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Skill Level Forums
Posted: Mon May 22, 2006 2:26 pm
by santosj
The PHP Code forum is a little busy and it is difficult to keep up with all of the new help posts. I usually just check up on the ones that I know I have somewhat of a good understanding on and have zero replies.
I don't know if this has been suggested or if it would ever be implemented, but I think there should be a greater separation from novice help posts and those needing intermediate coding help.
From what I have seen in other forums, the great difficultly is that it is up to the person to decide if their post is basic or advanced. It is also an added burden on the moderators since they will have to move novice posts from the advanced forum and advanced psots from the novice forum.
However, I think all would work out well. Given the community and support, I think it would further help people get the attention they deserve on a given subject instead of just picking from the first or second page.
Posted: Mon May 22, 2006 2:40 pm
by shiznatix
its been sugested before. Not a good idea because it would seperate people too much. People would stick around the lower forums too much when they are new and never get their feet wet in the more advanced stuff.
If you can't keep up now, just hang on and keep at it, one day it will make sence and you will be the one dishing out answers. It is hard at first but I assure you that it is the best.
Posted: Mon May 22, 2006 2:48 pm
by santosj
Okay then.
Another thing, what ever happened to the ability to set how many topics and posts are shown? Was that disabled for optimization purposes?
Posted: Mon May 22, 2006 3:17 pm
by feyd
There has never been an option for that available to users in a very long time, if ever, without a mod to the boards. It is set by the administrators.
Posted: Tue May 30, 2006 12:13 pm
by GM
shiznatix wrote:its been sugested before. Not a good idea because it would seperate people too much. People would stick around the lower forums too much when they are new and never get their feet wet in the more advanced stuff.
I'm newish to the forum, and newish to PHP, but some of the questions that come in really are basic... I quite like giving people a hand, (although I specialise in databases), but there are too many questions that need the answer RTFM. I've seen many many questions that get posted where I'm
sure that a quick scan of the manual would provide any answers. I don't know all the PHP functions, but I can look them up. I've learned by reading and trying, and I'm sure that the time it takes to post some of the questions is actually longer than it would take to find the answer in the manual!
I think a newbies forum would be a good idea. Most people who post the more basic questions begin their posts with "I'm still learning PHP", or "I'm a newbie" etc., so it is not like the label of "Newbie" is being imposed on them.
Just my tuppence worth. After all's said, it's still a great forum

Posted: Tue May 30, 2006 1:18 pm
by santosj
GM wrote:I'm newish to the forum, and newish to PHP, but some of the questions that come in really are basic... I quite like giving people a hand, (although I specialise in databases), but there are too many questions that need the answer RTFM. I've seen many many questions that get posted where I'm sure that a quick scan of the manual would provide any answers. I don't know all the PHP functions, but I can look them up. I've learned by reading and trying, and I'm sure that the time it takes to post some of the questions is actually longer than it would take to find the answer in the manual!
There are quite a few other places that have novice level, intermediate level, and advanced level forums. OpenGL forums is like that, unless they have changed in the three years I last visited.
However, it did cause confusion for me because I didn't know where to put my question. Since I was a novice I put it in that forum, but not all questions of novices are of novice skill level. Some of the advanced topics were good topics that are like the ones discussed in the theory forum, so you could say that the theory forum is like the 'advanced' forum but of a different and better name.
The coder also has to decide whether their question is of novice or intermediate level and another person may think otherwise. There are also the questions that could be in any forum, such as GD image generation. Some questions would be in the novice while others would be in the advanced forum.
I have come think understand why the forum is separated out into different topic forums. However, Security topics aren't always advanced and some are fairly basic.