Newbie Questions - Civ3

[Aggie]

Originally posted by Shabbaman
The newbie thread is great. I get to help ppl out, and I get motivated to look into the details, so I get better out of it as well.

So let's all keep using this thread!!! With people like you, it will keep on kicking ***

 

[Shabbaman]

Originally posted by Knight-Dragon
That newbie thread we're talking about is a permanent stickied thread in the Civ3 GD. There's no way someone can post a query in that thread and ended up in a 'wrong forum'.

You'd be amazed. I think most people believe that "strategy and tips" means something like "faq & newbie".

 

[Knight-Dragon]

BUT technically if you post into the newbie questions thread, it will automatically be posted in the GD forum 'cause that's where the thread is...

I am not talking about all the random questions being posted as new threads by new posters.

 

[Chieftess]

Speaking of the first post, I wonder if some even read it if there's 20 pages of posts to read...

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

Chieftess: imagine you are new to the fourm. A smart person would check out the titles of the top posts in the fourm that interests him/her. Well, read FAQ, open the first page (what else????), read Newbie Qs, open the first page! Or what else can one do there - simply go to the end? Then, a smart person would still realize what the thread is for!


No, it is this attitude of 'I prefer speaking over listening' that makes people post all over the place! I can understand that - CFC is so large and full of information that it gets confusing. But if after the first time you know there's a FAQ and Noob thread, then you would usually start at post 1 of each of these threads I think.

 

[Portuguese]

After seeing Killer's face, I don't know what to think about him .
But one thing is for sure: He has been doing a great job
But I tend to agree with the 1st poster: it is a bit confusing go through the thread and the 1 st post is not a idea as good as it seems. I'd agree with a newbie sub-forum...
Why not to do that? Is that so complicated?
I think it would be of great use to newbies, being much easier to find our answer and to use search tool to see if our doubt has came to CFC before...

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

as I said before: i would mod a newbie forum, or a Q&A forum, too, but it isn#t going to happen!

 

[Shabbaman]

Originally posted by Lt. 'Killer' M.
But if after the first time you know there's a FAQ and Noob thread, then you would usually start at post 1 of each of these threads I think.

And the moderators should enforce that by closing threads.

 

[Aggie]

A newbie subforum may be very useful, but I fear that the GD forum will be just as much misused, with the same arguments, like 'I played for a year now, so I'm not a newbie. What is a manufacturing plant?'. These posters will get just as annoyed when they're told to post in the newbie forum.

 

[gonzo_for_civ]

And the moderators should enforce that by closing threads.

The newbie thread is run by a poster as a service to CFC members. It is not required that you post newbie questions in that thread. It is suggested by Killer as a method of getting answers to your questions in a timely and efficient manner.

 

[Portuguese]

Originally posted by Aggie
A newbie subforum may be very useful, but I fear that the GD forum will be just as much misused, with the same arguments, like 'I played for a year now, so I'm not a newbie. What is a manufacturing plant?'. These posters will get just as annoyed when they're told to post in the newbie forum.

I don't consider that a point because that is bad but it also happens today, when a poster say someone to post in newbies thread...

 

[gonzo_for_civ]

A large problem with a newbie subforum is that most newbies would post in the regular forum anyways. Who's going to tell them that their question is a "newbie" question, if they're a newb, they probably wont really know the difference

Also, a few newbie threads are posted everyday when there already is a newbie thread stickied, what makes you think they wont ignore a little subforum, and I for one am not going to move around a bunch of threads a day into a new subforum, you can forget it.

Also, until vb3.0, subforums aren't viewable from the main page anyways. So it's either strategy and tips or GD where they're going to post, the newbie thread is doing just fine right now.

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

gonzo: exactly! And I get seriously angry if everyone who sends someone to the newbie thread gets flamed again and again.

I for one will not answer in the newbie hread anymoe unless it's a Q asked by someone I know. Also, the FAQ is gone. I spent too much time on it to not only see it ignored, but everyone who points to it flamed and insulted.

 

[barron of ideas]

I probably should post this in the newbie area, but, what the hell, no body else does.

When do I stop being a newbie?

I can play on Regent and win sometimes. Should I give up whatever protection I get by admitting I don't know much? I have learned a lot lurking, and people have been so helpful, maybe I should stay a newbie until I die. Is there a generally accepted definition, or does the person decide on his own, or is ti the questions asked that make it obvious?

To help take this out of the newbie area, here is a topic that seems to me to be a valid one for discussion. What is it about CIV3 or spending alot of time online discussing it, that burns out the best players? Like Lt. "Killer' M who is probably not as happy about newbies as he used to be, and Sirian, and... there are lots of people who used to post and now don't. Did they get out of here because they got what they wanted, or they didn't get what they wanted?

