pwotoole

Feedback/Comments Let us know your comments/feedback about this site. Even if its to complain or simply complement the webmaster.

What would happen to a person if he did complain, would he be banned forever? One of the experienced members suggested that a person who reposts a question twice should be banned, that's pretty serious ain't it?

Nigel Goodwin

No one gets banned for complaining, for multiple posting they will be warned, and if they persist they will receive a short ban and another warning. Further repetition would probably result in a permanent ban!.

Bear in mind I spend a considerable number of hours a day moderating these forums, anyone wasting my time and ignoring PM's deserves to be banned!

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pwotoole

As a newbie, I posted a question in general electronics. A rather simple question, I thought. After several hours, and a long bike ride, I eagerly checked the forum to see if I got any replies: none, zero, zilche, nada. I was dissapointed, to me it was an important question, not important to life in general, but important. So I edited the question a little, still nada, even when there were over 70 viewers on that forum. So I changed my tactics and went to the feedback forum and introduced myself, politely I thought, and sorta asked the question again - thinking that someone in charge could lead me in the right direction.
Next day, I received replys. Oh boy, that's great, I thought. I read the replys thinking, "good, now I can go on with my project", and what did I get in reply: chewed out that's what. Chewed out by more than one or two experienced members. I had made the ultimate stupid mistake - I had become a double posting noob. Oh man, I was embarrassed, chagrined, humiliated all of that stuff. Will I ever be forgiven?
Nonetheless, I've never received an answer to my question, even after I added more information, as one poster suggested. One of the "chewer outers" suggested that I was just too impatient, it could take weeks to get an answer(weeks?), but I noticed that several others had posted questions, hours after mine, and were getting many replys. I also searched the forum for similar questions and found one that had been asked three years ago that got replys, but no information that could help me. One of the replyers to that question was one of the fellows that chewed me out, hmm
So I ask, what does a person do when he gets no help? Does he withdraw his question? How does one do that? Why couldn't the folks that chewed me out just simply have said, "you made a dumb mistake, pal, but here's where, or how, you can get the proper imformation." But not to worry, ya'll; my question was about an electronic motorcycle tacho., and I not only got an answer, but a circuit diagram to go with, from a mechanic on a motorcycle performance website. Am I now in the 'poop'house?

HarveyH42

I always thought the double posts were unintentional (glitch), didn't see the logic in repetion, and they seemed to be posted within moments of each other.

Can't imagine anypne getting banned for posting a complaint, if something is bugging them, probably a problem for others as well. Nobody should be afraid to express an opinion, but it should be done appropriately and maturely. Some of the verbal attacks on new members aren't appropriate, they should be given a little time to understand how this forum works. I can understand that the 'I need a school project' post are annoying and frustrating, but doesn't mean these kids are lazy bums because of a poorly worded first post. They did make it through a few years of higher education, and might eventually have something useful to contribute to the forum.

I think things are going quite well, have seen spam here in quite a while. I would like to see a download or link area that has only finished completed projects and tutorials. Not a discussion area where everything gets buried, but direct links to specific information. Search engines bring up this site because it is tagged 'Electronic Projects Circuits Diagrams', and this is what attracts many of the new member requests, their posts requesting these come from not finding a simple list. This was how I came to be here, but I didn't just start off demanding circuits after not finding what I was origionally searching for. I read through the discussions, found some interesting and got involved. Eventually, I felt comfortable enough to post some project ideas, usually not always well recieved by some, but understandable.

HarveyH42

No, you just have to let it go, and move on. I haven't riden a motorcycle much since having a 'religious' experience as a teenager at 70 MPH, didn't read your post because I don't know much about such things, and still amazed the didn't lose control and walked away without a scratch. But basically, if you start a thread, stick with it. You can keep it fresh by adding new posts to the thread, like updating your progress, giving more detail, re-wording the request. We are all normal people with common interests, and have our own projects/repairs going on as well. It's a very diverse group, have to take the good with the bad. The regulars, 'experienced' members are all good people, some just get set off on the simplest things at times.

The best advise is not to depend on this forum as the only solution, post your problem, but keep working on it, search the internet. Add any new information to your post. Sometimes the origional post won't catch my interstest, but seeing there are several replies will get me curious, even if its just to see someone getting a thrashing (sorry)

3v0

With some question it takes a first post to break the ice or get the ball rolling so to speak. I did that for you but you did not reply.

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Hero999

I always post the following canned response to duplicate threads:

Please don't make duplicate posts, they're very annoying and don't help you or us to help you. Creating duplicate threads does not increase your chance of a useful response, it only reduces it as people get confused and can't always see what others have suggest in the other thread.

As my message says, duplicate posts do not benifit you or the people typing to help you, they only make life harder for everyone.

Perhaps they provided a more detailed question than yours and they were also lucky that the members here know more about the subject.

That's always a good idea. Why didn't you resurect the thread, and ask further questions about what you don't understand rather than creating a new thread?

What do you mean by "chewing out"?

I assume you mean people having a go at you?

If you did not create a duplicate thread and posted more information in your original thread then no one would have had a go at you. The only reason why people moaned at you was because you whined about not having any responses after just two hours then preceded to create another thread.

If you don't receive any replies to a thread then don't take it personally. For all you know people might not actually know the answer but it's far more likely that you haven't provided enough information.

Suppose someone makes the following thread:

Title: "battery charger"
I need help with building a battery charger circuit, could you please help me.

The chances are no one will respond because they haven't provided enough information. No one knows what sort of battery they want to charge and in what length of time.

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ThermalRunaway

I would suggest that two hours is not enough time to allow for a response to a thread. It is true that you can often post a question or topic and get a response within minutes, but on the other hand it might be quite a few hours before anyone with the right knowledge is able to give a positive response.

Remember that a lot of us here work full-time. As much as we'd love to be able to spend our entire day messing around on the internet, not all of us get that luxury at work (Nigel?? :P). Also, this is now a global forum so there are time zones to take into consideration.

Be patient.

Brian

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Electronics Test Development Engineer
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pwotoole

Brian:
It was much longer than two hours, it was several hours; closer to twelve when I first checked, but that was ok. What happened was: when I checked for answers several hours after posting the question, I tried editing the question to see if that would help. That's probably why it appeared as two hours. But then I made the mistake of reposting the question in the feedback section, and that's when all "heck" broke loose I do believe that I've learned my lesson, and I've tried to post these messages with a little humor added. I hope that's the way they've been taken . I'm not such a bad guy, for an old biker. I'm also retired , and I can stay up into the wee hours of the morn, heh heh heh, and stab away at this keyboard. Which probably puts me into the working hours of the folks in Ireland and the UK, sorry about that
Paddy

ThermalRunaway

Paddy,

I'm sure there was a tachometer for motorcyles in one of my Electronics magazines some time ago, and I have a feeling it was EPE. You might want to give them a go, have a look at their projects section. If it wasn't EPE, then it was almost certainly Elektor because they're the only two Electronics magazines I read.

Brian

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Electronics Test Development Engineer
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pwotoole

Brian,
You know, here in the US-of-A electronics magazines have become hard to find anymore. They seem to have gone out of style. There used to be "Electronics Illustrated", "Popular Electronics" and a few others, but I can't find them anymore. Everything now-a-days is computer games, PC mags mostly how to do stuff on the computer, which is OK, but nobody seems to be interested in basics. What time is it over there, I hope I'm not keeping you up. Its 5:05 pm here, I gotta get outside and do something.
Thanks for the help
Paddy