A lot has been said in this thread about the role of moderators and the need for modification of the Group's rules/regulations and I will comment on them, but first, I quote :
--- > If Google was the answer to all the question please tell the aims and > objectives of this forum. Please paste > "Only Experienced and Advanced Questions and Users Expected!!" in the welcome > page --- > (mocking at a person) is not going to invite new users and is surely not > making this the "most > popular Google group for discussions on Microsoft.NET(R) and related > technologies". --- > then let us have those points added to the rules and > regulations. Can we? > There are a lot of things documented. Are you telling me that > only undocumented and unexplained queries have been answered by people in > this group so far? --- > this is not in rules and regulations of the > forum so newbies would be eager to ask such questions. And it will be good > some senior members mark such questions as closed for the begining itself > there by avoiding some one abuse for this and avoiding a bulk thread like > this ;) > > Something like > > =========== > CLOSED FOR GOOGLE > =========== --- > No one has answered the question about including some points to the rules and > regulations yet. Moderator! KNOCK KNOCK - are you there? > > Let us get something constructive here with this one. Something like this > would not offend anyone: > > 1. Avoid posting questions which have already been asked. Please search > the group for similar questions, before you post yours > 2. Post your questions with some example code wherever possible. > Arbitrary questions will not be entertained. > 3. Users repeatedly violating these terms will be automatically > unsubscribed from the list. --- My comments are as follows : 1. The aims and objectives of this Group are the same as those of any online technical discussion forum - mutually productive interaction between intelligent members of a community. A user does not need to be advanced or experienced to be able to Google. That is the point many members have been trying to make. I want to add that this Group has never been anti-newbie. One common element in most such discussions is that all people who ask stupid un-researched questions are branded as newbies and the impression is created that the experts in this Group do not want to help newbies. This is a grossly misleading characterization. All newbies are not lazy, indolent idiots who demand to be assisted with the most basic of problems. A person could be very experienced and still not be bothered to do the slightest research. 2. This is the most popular Google group for Microsoft.NET discussions because of its members who are highly respected, highly knowledgable and highly passionate about the subject. It has *not* become popular because we chose to spoonfeed slothful idiots so that a good public impression could be maintained. We are not a corporation and we do not care about our Public relations image. We have had innumerable experts leave the Group because it had become a forum for "homework questions" and the majority of us did not find it intellectually stimulating at all to answer a VFAQ. When laggard nincompoops leave the Group no one notices but when experts leave the Group, the loss is widely felt because these are the people who actually contribute to make this a better community. 3. It is I who wrote the "Welcome message" of the Group two years back and it is I who takes the sole responsibility for its comprehensiveness (or lack, thereof). I welcome suggestions about it, but before you send me manuscripts full of ideas, answer me two questions - Do you know what percentage of members have never (bothered to) read the Welcome message? After about 3 years moderating this Group, my estimate is that about 70% of members simply ignored that message and the included rules/regulations. Yes, that is the reason I later changed a part of it to red and bold faced. Do you know how many emails I get on my personal email address asking me to subscribe them to the Group's membership ? About 1-2 every day. I always check and they're almost always already subscribed. I mean, how hard is it to see the "Join this Group" link on the right ? Even if I chose to include the suggested guidelines explicitly, I doubt it would have much effect on the behaviour of those whose languor is so great that they find it easier to ask a question here rather than Google it, for those who would rather write an incoherent question fully of misspellings that doesn't disclose any details about the problem rather than spending a few minutes gathering their thoughts. 4. There have been suggestions that this thread be closed. This group is for discussions and I do not close any threads until the language becomes ugly or the atmosphere becomes vitiated. Therefore, this thread will remain open for the present. There can be no excuse for laziness and therefore, we do not excuse it. -- Cerebrus. Group Moderator.
