What Are the Exact Basic rules for Replying a Thread...... -:) @};-

[Former Member]

Hi Experts,

After Looking into the forums many days I had a small conclusion about forums,

SAP Forums are better place I have seen for getting a goo dhelp & Knowledge...

Why can't we make it a BEST Place.

This is just a small doubt which I would like to clear myself first,

I have seen many users In the forums asking for a Basic Questions

When cleared, But still they want to have a Spoon feeding with a Sample Code.

When Sample Code Given they will provide the original code and requests for Modifications.

These always looks to me as crazy.

I have seen somelong time agin by moderators posting that In SCN there will be no SPOON FEEDING.

I am not sure whether if still this Rule AVAILABLE or NOT.

Ok if the task is really difficult let them ask again and again,

And it was not replied, let them repost, I agree with them.

And How about a User Registered in SDN very long back and asking for a silly question in below thread,

[Sendin Email to the recipent list -Need correct FM |]

This is one more example, really funny, The thread poster needs the solution at any cost, he doesn't require and Suggetions,,, {He Only needs Solution}

[Radio Buttons |;

[Turning Off Debugger |;

[Regarding Amount in words|;

There are 100's of threads like this....Everyone knows this facts.

Check this who answered this one and who replied correct answer, who copied, finally who was rewarded...!

[how to validate POsting period |]

Now My Real Problem is....!

User is always intelligent, Only the weakness is in Contributor, trying to help them,..,

And I openly say that Someone requesting for basic help is not DUMB, But the Contributor replying forgets

the basic rules " Why Contributing ?"

According to me It's not the Requestor to see Rules & Requlations before posting the threads,

But its responsibilty for the Contributing person to see th Rules & Requlations before replying the threads,

If we follow the rules and stand on a single word or rule or anything there will be Good Result.

Major Problem is in US not anyone else.

Example Some one saying search in the forum,,, then please no replies after that...

But we are very pity hearted again we post the solution,,,

But it is not at all enough(for cintribtor's)... they will copy the solution and post again by slight Modifications,

And Some users are having 500,600,700,800 Posts with 0 points, registered long long back.

They are completly dependent on forums,,, As they goto office and as they eat, The same they open forums and ask Queries...

They will never realize what they are doing,, and we will never let them improve better...

Finally Lets Discuss About this and Correct & Suggest me if I am wrong,

Is my thoughts are going in the right way or not I am not even sure... Please Aslo Correct me if I did any mistakes.

Thanks & regards,

Dileep .C

Edited by: Dileep Kumar Chinnaiah on Apr 29, 2009 12:33 PM

Title Changed Form

"What to do when someone asking for Basic Questions" to "What Are the Exact Basic rules for Replying a Threads...... "

[former_member184657 · Accepted solution]

Thanks Dileep for opening this thread. I was contemplating on starting a discussion on the same topic for a few days now.

Ive been observing that the members who break the rules most are the so-called-contributors. Answering basic questions, answering to duplicate questions with the same answers despite knowing its a duplicate thread, providing sample codes, providing step-by-step answers, copy-paste answers without giving credit to the author, providing copyrighted material, answering interview questions, encouraging laziness/ignorance of the newbies, discouraging those who point to the rules of the forums, providing irrelevant link-farms, answering without reading the question properly.... the list is endless.

The mods have been doing a great job in pointing to the Rules and giving sufficient warnings. And yet it continues. I notice that its easier to reign in the newbies than the so-called-experts. Just because they have a few points up their sleeve and feel they are experts, they think they cant be touched at thier pedestal. The general awareness of the Rules of the forum among the members I can say confidentally is a 100%. And yet they are either breaking the rules repeatedly or finding a work-around. Its like they are pushing their luck too far and hope to get lucky with a few points and go unnoticed by the Mod-Radars.

I feel its time to act tough on the experts. And the best way to do that is shave off a couple of hundred points from their tally. This will definately get their attention. I dont see any other way of catching their attention. Hit them where it hurts most.

Ive been constantly sending the Abuse reports with an additional Repeat Offender where applicable. And I will continue to do that, to help the Mods identify the real culprits. Ready to send the evidence for the same.

