Community

Agree that there needs to be a method for identifying, and hopefully removing, the deadbeats.

Dalton

Yeah, I think that a lot of people are using the Discussion Center for questions because:

1. They can ask questions in other discussion boards
2. Many members don't know about TQ&A
3. It's just a lot easier than doing it in TQ&A

In the "merged" version, a user would specify whether their thread was a "question" or a "discussion"when they start it. Choosing "question" would put the appropriate icon next to the thread and it would enable certain functions like closing questions.

sm

Putting a lot of faith in users. Many (hopefully most) will get it right. Based on what I've seen in the last few months, many won't get it right.

I believe they expect instant gratification and don't bother to read any directions.

Guess there's just no way to eliminate the Bozo factor when dealing with the hoi polloi.

At the very least ya'll are trying. Will reserve final judgement until after it's been in effect awhile.

Keep plugging away. No one knows for sure what will work until it's tried.

Dalton

I actually think that the main reason the Discussion center sees a lot of traffic that should be in TQ&A is simply that with a more open discussion style it's easier to get useful answers a lot of the time. That aside, though, the TQ&A section almost certainly also suffers because a lot of people don't know it's there, or find it to be more difficult to get to than the general discussion areas. Making them each accessible from the other by merging the two sections of the site might help to rectify that problem.

I must admit, though, that this mock-up has the two types of site participation less differentiated from each other than I would have expected. I was also immediately put off slightly by the Windows XP style appearance. I wouldn't stop visiting TR just because of the XP stylings, but I don't think that appearance will ever grow on me, either. I guess I'm just not a huge fan of the Fisher-Price Widget Set for Windows XP.

The good old rock solid almost unbreakable Debian try out Lycoris Desktop LX it is the Linux I recommend for the first time Linux user trying out Linux.

If you think that the listed site here is too XP sh then Lycoris looks so much like that not may first time users can tell the difference even the default desktop theme is so similar. Sure they pick up very quickly that there is no MS Office but the supplied Open Office works quite well and most come to approve of it more than MS offering.

But it looks so much like XP that it is really off putting to me at least but then again maybe it is the "Light Weight" nature of the thing as it defiantly isn't the work horse that Debian is.

Col

I'm aware of Lycoris as the "other XP". I guess it serves a purpose, providing an easy transition to those who are really uncomfortable with any OS other than Windows. It still gives me the creeps, though. Why anyone would want to emulate that look is beyond me.