PHP - Noobs

We know you have an opinion on how things should be run around here. These are suggestions for the forums, and the website.This forum is not a place to ask for suggestions to your own coding (or otherwise) problems.

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Gen-ik
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PHP - Noobs

Post by Gen-ik »

Any chance of having a new topic area called PHP - Noobs or PHP - Simple?
PHP - Advanced and - Normal is ok but they still get filled with the "what's a variable?" "how do i send variables to another page?" "what's php?" questions.

Fair enough we all used to be noobs but most of us have progressed past that now and have more complicated stuff we want to chat about.
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trollll
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Post by trollll »

I agree. More noob questions would get answers if they had their own sections as people browsing through that section would actually want to see that kind of level of coding. And likewise people who want to browse through mid-level coding questions wouldn't have to keep posting links to php.net saying "read this for instructions on how to use an array."
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nielsene
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Post by nielsene »

I don't know, most newcomers don't even bother to read the stickies, which would answer their questions.... I don't they'd read someone elses posts... The mods have enough work moving normal posts out of Advanced.....
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trollll
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Post by trollll »

I don't know about that. When I started out, I didn't even post anything anywhere because I thought I'd look stupid (no comments saying that I should've held off a bit longer). I know many, many people post without reading a thing or even searching for the topic in question. But the mods shouldn't have to have this responbility resting only on their shoulders. If someone posts a noob question in the advanced section, repond to it saying that you'll answer their question if they post it in the correct area. Until one of us (or a group of us) volunteers to write the script to weed out the noob questions from things posted to normal and advanced, people will post them there. We just all have to make sure people know damn well when they've posted something in the wrong area.
jason
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Post by jason »

This is not the first time this has been requested. And I say that for many reasons, a PHP Newbie area would not work well. First, it doesn't add anything. Yeah, some people might feel more comfortable asking questions in a PHP Newbie area, but as of right now, PHP - Normal is the place for it. Seperating it would only mean that more posts get lost in the shuffle. You would also have people posting newbie questions in the normal section, normal questions in the newbie area, etc, etc, etc. One man's newbie question is another man's advanced (this is not a problem for woman, who just know what to do).

Maybe the problem could be better handled by a simple name change. PHP - Normal to PHP - Code and PHP - Advanced to PHP - Theory. That is, in a sense, what the two really are.

I have to catch myself sometimes, because some posts in PHP - Advanced are not really advanced (in my eyes) but I realize that for the person, it is. And it is a topic that is appropriate for the section.
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Slippy
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Post by Slippy »

Maybe not call it noobs or newbie but something like PHP-beginner?

If somebody has a simple/embarrasing question -- they could put it in there.

I don't think that the mods would have to police the "beginner" phorum (much) and escalate it to a higher level. And like you said (J), a user might consider their problem "normal" when it should be "beginner".

I say just leave it in Normal unless it really bugs you because it was "so easy" that it should be in "beginner".

Maybe you could call it the RTFM section -- since it is dedicated to people who are too lazy to look it up. :D
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nigma
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Post by nigma »

Haha, when I first came to this forum I was exactly like that. I would post questions before searching google, the forum or even looking at the stickies.

I find myself doing a lot less of that now and I also find myself replying to more posts than I used to ( as in trying to answer questions ).

I think making a new forum titled something like PHP - Getting Started or
PHP - Beginner wouldn't be a bad idea.
macewan
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Post by macewan »

a newbie section gets my vote *for what that is worth*
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