I have noticed a few things about posts and threads being created under this section. I am going to attempt to explain a few problems I am seeing and touch up on how to fix them.
BackSeat-Modding
This has been mentioned before a while back and I feel this should be mentioned again. It is great that members are trying to help the community but be carefull not to backseat-mod.
The following comments are examples of backseat modding:
"This needs to be locked."
"This is spam, lock this please."
"Question answered, lock now please!"
"This thread is full of spam." (when you say this 5 times in a single thread or you repeat this even though another member already said this, it becomes extremely anoying)
Those are only a few examples of backseat-moding. For one, the mods do not need to be told what needs locked and what does not need to be locked. If you think a thread should be locked then contact the mod and ask them if the thread should be locked. The mod will have the final say and lock it if they feel the thread needs to be locked. They are mods because they know what to do, so don't tell them they need to do their job or how to do it.
When you see someone with low AP asking a simple question, do not say things like "this has been asked many times before" or get on their back for not knowing. Simply give them the answer they desire and maybe a link to where you found it and let the thread die (people have gotten much better with lately) = )
Suggestions
This is a fairly tough one to explain. I am not trying to give people the impression that they should stop making suggestions, but there are some things many users should consider before posting their idea.
I have noticed that a few people on this site have been making suggestion after suggestion on ways to improve this site. Please do not spend a bunch of time trying to think of ways to improve the site. Enjoy the site and allow the admins to worry about ideas to improve the site. If you come up with an idea and you think it out some, by all means post it! But don't try to think of ways to improve the site, just let it happen naturally. If you don't think of any good suggestions then let it be.
People are trying too hard to come up with suggestions, most of the times they think of solutions to fix problems that this site does not have or problems this site already has under control.
Off Topic and Topic Change
If a thread has gone off topic, then it is not wrong to mention cassually that the thread is going off topic. Just try not to do this too many times and try not to do this when you see only a few off-topic posts.
Sometimes it is alright to go off-topic for a few posts. If you see a few posts then do not say anything about it. If you notice the thread is off-topic and it looks like it won't ever be back on topic, go ahead and say that the thread is starting to go off-topic (do so politely!) and follow it up with something on-topic.
If you find that the thread goes off topic again then just let it be and flag the off-topic posts. A mod will take care of the situation as soon as they are able.
If a thread changes topic and the topic looks like it should not die, then make a new thread. For example, one thread may be talking about profile updates and somewhere along the line a few people start talking about snakes. If you see this happen and you want to keep talking about snakes then go to the apropriate section and make a thread about snakes.
These are just a few things I beleive people should watch out for when posting and thinking of ideas.
