Reduce the Repetiton of 'Basic' Questions & Threads

[ardhill]

...to suit our dyslexic and politically correct pals - Paddy

Quite right too.

This Paddy is from Northern Ireland, and it is a known fact that the folks from here are all well known to be very "Politically" correct.

(By the way, it took me three attempts and a round of spell checking to write that last sentence with the words spelt correctly and in the right order.)

 

[Salty Gibbon]

Political correctness is a very sad affliction

 

[dbphoenix]

One problem, of course, is threads like this one that have four or five on-topic posts, then 15 or so that focus on spelling issues. One doesn't have to be a newbie to run out of steam and move on to some other thread. But that's the nature of online communication and the tendency to chat.

The Knowledge Lab should be a great help here, and it should be featured more prominently. Unfortunately, as it grows, it may become just as unwieldy as the website of which it's a part (though the reorganization has helped enormously) and require some sort of re-organization of its own, perhaps under the same topic structure as the forums and whatever the primary categories are called (macro forums?).

As for FAQs, though, these could become nightmarishly long. Since the only things one sees when he opens up the boards page are the 11 major categories (like Methodologies) and the major forums therein (and, occasionally, sub-forums), and since many people will ask their questions wherever seems likely if they don't quickly find some forum pertinent to their concerns, I suggest that these forums each have their own FAQ, if appropriate.

For example, if one clicks The Markets, all he gets is a list of markets. Maybe this is all that's necessary. But when he clicks Forex, he gets a Guide to Trading Forex, i.e., a FAQ. Since this is sticky, referring questions to it is simple. On other hand, Money Markets has nothing at all. If there are few questions about money markets, then perhaps no FAQ is necessary.

Currently, many/most of these questions get shuffled to First Steps, and while I have issues with the content of the FAQ, it's there and it's a fine beginning. However, there should be more for the FS FAQ to refer questions to. Otherwise, it becomes so long that many will not bother with it. Structured properly, this particular FAQ could be first choice for anyone coming across a newbie question.

Edit: Incidentally, the 'announcement' posts which are made regarding new Knowledge Lab articles should always be made sticky in the forum to which they're posted.

 

[sulong]

Perhaps some sort of a sticky thread that gives step by step instruction along with example questions, on how to use the search engine.
I think most people would rather look for answers to their "basic" questions in private and not subject themselves to fire balls they are likely to get in the public arena.