PLEASE USE THE F'IN SEARCH FUNCTION (yes I'm shouting đŸ˜© )

(Darlene Horsley) #61

“In every chain of reasoning, the evidence of the last conclusion can be no greater than that of the weakest link of the chain, whatever may be the strength of the rest.”
Thomas Reid’s “Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man,”

#62

Newbie here. I always use the search function first
But that’s probably because I tend to be more of a lurker than active poster. Not everyone is the same. That’s a good thing or I wouldn’t be able to lurk as much lol.

An idea came to mind for new account holders. I also agree that preventing people from posting for 3 months is counterproductive and would turn people off from joining the community at all. However, perhaps there could be a 2 step post implementation where if you’re a new account holder, when you hit the post or submit button, a pop up reminder to use the search function first is shown requiring you to hit the okay before your comment is posted
maybe for the first 10 or so new posts you do
I don’t know if that makes sense, but it was just a thought of mine.

(Trish) #63

That actually already exists. When one creates a new post, a split screen pop up, well, pops up, indicating a list of possibly similar threads already in existence.

#64

Oh. Well I don’t know then lol. I didn’t know that as I’ve never created a new thread.

#65

Yeah, I got your jokey approach! And joked right back!

Ah, if you were concerned about the question askers wasting their time, then Id say that advice is always good (I personally appreciate it anyway) and also that I think the question askers often do want personalised immediate advice. And often the forum responders respond with v specific questions too that you cant get from looking at an old thread, such as ‘tell us what you ate today’ or ‘what were your last blood results’
So I guess I see that situation as: same question, but different answer many times. It’s like a gigsaw of the same picture, but with different pieces each time that need to be put together in a new way.

About search terms: off the top of my head terms that are useful but people wouldn’t know before being on the site/keto for a week or so include ‘shark week’ or ‘flu’ for how awful you feel at the start.

From reading a lot of 1st-week keto posts, there seems to be an inevitable pattern that in those first days or weeks when Keto Flu is horrible, people will naturally be more anxious, less patient, perhaps less rational, tired, grumpy, in a cognitive fog, and feeling low in self esteem. All a recipe for not remembering or following or wanting to read through lots of old posts, or even re-reading the FAQs. What I was trying to say is, that I think there’s only so much you can expect from an inevitable situation.
I do search first, I do post at the end of other long threads, I do look up tags, and Im trying to tag better myself. So Im certainly not disagreeing with the idea that we do al these things. Far from it. But I always wonder about the situational factors at play too, and how much theyre influencing behaviours. Im a psychologist and neuroscientist - its an occupational hazard.

I also wonder if this forum is more prone to have people starting at all different neurological states due to the wide range of health benefits from Keto rather than other forums that are focused more solely on weight loss. E.g. I’m ADD, looking to reduce anxiety and depressive symptoms, and encourage energy from the impact of low cortisol. I’m just using me as an example. Now that neurological state will lead me to be accidentally impulsive sometimes, but also too physically and mentally exhausted to read for very long other times (I can sleep up to 20 hrs a day - its a problem!). Others start with CFS/ME and other states that would be similar in terms of exhaustion. Others also start on here with OCD, self-esteem issues, hyperactivity, panic disorder etc. More so than the average diet forum, because Keto has this evidence-based neurological benefit for these states. So please open your lovely and very funny heart to us, and the fact that the situation of starting keto (keto flu, anxiety, cognitive fog, tiredness etc) mixed with our neuro-behavioural leanings, will mean there will likely never be an end to those lovely panicked 1st-week posts that ask things that have been asked before. Be gentle with us. We give ourselves a hard time enough, trust me :blush:

Happy Valentines Day!

#66

Oh no, I hope the early ban on posts isn’t implemented. Just think - that would mean new people cant ask questions to get them through keto flu or their 1st carbage slip up or cheat. These are important key moments to glean personalised information and support so that people stick with keto. I think Keto itself would lose some people if this was implemented. Would be a crying same

(Dameon Welch-Abernathy) #67

Having run several forums and FAQs over the last 20+ years, I can offer a few different perspectives:

  1. There are different ways to ask the same question. Just because “the truth is out there” doesn’t mean people know how to find it. Allowing people to ask “previously asked” questions increases the likelihood that someone else looking for the same information will be able to find it.

  2. Sites that this that have lots of posts encourage more activity. Even if you have people asking questions that are already answered. That can’t be a bad thing for our community.

  3. Sometimes, people need help to understand the information that’s there. And yes, that means asking questions that have already been asked.

Bottom line: while I understand the frustration, I don’t think we should change a thing.
Keep Calm and Keto On.

(KCKO, KCFO đŸ„„) #68

I agree, I’ve also moderated forums and worked help desk for years.

If I don’t want to see a conversation on here, I use the mute function. There are times when I can handle newbie questions and others when I just don’t want to even see them. Love the mute function, if you want to do that SEARCH for it.

KCKO

(Rob) #69

All good points but off the point of the request
 everyone should use search more often which will lead to better self-management of posting and higher quality questions. No censoring, no restrictions, just people being a bit more sensible and making their own choices better. It’s obvious when you point someone to prior posts and they go
 “Oh, yeah, should have done that first
” which is typically what happens.

I’ve managed much larger knowledge communities than this one and lack of metadata and use of search is the guarantee of becoming an overwhelming and frustrating sludge for ALL users.

There was another post explaining at length why people lose their google brain when they get here and they are all true. It seems entirely obvious then to remind people that they don’t just run off their lizard brains because of the morning’s scale reading :grin:

(Rob) #70

All good points and no doubt true. Which is why people need to be reminded (not forced) to use search. It’s still their choice but any improvement is welcome.

#71

No we don’t.

(Rob) #72

Obviously not
 :rofl:

#73

If I search on “use the search function,” this topic comes up. Weird.

#74

i’m just nosey, curious and info-hungry.

It never crosses my mind to land on a new forum and launch a new thread asking a question without reading around a bit first.

Likewise, it doesn’t occur to me to leap into a drastic change to my eating (you know, the kind of change that causes keto flu) without reading up on what to expect from those diet changes


But i am glad that there are people out there who do jump in without looking first. I admire them a bit. And worry for them. And hope that their concerns and questions are informative for the other people. The lurkers, the nervous ones too shy to post at all.

One of the things I like about forums is the variety of experience levels and constant flow, and how newbie questions are just as important as veteran technical discourse.

#75

Every forum on the planet suffers from this. I’ve never been on the admin side of discourse, but in my vBulletin and pHpBB days we could send automated emails to new user reg’s, as well as after certain post counts. (and many other situations) No doubt that can be done here as well. @carl @richard Maybe after a first post or something an email about “Posting etiquette” or something to that effect could be sent about searching first because it’s probably already been answered, THAT CAPS MEANS YELLING etc. A general how to, making the assumption that they may be new to forums. I feel like that’s actually MORE common now than it was years ago with so many places using Facebook in place of websites and forums.

(Rob) #76

All good ideas


(Margie) #77

:smile::blush:

(Mike Glasbrener) #78

Read only for 3 months guarantees no new members and the forum will die a slow insestuous death.

#79

Exactly

(Rob) #80

Don’t worry, never gonna happen, it was mentioned as something done elsewhere, not a threat for here
 :grin: