Shrek wrote:Hi, I am possibly the oldest 'active' member in this forum other than Dex based on the joining date.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but all of the old crew, Solar, Candy have been into OS development years before you showed up on the scene, all having several years at MegaTokyo before the merge reset the join dates. Even I (and at least Brynet-Inc as well) got into the community about a year before you did. Even here, Brendan was a native well before either the merge and you, as is f.x. MessiahAndrew.
Another possibility is that noobies (I mixed the 2) can be sent a warning if a mod decides that their question is too basic, or if they can't follow simpleness. Then if it occurs again, it's banning time. Of course, this is already in effect to an extent, but I feel that it should be stronger.
I think some mechanism that requires the poster (in the OS Development forum only I'd imagine) to search the wiki before they can post would mean that the majority of posters will realize they can find their answer on the wiki and post a far more intelligent question. Does such a mod exist for phpBB3?
pcmattman wrote:I think some mechanism that requires the poster (in the OS Development forum only I'd imagine) to search the wiki before they can post would mean that the majority of posters will realize they can find their answer on the wiki and post a far more intelligent question. Does such a mod exist for phpBB3?
Agreed.
[offtopic]Too... many... new.... mods... to not.... piss... off....[/offtopic]
Solar wrote:It keeps stunning me how friendly we - as a community - are towards people who start programming "their first OS" who don't even have a solid understanding of pointers, their compiler, or how a OS is structured.
Again a reference to StackOverflow.com: When you enter a title for a new question, it automatically uses that title as search query on existing questions, and displays "similar" results. That addresses two points: "Search before you post", and "find a meaningful title".
Not sure if this could be implemented on top of phpBB, though.
Every good solution is obvious once you've found it.
pcmattman wrote:I think some mechanism that requires the poster (in the OS Development forum only I'd imagine) to search the wiki before they can post would mean that the majority of posters will realize they can find their answer on the wiki and post a far more intelligent question. Does such a mod exist for phpBB3?
Yes, one does. kmcguire wrote one a while back, but it never got adopted. I've got a vote running in the moderator subforum to get it implemented.
Personally I want the wiki to become the default landing page for the site at some point. The forum would become something that was just linked to from the wiki. The wiki just isn't ready for that yet in my opinion but once it happened I think the quality of the forum posts would improve simply because the wiki would be better at providing most of the answers. The forum will probably never completely go away, it is just something that most people want to have.
Solar wrote:Again a reference to StackOverflow.com
StackOverflow is awesome. That's why I suggested that we start asking OSDev questions on there, and maybe put some existing questions and answers there too to get things started.
There is a subtle difference in use case that people don't seem to get... Forums are for discussion but not the best for getting answers to questions. StackOverflow is optimized for the latter, and basically auto-modded to prevent the kind of noise we get here.
Top three reasons why my OS project died:
Too much overtime at work
Got married
My brain got stuck in an infinite loop while trying to design the memory manager
I think that the forums here continue to have value, but would also like to see the day when the wiki becomes the default landing page for OSDev.org.
I personally don't like the look of stackoverflow (this could be a cosmetic issue - sorry to be so shallow), but don't think even that has all the answers to the problems of repetition / people not researching. I just went there now. First question:
Stackoverflow wrote:How do I create a ruby Hello world?
pcmattman wrote:I think some mechanism that requires the poster (in the OS Development forum only I'd imagine) to search the wiki before they can post would mean that the majority of posters will realize they can find their answer on the wiki and post a far more intelligent question. Does such a mod exist for phpBB3?
Yes, by making it even harder for new people to post, you'll draw them in. That's the idea!
In my opinion, which is limited and not accurate, all forums over the internet no matter the topic are having a degrading in the same aspect. There are more new people on the internet each day, and over the years the age has decreased. This also causes a decrease in the maturity of conversations. This is going to be directly tied to the local population of a forum.
The is plenty left of the forum. There is actually more here in the forums than there has been previously. There is more knowledge here and more help. If I have a problem I can be sure that someone here will answer it and help me work through it if it is related to operating system development. It is that simple.
This thread has turned slightly more into something that looks like what happens at a football game when all the players pile on top. It is not as bad as it looks or sounds. The forums are just fine. There is plently of good things going on. It is just that the bad is going to increase with the good.
I think there is just something in the air going around in the past month or few..
I have to agree that the Wiki went out of focus with the MT transition. There is a tendency to answer the same questions afresh each time they resurface. If it's in the Wiki, link the wiki, and be done with it. If the link doesn't really answer the question, discuss it in the thread, and improve the wiki.
Yes, the forum is still a good resource for input, inspiration etc., but the backbone of the whole thing is the Wiki. That being said, I very much prefer the "expanded view", because it shows much better what's in there. It really should be the start page of the Wiki.
It's OK for people to be directed here (the forum) first, because they have to register here. But I would wish for a prominent "Here's our Wiki, look for answers here first" link in the forum header.
Every good solution is obvious once you've found it.
. My reply was purely based on the joining date shown with profile.It was rather petty from my side . 
