OK, this is tongue in cheek (that means: not serious), but I wish we could say something like this:


Do not even think about posting to a thread unless you have read it....

all.
completely.
very carefully.
at least three times.



I know I'm guilty of it too, but the number of times people answer a different question from the one that was asked, or say the same thing as three other people have already, or.... you get the idea.


As a still not serious suggestion, it would be nice to have some script that detects if someone goes to a long thread for the first time, reads it for about five seconds, and then hits reply. If this happens, they shouldn't get the reply box - they should get a message saying "you can't have read this thread already - go back and read it properly, then you can reply!".


Not serious suggestions - just cause for thought.

Cheers,
David.

Hi,
I'm surely one of those (proud member & founder of the "Never reads the subject" guild).

Seriously, I think it is a good suggestion, but maybe a little difficult to implement; anyway I "vote" for it.

I was also thinking & discussing on irc about allowing newly registered users to post only after some days (5, 10 days?) have passed since they registered: what do you think of it?

bye

I'm all for having a way to make people read a whole thread before posting in it. It can be tedious sometimes for really long threads, but if you start reading a thread when it begins, then you'll only have to read a few posts at a time to stay up-to-date with it. Granted, this would only be the case for forum regulars, though. Members who only visit occasionally won't be current on any threads, especially the long ones.

As for requiring a person to be registered for a period of time before they can post, I think the intent is good but unfortunately there's no way to be sure they will do what's desired of them and read the forum in that time before posting anything. And sometimes this is unintentional even.

For instance, I registered at a forum with this feature, doom9, about two months ago. I've been busy with a thousand other things (as usual) and haven't read much there to be honest. So, although my registration now allows me to post, I'm really not current on knowledge the way I would be if I had researched the way I should have in that time. Now, since I know better, I'll read plenty before I ever post there, but what's to physically keep me from posting a dumb n00b question out-of-the-blue right now, without having read anything there lately?

This is sometimes a problem... actually, it is a problem when people repeats the same flaming as ten other people !

While were on the topic of posting replies I have a suggestion. Do not even think about posting to a thread unless you have read it....

all.
completely.
very carefully.
at least three times.

Too funny.

Is it a good idea to update the FAQ ?
for some topic like Free tagger.

Erm I don't know what to say...