Posted by Margi (24.64.69.110) on July 31, 1999 at 14:38:10:
In Reply to: POSTINGS OUT OF CONTROL - PLEASE READ posted by gary g on July 31, 1999 at 12:23:49:
Hi Gary,
I think your post is very timely for our new family members. Quite a few times lately we have seen repeated questions come up that could have been answered by doing searches or reading archives. Now, us "old timers" remember the days when the board would remain pretty much unchanged for a week at a time and a page wouldn't be archived until the end of the month, now DJ is having to archive every 2 or 3 days. That's ok, though, that's the whole intent of this board - to reach as many CH affected as we can. So, this is a double-edged sword kind of, isn't it?
We are reaching the people, our message is getting out there but now we are faced with the repetiveness of issues that, in our minds, have been questions asked and answered.
We can't impose posting rules, that goes against the fibre of the Board. We can however direct newcomers to the research that is available here. When I first found the board, I "lurked" for about a month, absorbing all the messages back to Day 1 but that is no small task now. I only had to go through about 3 months worth of stuff. Our new family has over a year to slug through.
Yesterday, I did a search on the gingerale topic and I was surprised to be stumped in my search. Nothing came up when I typed gingerale. So I can easily see where, when we direct people to find stuff on their own, they get frustrated.
We are a growing family, and with that, comes growing pains. Such is life in public webspace and we will evolve to become more streamlined and efficient in the future.
I think people are just so glad to finally find commonality for the first time in their lives (as we all were when we first came here) that the temptation to jump in with both feet is overwhelming. I, personally, am pretty darn proud of OUR website and glad it is giving so many people comfort. Guess we're just going to have to roll with the punches for awhile and keep passing on what info we can.
Let's also remember to keep one-on-one stuff at the email level though - that will help a lot.
OK, here I go again...
Water Water Water
Margi