Praise is hard to come by these days. Don't see a lot of Thank-you letters, even from people who got Xmas gifts. There is probably a great quote from Mark Twain or someone about expecting gratitude. The one I remember is "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog." maybe I didn't quite get it right, but the general idea is that if you are providing services to people, the first time it is a gift, after that they think of it as an obligation. If you live near people who say thank you, where is it? I might like to move there.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Barron, when we meant newbie (or at least I do), we meant forum newbies usually, not Civ3 newbies. Probably more than 1/2 of the top 25 posters (by postcount) in this forum don't even play Civ3.

Once you've been posting awhile, know the rules and stuff, know other posters, you'll shed your 'newbieness' naturally. Remember, we're all newbies once.

Maybe the newbie questions thread shld be renamed to something less offensive like "Simple Questions Thread" or something.

 

[Shabbaman]

Originally posted by gonzo_for_civ


The newbie thread is run by a poster as a service to CFC members. It is not required that you post newbie questions in that thread. It is suggested by Killer as a method of getting answers to your questions in a timely and efficient manner.

I disagree.

A "newbie" post is clearly a violation of the forum rules, since, with little difficulty, one could not only find the appropriate thread to place the question (namely, the newbie thread; aren't posters supposed to find an appropriate thread? 'get your answers here' sounds like an invitation to me...) but even find the answer to that answer without difficulty (faq thread rings a bell? war academy?)! The only reason I see that such threads should be tolerated is, indeed, because a poster 'doesn't know better'... Well, they have to learn to catch up.

Therefore, I think that the moderators should close such threads (but we've had this discussion before) and redirect such posters to the appropriate threads. The system that we have now works fine, there's no need for a subforum (all CFC members are created equal, so why force them to post in another forum? we have the newbie thread as a service for lazy people...)

Up to now, that was a 'task' that was mainly performed by killer and some others. I fully agree with killer's sentiment it isn't rewarding if you get flamed for it (btw, isn't flaming a bannable offence ) but it demonstrates even more clearly that a little moderator action now and then should be in place.

 

[Darkness]

Originally posted by Shabbaman


I disagree.

A "newbie" post is clearly a violation of the forum rules, since, with little difficulty, one could not only find the appropriate thread to place the question (namely, the newbie thread; aren't posters supposed to find an appropriate thread? 'get your answers here' sounds like an invitation to me...) but even find the answer to that answer without difficulty (faq thread rings a bell? war academy?)! The only reason I see that such threads should be tolerated is, indeed, because a poster 'doesn't know better'... Well, they have to learn to catch up.

Therefore, I think that the moderators should close such threads (but we've had this discussion before) and redirect such posters to the appropriate threads. The system that we have now works fine, there's no need for a subforum (all CFC members are created equal, so why force them to post in another forum? we have the newbie thread as a service for lazy people...)

Up to now, that was a 'task' that was mainly performed by killer and some others. I fully agree with killer's sentiment it isn't rewarding if you get flamed for it (btw, isn't flaming a bannable offence ) but it demonstrates even more clearly that a little moderator action now and then should be in place.

I can only agree here!!!!!!!!!

 

[Aggie]

Originally posted by Shabbaman
we have the newbie thread as a service for lazy people...)

Indeed.

About the gratitude of the 'newbie/lazy reader': I work at a service department and our main task is to solve problems for clients. We very seldomly get a thank you from them (and a lot of trouble if things aren't solved asap). I think it's human nature, just don't expect a thank you.

About the flame-war: some of the posts were simply insulting. It's not very pleasant for the rest out here to see a personal vendetta in several threads. The moderators should consider the effect of these flame-wars to CFC IMHO.

 

[Dralix]

Originally posted by Lt. 'Killer' M.
I for one will not answer in the newbie hread anymoe unless it's a Q asked by someone I know. Also, the FAQ is gone. I spent too much time on it to not only see it ignored, but everyone who points to it flamed and insulted.

I, for one, am sorry that the FAQ is no more. I had only looked at it a few times, but was hoping to read through most if not all of it some day. Now I've missed my chance

Killer, thank you for the effort and passion you put into this. I am sorry that some people did not embrace it in the spirit in which it was intended.

 

[Portuguese]

Originally posted by Lt. 'Killer' M.
gonzo: exactly! And I get seriously angry if everyone who sends someone to the newbie thread gets flamed again and again.

I for one will not answer in the newbie hread anymoe unless it's a Q asked by someone I know. Also, the FAQ is gone. I spent too much time on it to not only see it ignored, but everyone who points to it flamed and insulted.

Sorry to know about that...
I don't go to GD many times now, but that is sure bad news...