If we tighten the noose a little more now, then Im sure the forums is going to be more clean than what it is now. Having said that, my kudos to the Mods who have so far done a great job over last 6 months. The noise level has definately come down 50%. And Im sure by implementing the above idea, we can reduce it by further 25%.

pk

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Kishan,

Thanks for your response,

I have been observing this for last 2 months very keenly, Even I was observing the TOP Contributors Page everyday,

And I noticed one thing, A new Contributor trying to push his name in top 10 Places is doing like this,

After achieving the position he is doing normal,

I have seen the Top 200 Contributors in which the if someones points are around less than 350 and if their annual points is also same,

Then they are enjoying fun in forums, just he secured all in last 30 days, by crossing forum rules,,,

Only the target is get atleast 10 more points so that I can climb up some more positions,,, Keeps on going... and after some time(after 30 days) the points (last 30 days exceeds) and the rank will be moving down again,,,

And I observerd, that user never contributed or replied in the forums in the way they used to reply before,

This is just one of my analysis, by which I observed in the last 2 months.

And I also observed very bad things(not really that bad, but I personally dont like that).

People post threads in one line...

No Hi,,,, or No Signature rushing to post the thread immediately with in a minute as the querry appeared.

(Mostly Users(maximum users) will see solution & take 1 or 2 days to respond with a reply).

What is wrong If we post reply in 5 Minutes with a clear & proper way...

"NO. NO. NO. 'Oh.!, My God..!" Someone will reply the thread before me...! So I need to be fast, No time for header & footer.

or else I will loose points if my thread is in the last.

Some others are different, They just wait for opputunity, They always copy paste at last. The user keeps on reading, and at the end he says problem solved by assigning points to almost last correct answer.

I personally seen this..

Example Scenario: Once I have seen a thread and was trying to reply it, Actually I was the first replying person.

When I type the solution and posted reply, But my reply was around 7th reply to the thread...!

WOW..! I am surprised and because, I was replying something like, Search in the forum first.

But when my reply is in this position I dosent look good, So again I will Edit and post the normal solution...

To say frankly, Forums are some times becoming funny because of some small minor things like this...

Some Times I even copied the moderators solutions and pasted their on solutions just by changing case.

Just to let them know what is happening.

Thanks & Regards,

Dileep .C

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

well I think the point is quite good. May be, at least me, we were concentrating too much on the OP to enforce them to follow the rules. But you are correct, that answering basic questions again and again is also a violoation of the rules and should be treaten as that. Mostly we, or again I do, delete link farms, copy and past answers (if the origin is known) as answers to thread and also remove points of those answers but thats mainly it.

To do more work on both the OPs questions and additionally on the given answers it would be a great help to see abuse reports with a note why it is abuse and additionally giving links... to the origins..

If we don't get this information but just a plain abuse report moderation will become a real pain and very time consuming. So at this point we need YOUR help.

best regards

Siggi

PS: I will link this thread also in the moderator forum to see others opinions.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Yes Siggi,

Definetly, We will help you in that,

I almost all sent many report abuse and with a clear explanation everytime.

But I & You alone cannot do anything so, My point is to let know (Rules) to the Experts first before posting(replying)...

For an example,,,!

If I post any relavant material or phrases or abuse Content in my thread...! it will be rejected or corrected or will be blocked...!

I dont know who will do that..>!

It May be Matt, May be Julius, Or my be Rob, Or Vijay, Or Lakshmipathi. Anyone who see that content first will do that...!

Really Appriciate your work,,, Because You are set to follow some Ruuuules..!

All Moderators are United... And I seen Coffee Corners,,! How They are United

Lets say there are 10-20 United Moderators for ABAP Forum...! and

We have 100-200 Regular Experts & 200 - 500 Irregular Experts Who always Fight for Points...!

I am just talking all this about the Unity & A understanding b/n Experts...!

If Experts are United..... then You can Expext the Result...!

I am just thinking a way to touch these things to the 100-200 Regular Experts.

Thanks & regards,

Dileep .C

[matt · Accepted solution]

I've no problem with basic questions, per se, only with

1. where a question is easily answered by searching.

2. if the poster had been awake during training, or had done a training course, they'd know

3. where the poster demands spoon-feeding

If any of these three points are violated, I'll reject/edit/lock the thread. Where "contributors" reply to such questions, they'll frequently get a rejection.

The major problem is the sheer volume of traffic. I sometimes do a quick search on "http" in the ABAP forums, to identify threads where people have responded with just links. There are hundreds in a 24 hour period. I can maybe do the first twenty hits. ( Another problem is that the site is often quite slow - this greatly hinders moderation ). There's no way we can read every message - we rely so much on the abuse reports.

