I haven't read everything this past week or 2, as you all know, I'm out of it for now. I get why we had to go to the "new daily thread" concept, but what's with every single question getting it's own thread? Is that how it's supposed to be now? We all use to ask our questions in the daily thread, and now with 500 allowed everyday we have the room for sure. Did I miss something?

IMHO, we now have far too many threads... so why did you start a new thread to ask this question?

(just kidding)

I think all this should be taken on by the group wanting to make the boards more efficient. We have a lot of new people, and once a few started doing it, everyone did. Some forums operate that way, so if we want to lay out different guidelines, we need to make them known to all.

I would suggest asking questions in the daily thread. Your question will probably get more attention that way.

We are doing our best to make this board more user friendly, especially for newbies

Leenie

I'm just a newbie here but I don't mind if important questions get their own thread. I think it's a little easier to navigate through this forum. I personally haven't read through the entire daily/weekly discussions (yet). I just don't have the time. So for me, I find this helpful to come to see a thread that might pertain to something I'm experiencing.

Just my opinion.

I had too, as I was afraid I'd missed a meeting. Topic of discussion: every new thought = new thread! LOL (of course it also means there's far less interesting conversations going on)

I agree.

I understand, and agree that some topics merit a dedicated thread... but we get a lot of introductions ("Hi, I'm new here...") or narrow focus subjects ("Can we eat such-and-such on this diet) that require only a brief response, then they roll onto the back pages somewhere. It's easier to keep up with a few threads than dozens at a time, and these would be a perfect fit for the daily thread.

If the folks interested in tidying things up a bit here decide to take this on, all these considerations should be taken into account.

I agree that questions should be asked in the daily threads. Regular longer-term IP forum posters can point new people to useful information and it's difficult for us to stay on top of all the new question threads. Quite frankly, upon seeing all the new topics each and every day in the last few days and I've rolled my eyes and gone to the daily chat and the others I'm interested in.

I don't know how to encourage new folks to post in the daily chat other than suggesting it in the new threads. I've done that and been thoroughly ignored. My hardball solution is don't read, don't post in the new threads other than to provide a link to the main forum and to the current daily chat. I do know that this is a pass-hole aggress-hole move. Surely there probably are more constructive, helpful ways ... suggestions?

I've done the same, and even moved the question to another location and answered it there, instead. I bumped up the thread discussing how to make the forum more efficient, in hopes that the folks interested in doing that will get us better organized and well-informed about IP board etiquette.

It seems like we've had a growth spurt recently, and just need to regroup and get a handle on it. I fear that having too many threads reduces the amount of useful discussion, and people aren't getting the benefit of having lots of eyes on their posts.

This whole thing in the last week of making a new thread for every single question is making me crazy. The thing that really irks me is that rather than taking a few minutes to look through the stickies, a new thread is automatically started with the question. With so much of that to wade through, it makes it very hard provide support as it is difficult to get through everything. I just cannot do it anymore. I'm going to just read the daily thread and the Labor Day challenge thread from now on.

Hey, what about the Life After Phase 1 thread? (You're practically there!)

Oh yes, I plan to read that one too! Much information have my wise friends, take their advice I will.

This is a totally unverified and unscientific observation, but I think that while there are many more threads the past week, there are actually fewer posts. Neither is desirable, really.

And I'm not sure new members are totally at fault for seeing the creation of a new thread as the way to communicate. Most probably come to the site by searching for a single topic, or for IP. What they usually get are citations to single threads rather than this site, per se.

If there were some way to redirect them to http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/ideal-protein-diet-236/, as one or two of you have suggested, it might help. Adding more basic information and answers to questions that are asked over and over again to the Tips for Newbies sticky might help, too. But first it has to be chock full of good tips or citations to other threads with a title for each post that makes searching easier.

And finally, but I feel this strongly, new members should gently be encouraged to read more, if nothing else to avoid the embarrassment of showing that they haven't done any research. The one thing I find painful about this new turn of events is that some people have begun to use others as an information-on-call attendant, or as their personal encyclopedia. No matter how encouraging, informed, or patient members are, that's not exactly fair and is a serious infringement on their time.

(Of course, if the search engine really worked. . . .)


Well that's my penny, for what it's worth.

I'm in the "use the daily thread" camp for all of the reasons stated above. I'm much less inclined to post these days with all of the repetitive threads. I understand it's not anyone's fault but I hope we can get it together so that we don't all get burned out from coming here because it's such a motivational tool and a great source of support when it functions well!

AMEN to that, sister!! It's been going on for a while now, I'm afraid, but it seems even more prevalent lately. I know Jordanna got worn out from it when she was still active here...

Here's what I predict will happen: Carla will swoop in and read every post in every thread that she hasn't already responded to. After posting her replies to those, she will calmly assess the situation and present some completely logical solution that will make everyone happy... and she'll probably decorate it with snazzy graphics.

Then we'll all say, "That makes perfect sense, Carla. Thank you for once again speaking with a voice of reason and diplomacy." (Or words to that effect.) And the use of hugging smilies will go into overdrive.