Forum or Archive?

[Box]

A Forum is a place where people ask questions, get and give answers, discuss issues and generally talk about a common interest.

An Archive is a dry dusty old place that you spend endless hours searching through trying to find that one little nugget of information you need to help you locate that sunken pirate ship.

It strikes me that when well known and well respected names start telling people to use the "Search function and they will find hundreds perhaps thousands of threads related to their question", then I know I'm in an Archive.

[johnhu_2005]

Maybe a Wiki would suit the purpose. There are information hidden in the forums that only the Search function will provide...

Then, if the information is not in the wiki, the next step is forums.

[kcallahan]

I think some members are frustrated with seeing the same questions over and over. Of course, they forget not everyone, especially newbies, are experts at searching for the information they need. And, sometimes it's just easier to ask than spend the time looking for the answer(s)

I try to do the search and provide them a link to where they can find their answer. :)

[breley]

It has been my experience that lending a helping hand where possible, especially to noobies, tends to foster return visits from them. That's one of the reasons I've been lurking around here for over 3 years. :hide:
Certainly there is a fine line between sharing one's experience with others and creating codependency , but I think we seasoned members occasionally tend to forget that we have more experience and familiarity here than new members, both in terms of simply navigating around the forum and in general hardware knowledge. We were all noobies once...

Besides, you never know who you might be helping.:)

[Box]

Thanks guys you picked up on my point exactly.

I guess I just wanted to draw attention to the fact that the forum seems to have lost it's sense of community.
I'm well aware that just about every possible question has been asked and answered somewhere on here, but if it all comes down to people searching for an old answer the whole forum will cease to develop any further.

There are hundreds of new members here each month and the vast majority of them must be finding the answers they need by searching, but others ask questions. The whole point of a good forum is that those questions can be answered by other members who have knowledge or experience of the same problems.
You have to admit that the search feature isn't the most user friendly way of finding the most correct answer. Once you understand how to use it and it's limitations you can find just about anything you want, but if you put in a simple keyword it can return you 500 possible threads.
You then have to sift through those threads trying to find, not just the relevant information, but the Correct information. If you don't read enough threads you are bound to get a wrong or simply outdated answer.

Personally, I think the loss of the Mobiltysite posts and the ability to comment on them here in the forums has led to the drastic decline in forum participation. Without those posts and the comments they generated the conversation has just dried up. Without conversation people wander off to other things and that eventually means there is no one left to answer any questions.

I just want to see this remain a Forum, with people interacting, and not become an Archive where all you do is come and search.

[spunker88]

The overall forum posting has gone down some in the last few years. This forum was once super active, and now it is still pretty active, but nothing like what it was back when the axim was still in production.

I dont mind answering common problem posts now, since there is less overall posts.

But, i have had posts where typing the poster's question into google yields an immediate answer. Basically, if you can find something easily, it doesnt require a forum post.

[kcallahan]

There's no interaction when you use Google. So, what if the person asks a question that we know needs more clarification? Google won't do that for you unless your real intuitive.

Also, I've Googled things that couldn't be found. But, I could search Mobilitysite and find the answer.

I do agree there's a lot less posting going on here. But, a few of us remain active to answer the questions we can, or at least point them in the right direction. :)