When I've identified specific problem contributors, I've targetted them, and in some case got behaviour modification. But often, when they feel they're not being watched anymore, they carry on with the same actions. And of course, every time a new class graduates from the training institutions, we get a whole new set of people to bring into line!

Maybe we need a three strike rule... but then we could end up with forums full of guests!

[former_member184657 · Accepted solution]

An expert who can answer or is no expert at all. They are also the kind of experts who will not be missed much. So a three stirke rule is very welcome.

Yeah one could observe a marked character improvement after repeated warnings, but there are quite a lot of them who just keep going on and on, with total disregard for the rules. Points-shaving and eventually Guestification will bring the user to his/her logical conclusion.

pk

[former_member188685 · Accepted solution]

in most of the cases...

i will give a warning with an edit for basic posts for the case of freshers, other wise i will simply reject all of them. we check from abuse reports. it is difficult to follow up from forums. in some copy paste cases we delete the code or reject.

recently you copy pasted from one of the Posts. There Rob also present...

For showing the mods you need not to copy paste and show. You can always report to moderators.

We will not tolerate any point gaming. If we find any hints that leads to Guestifcation.

[stephenjohannes · Accepted solution]

Well if you only had done a search first you would have found the following thread in the coffee corner that would have discussed this issue before

If you haven't read it, take a look first, so you can understand where things are now.

Take care,

Stephen

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Stephen,

Very useful Information,

First tell me a little something about my self...

After completion of my certification(as a fresher) I was down the streets hunting the job,

with the insufficient knowledge and being a non-experienced person, I never got one.

And mean while when I got my "S-UserID", I used to be proud, To say frankly, I registerd in SDN & SAP all at a time, without even knowing what I can do there..,

When I got a job afterwords I was doing the job and never seen SDN page for many months,

when I came to know that of we have doubts we can post at SDN. then started requesting help,

I posted only a little, I didnot got the proper response. on that day I decided,

still there are some places where we cannot get help on time and there will be people waiting to get help,

Why cant I put some of my efforts to help others.

Then I searched some topic by Topic in SDN topic by Topic I used to read threads just for knowledge.

when I feel my self comfort for contributing, I started contibuting...!

If you haven't read it, take a look first, so you can understand where things are now.

I dont know where things are now. But these in this thread I mentioned clearly what I seen from the day I started contributing.

I searched with the terms of 'Rules for replying', The results are not as I expected, and this link has subject as

"O SDN, where art thou?" So it dosent hit my in the list.

Like everybody until a certain stage I am also rushing for points.

But I most cases I never tried to copy paste answers. If I done some then that is just to point it myself some day,

I have no hopes or no intrest on the points...! This was discussed with Rob & Matt, at my inital contribution where my points are 36.

From that day till date I have changed a lot to myself.

Everyone cannot change like me because they are not like me & And I dont even expect that...!

I will be online almost 6-8Hrs a day, Not even getting intrest to see the forums just because of the co-contributors.

My only point is I am just requesting to a co-contributor,

Clearly In a example : Lets say contributor has replied to a thread, and if you know that is a correct solution,

please dont reply any more, If you have a better solution than that, then only reply,

Even there is one reply in the thread not a matter, if correct answer leave that query.

If still error persists, Show up with your Idea's...

Dont let down the contributor, by copying his reply and editing and pasting(edit only if incorrect).

I am just looking for this one exactly to circulate between ourselfs.

For this we a little support from moderators to circulate(may be as a rule or may be as a mail to them)

You may say again how many mails we have to send, It dosent matter, one mail to one person one time,

and +ve factors will show up definetly.

A real contributor always understand what I am talking about, but some one who hunts for points will never.

I am really sorry if I am troubling with my doubts & requests,

If so, Pleae forgive me,,

Thanks & regards,

Dileep .C

[matt · Accepted solution]

Not troubling at all.

[stephenjohannes · Accepted solution]

Dileep,

First off never take any of my posts too literally. SCN has not developed proper tags for showing sarcasm in the forums. My point was that this topic has been "beaten to death" many times in the coffee corner. I have participated in it several times and can tell you that a "perfect solution" has not been found.

Honestly I don't frequent the ABAP General area, as my moderation area is more related to CRM, but the problems are generally same, but a on smaller scale.

The only thing I can say at this point, is continue to contribute without worrying about the actions of others. If you see something going on wrong, report it to the moderators. In the end those "gaming/abusing" will have their fate sealed in "guestification". Vent your frustation occassionally in the coffee corner, as needed.

Take care,

Stephen