Time for change.

While I haven't been posting much lately I have been reading nearly every day. The main reason I do not post is the repetitive nature of some of the simple and basic questions.

When I see a post that I know has been covered a dozen times before I will rarely even open it as I don't see why I should bother reading it if the poster has not made the effort to search and find the answers themselves.

I could provide examples but I think we all know exactly what I mean.

The answer?

Again, and I know there are separate posts on this, but it is a dedicated tech tips section.

This will require quite a lot of work from a few people but is definitely worth the effort. Rick has already made some excellent posts that only require minor editing/illustration to make them a permanent resource.

Then, if a post is made then at least the poster can be referred to the section by link to see if the problem they have is already answered.

Tech tips should be descriptively written with ample illustration/photos aimed at the newest of newbies. Tech tips should be locked and only modified/edited/addendums added by admin upon consultation with other admin while still giving credit to the original author.

IMO this will make XJbikes a formidable resource now and well into the future. Having a specific section to BROWSE through might help the people who find the search option a bit hard.

I am happy to help in design of such a section and am also happy to to provide editing/presentation suggestions if required.

This method also has the advantage that people who have solved a problem may write up the solution in a descriptive/illistrated way in the hope of being immortalized forever in the tech tips section. The more information we encourage the writer to provide, the more benefit to the XJ community.

There will always be new questions that are not covered and these should not be discouraged, but it would be much nicer to see these without the repetitive ones.

/rant

Regards
HG

 

deleted

 

I've argued for tech sections before, and against wikis.

I'm slowly changing my mind for two reasons:
- we've grown alot since it was first proposed
- we have had great success with it at the 250 forum ( only select people can edit, anyone can read)

Further, I think that wiki can allow better search/organization than a tech forum could allow. Things like multiple ways to index the same page, or group of pages.

One guy on our forum even made an image map - you click the bike part and it takes you to that part's page.

Maybe it is time... the question is do we have a group of trusted posters who want to spend time making an FAQ type wiki or not? I certainly could help in places, but honestly have very little time to do such a thing.

 

When I first joined up, I had no idea there was a search function on the site. I suspect that many others have had the same experience. Admittedly, the repetitive questions can be a bit of a bother, but it is always in good taste to answer the question (which you folks do in stellar XJBikes fashion, keep up the good works). A FAQ page sounds like a winner Sno, I'm looking forward to seeing it.

 

Yes. There are sure some Frequently Asked Questions; that's for sure.

When the section is born and there are places to file the answers ... I hope to provide the site with: "The Ultimate Troubleshooting Guide."

I'm starting it from scratch, again ... because my Dell Computer had a stroke. We had no choise but to unplug it this time.

Seasons change. So does RickCo. I'm going over to the Dark Side and getting a MAC. It will cheer me up and start my creative juices flowing. I don't know if that is going to be a good thing or not.

 

Good stuff... Your threads that I have read are great, informative and humourous which makes for a good read

Thanks Sno.. look forward to seeing the new forum

Great idea BTW