Re^4: RFC - shortform posting guidance for newcomers

I absolutely agree the info is often helpful, as are the items in the original checklist. That's not the point. It's just that the more you ask people to do, the less they actually will do :)

As for presenting them on one line instead of bullet points, I don't think it'll make much of a difference. It's the number of items you have to take care of that matters, not only how they are visually arranged.

Anyhow, personally, I wouldn't expect things to change much with such a checklist, because those who need it the most simply aren't going to adhere to it anyway. Heck, they aren't even following the <p> and <code> formatting instructions (which are about as concise as it can get) right above and below the text area.

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Re^5: RFC - shortform posting guidance for newcomers by marto (Cardinal) on Jan 05, 2012 at 15:36 UTC
I agree, many people don't read the text which is already in place, or they may choose to ignore it. I don't think there's anything we can do about that, I can't think of an incentive which will have a positive effect, without spending money ;) For people who are going to read and take this advice, then improving what information is displayed is a good thing. As the node states: "RFC. First Draft of proposed, shortform, guide to posting SOPW" As a short guide to posting I think the suggested text is an improvement on which currently exists (no offence intended), it's certainly shorter than asking people to read How do I post a question effectively?, How do I compose an effective node title? (and the rest) in that it the advice (if followed, see above) will help us to help them. Links to the other advice nodes (and PerlMonks for the Absolute Beginner) could be displayed elsewhere, perhaps after posting or in the preview page. I think it's worth mentioning that (at time of writing) were looking at 15 lines of text, if people read and take onboard when posting the 7 (at present) lines on the check list, that in itself is a positive step.	[reply]
Re^5: RFC - shortform posting guidance for newcomers (Aside) by ww (Archbishop) on Jan 05, 2012 at 15:05 UTC
No question that some do and will always fail to read the instructions -- but IMO, solution for that is not in wetware but in software: a daemon to read the draft/preview and squawk loudly if neither a <p> nor <c> tag is found... where "squawk loudly" means "refuse to submit/post the node." But that's merely an aside -- my on-topic mindset is that while an advisory such as the OP will be ignored by some, others may heed the guidance.	[reply]


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