the quantity of which sees the new user is most likely to ignore them, rather than read through them. Sort of, "can't see the trees because the forest is in my way." (just posting this text brings up endless "sticky" posts on the "Your topic is similar to..." section to the right of the "Create" block.)

"Suggestions encouraged" because it will effect all users.

I am just looking for a way to save everyone time and energy, while achieving the same results as the current forum. I would like to see the new user begin posting in an acceptable manner.

If anyone knows how to flag and forward this, and to whom, please, pass this along.

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Sounds interesting.

Perhaps something like this could be standard for all first posts in a certain category, not only for new users. I can imagine that having more structure will also aid in categorising and searching.

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Sounds like an idea that will just drive away new users, including those who actually know how to operate a text editor. It communicates that even being on this forum is a privilege which has to be earned.

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That's how the forum work currently. When I signed up, I had to earn badges. So, privilege DOES have to be earned. Legacy users might not have gone through the badges. No need to send them through.

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Indeed :wink: They had to wait 5 minutes between posts for the first 100 posts on the old forum.

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The "privilege" of owning a badge has to be earned. The right to post on the forums does not.

There's a huge difference between rewarding busywork with a cosmetic and meaningless bit of HTML code on your profile page, and rewarding busywork with the ability to use the core feature of a website.

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You are wrong. To post, I had to earn badges.

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I didn't. And, if I had, I'd just have deleted my account because I have better things to spend my time on than jumping through other people's hoops for the privilege of posting on a forum.

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Noted...

But... have you noticed how new users get a beat-down for pages upon pages by the legacy users? I have PMd quite a few new users who stated that they give up because of the unwelcome, ugly tones by too many legacy users. In my request (the original post), I hope to give the new user a "walk before you run" experience... it doesn't STOP anyone from posting, it guides new users through the desired style. "Pose your question, post your formatted code, upload a picture." That is all.

I live the sentiment you have. I just see this forum is not the place for "rules be damned."

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What is wrong with that? It saves everyone's time if a new user knows how to make a good post.

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[edit: At the time I wrote this post, the post I was replying to consisted of exactly one word - "Noted." To me, that sounded very dismissive and I brought up my professional credentials solely in an attempt to make clear why I expect at least some attempt by others to take what I say seriously.]

Just to be entirely clear here, because you do sound a tiny bit snarky:

I have 6 years of experience in professional software development, plus another 10 years as a hobbyist.

I have spent time on a variety of forums and other interactive websites.

I know professional software developers who are unable to copy a code snippet from their IDE into Jira, Confluence or similar platforms.

[Mod edit: I see nothing wrong with this, @taschi is showing his/her knowledge for background information, not to show off (in my opinion)]

I take care to present my posts in a readable format.

BUT, especially in a community like Arduino, which (via its roots in Wiring) considers lowering barriers of entry a core principle, I think it is a highly counterproductive idea to just put newbies through a series of arbitrary tests. Do you like Captchas? I don't, I bet you don't either, and what you're proposing sounds a lot like a very annoying captcha.

If the people who manage this community want to increase the quality of new discussion topics, I think that they should maybe put posts by first-time users into a moderation queue, and if those posts have significant quality issues, ask them to fix those problems before the post is published rather than after it is. This might be hard to do because Arduino is a charity... oh, wait, no, it isn't. So, here's a suggestion: instead of outright excluding people with no social media experience, why don't we raise our expectations towards the people who run this platform?

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What's wrong with that is that it communicates to people who are new to social media that they shouldn't bother because we don't want to associate with dirty noobs like them.

You are expecting that this mechanism will teach people to make better posts. In reality, it will just teach them not to post on this forum.

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I understand and encourage your sentiment in most of life. On this forum, as I follow codes of conduct, I am preferring their rules. I even had a legacy user chase me off another forum board because I did not have a "badge" by getting the moderator to put the heat on me. I left in respect of the rules. Not to avoid beat downs. I live for that... but not on this forum.

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Hello everyone,
This is a worthwhile subject to discuss but this problem has existed all the time I have been here, I am super new having joined ONLY on 4 July 2018! (No, I'm English, nothing to do with the day the American's celebrate!). The problem existed long before I arrived. You might have seen my tutorial How to get the best out of this forum , which was my attempt to solve the problem. Has it solved the problem? :woozy_face:

Unless someone here can come up with something that makes the rest of us go: "Oh! That's brilliant! Why didn't I think of that?" then you'll get nowhere. This is a tough problem to crack. My tutorial was in part inspired by meeting someone from here who wanted to get a simple project working for a charity thing he was doing. I ended up doing the sketch and electronic design for him as he really didn't know how. Anyway, he was put off by the old instructions. I never got his opinion on the new ones.

As for the old hands here being a bit unpleasant to newbies (and not so newbies), yes it goes on. Occasionally I tell people to make helpful and constructive comments or risk a ban. Then I clear up the mess. This topic is heading that way, please stop the (bordering on) nasty comments or I'll be late for bed as I'm getting tired. Tired for me means grumpy, grumpy means longer bans from posting. There have been 3 flags to the mods on this topic. PLEASE STOP.

Now please discuss the topic and respect the opinions of the others.

I thank you.

[Edit, I'll do the clean up now, any more nonsense will result in a 2 day or more ban from posting]

2 Likes
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A well worn subject.  Most proposals go to automation or moderator intervention.  These haven't been successful no matter how many admonishments are given - the new poster won't have seen the previous warnings/cautions and so engenders another.

I think a lot of the problem is self-inflicted - experienced posters trying to help absent any real information.

IMO, the only way to end this, or even improve the situation, is to give the offender a monotonous 'please read the posting guides' response until the guides are complied with - or at least some effort to do so is shown.  No snark need be applied.  No questions about schematics or goals.  No suggestions on approaches.  No possible solutions offered.  Just bland requests for compliance with the posting guides.

.02

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