Charter - please read + make suggestions

Gerry

Ok, this is a very rough first draft, off the top of my head. I'm leaving this thread open for intelligent suggestions, which I will incorporate into the charter on an ongoing basis, and lock the thread when the charter looks decent. Any further suggestions can be pmmed to me or kali. Hopefully this will lead to quicker solutions to problems, and less frustration on the part of the people who are trying to figure out what the hell the poster is asking

1) If you are asking for advice on purchasing a new computer:

Please include as much information as possible on what you expect the computer to do, what you will be using it for, and any special requirements you have ( eg a tape drive, linux compatibility ). Don't just post up "does this spec look ok". Try to be specific, don't say things like "has to have plenty of space". That means nothing. Instead say something like "I'd like to be able to store 2 hours of DV footage, or 200 ripped dvd's". Include a definite budget that you are not going over.

2) If you are asking for advice about a problem with your computer:

Include as much information as you can think of. If it crashed, post up what was running at the time. Post up any error messages. Indeed, if you received any error messages, try to at least google them before posting here, to save others googling them for you. If the machine is overclocked, say so. Try to think of the last changes you made to the machine while it was still working, its quite likely that one of them caused your problem.

3) Have a read of this website. A lot of that page applies to this board.

Regards, Gerry

Mutant_Fruit

1 (a): Please please please use the search function before you post a question. Especially if it relates to video editing/compressing. You'd be surprised at how many people have already asked your question! If you do post a thread on an already dealt with option, put a link to the older thread in your post, otherwise people like me will tell you to USE THE FRIGGIN SEARCH BUTTON!

Nukem

Mutant you have hit the nail on the head.
No saint myself in the past - but the search is a handy tool please us it.
Google is your best buddy as well for some questions but if you cant find it ask here people have no worries pointing you in the right direction.
Another point if people put up as mutant and Gerr said a proper heading it makes life easier- such as
PROBLEM - HDD not working what,when,how and the specs of you machine and also what you reckon happened.
Probably have more later on.Hope this helps

KinchTheBlade

Small point...
I Did a test search with the phrase "IBM DOS" if you exclude small words like IBM, RAM then the value of the search is greatly diminished

Anyhoo
Kinch

aidan_walsh

Ah yes, a fair point, and one that should be brought up in Feedback...

In fact, I think I will...

KinchTheBlade

good for you the world needs more doers :-)

Kinch

Mutant_Fruit

point out words such as NAT really DO need to be allowed to be searched for... thats always getting asked, and is unfortunately too small to be searched for.

aidan_walsh

Apparently its overcome if you put a wildcard after the term you're looking for, but thats bound to put extra pressure on the search. They don't seem to be too willing to change it yet though...

Giblet

Please don't give misleading advice
If someone is complaining that their PC is restarting, don't automatically assume that the problem is the PSU (yes even Q-TEC) or something, and that they must buy a new one, as this might not be the problem at all, wasting time and money. There is a series of standard steps people usually should take before sending something back or re-buying something. Telling someone to check is their heatsink seated properly is OK.

Ciaran500

I think you need to add a rule about "backing" up software. There has been a influx of these threads over the last few days.

pwd

to search for IBM search for IBM*.
Do similar for other three letter words.

Khannie

When the charter does finally get finalised, it will include something along these lines:

Discussion of illegal activity will result in a ban.

I'm tired of giving out about this like I'm your da. There wont be any more warnings. Just bannings and post deletions.

Discussion of illegal activity puts this whole community in danger of being shut down, so it wont be tolerated.

Khannie

Unhelpful comments (e.g. "switch to linux" when encountering a windows problem) will result in a one day ban.

maidhc

Can you not just change the min word length on the database to allow smaller words be searched?

I'd be careful with jsut saying "discussion of illegal activity will result in a ban". Ok, I dont approve of a general discussion on how to find warez or something, but issues such as circumventing DRM in circumstances or backing up CDs are perfectly legitimate topics of conversation (i.e. legal things to do), and I wouldnt like to be part of a board that deletes anything that doesnt follow the party line, so to speak.

Khannie

Ah, basically I'm talking about stuff that could land the boards.ie admins in trouble or result in the closure of the site (e.g. where to download movies, etc.). We're not gonna be bums about it.

I think that getting the min word length changed isn't going to happen tbh. The comp forum mods don't have that kind of power, and the admins wouldn't be arsed tbh. Google does work though, if you do:

site:www.boards.ie <insert query here>

in the search box.

maidhc

If you are running MySQL 4 its easy enough:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/fulltext-fine-tuning.html

I dont think it adds too much strain on the servers either.

shortys94

hey
sorry mods if this is not allowed to be discussed, but i am having a problem with limewire, it doesnt connect and i think its ever since i had my wireless setup, i am not sure what to do, help?

Creamy Goodness

shortys94 wrote:

hey
sorry mods if this is not allowed to be discussed, but i am having a problem with limewire, it doesnt connect and i think its ever since i had my wireless setup, i am not sure what to do, help?

well the charter post surely isn't the place for it.

Sully

Cremo wrote:

well the charter post surely isn't the place for it.

LOL

Sully

Khannie wrote:

Unhelpful comments (e.g. "switch to linux" when encountering a windows problem) will result in a one day ban.

This has to be the most common post. Do people not read the charter or just ignore it?

mp3guy

Sully04 wrote:

This has to be the most common post. Do people not read the charter or just ignore it?

ignore it mostly, but it is a good sign that its appearing more often

alantc

I think it's time people started using the networking/operating systems forums too. Most of the topics in Compuers seem to fit into another forum and then the other forums don't get enough traffic to answer my questions when I put them there!

**Timbuk2**

alantc wrote:

I think it's time people started using the networking/operating systems forums too. Most of the topics in Compuers seem to fit into another forum and then the other forums don't get enough traffic to answer my questions when I put them there!

+1

They should really be used. Alot of the problems would really fit in the Web or Windows Forum

Also another popular one is threads that should be in security, but are not. Does this sound familiar :rolleyes:

"Help - I have a virus"
"What do I do now"
"OMG - Trojan"
"How do I get rid of this spyware"

They would all fit better in the Security forum tbh


Also I hate thread topics that explain nothing about the problem at hand, such as
"Lil help?"
"Problem"
"Can anybody help me?"
"OMG"
"2 questions"

I think they would be much better if they used alot more.. words... like
"Keyboard Problem - Certian keys do not work"
"Problem - Windows Keeps Restarting"
etc.