Reminder to New (and not so new) Posters

first, welcome to indiamike!

as the site grows in popularity, the number of new threads started grows as well. please do post inquiries, that's IM's raison d'etre! however, it seems that a lot of new threads ask questions that have been asked (and asked again, and again...!), or to which an answer can readily be found in any guidebook (for example, "what is there to see in ___?"), or by taking the time to look around the site a bit first.

many kind members will say "have a look at this thread:..." or patiently answer the question for the hundredth time. but redundant posts also pose extra work for the mods, merging nearly identical threads or getting after posters for double-posting or starting several threads with the same inquiries under different titles. i'm guilty of having done some of these things myself as a newbie--and as not such a newbie. or i may sometimes miss a thread in my own research that is responsive to my inquiry. these are things we all do, as our searches aren't infallible.

inasmuch as the press of demands on my time constrained me to resign as a mod, perhaps it's not my place to post this reminder. still, please do be reminded that we all need to do our own research footwork as a starting point and only then post our inquiries here. to do otherwise essentially asks others to do our research for us, which is a bit selfish. poor steve_ber probably spends half his day responding to the same indian rail questions over and over...and he uniformly does so with patience and kindness. i'm guilty of being downright thick about a few train routes.

so, for what it's worth...i'll redouble my own efforts, and hope others will join me in helping keep new threads as helpful as possible by covering new ground.

ironically, i know there's a sticky or something similar about this somewhere...but i couldn't readily find it!

Janice

This post should be at the top of latest threads PERMANENTLY.

The questions asked here sometimes can be classed as inane.

Sometimes I am tempted to reply.

Would you like me to wipe your backside too, but I desist.

One day I might just well do that,

Can someone make an ikon / smillie, [ actually that should read smelly ] in that humourous vein

Though this happens sometimes, and can be annoying, the advantages are that it refreshes the board and allows for members helping each other. It also makes for some excellent old threads to be resurrected.

Also allows for some offtopic quips by the usual suspects


But yes, agree with both janice and fsg overall. People should look before they leap.

That is beyond the call of dooty

I resent being called an usual suspect . Oops, there I go offtopic again . Ok baba ok I will settle for unusual suspect .

that repetitive posts/questions do refresh the board. But another thought, perhaps there could be a permanent section - somewhat like the hotel section - that is place/state specific. In this section people could share their own experiences in certain towns, with places to eat/visit/etc; less an interactive space as a virtual guidebook.

While I believe that a guidebook, picture book, something! is a great place to start, the interactive nature of this site lets people who cruise-through have at least a sense of the sensibility of the person responding; something a guidebook doesn't do.

actually we just made a new rule:

if anyone asks the same question for the 99th time a bell will chime in Nick's house. when that happens, the new member will be automatically banned and won't be allowed into India.

they will, however, be allowed to buy property in Goa.

It's a very welcome reminder, and many forums (fora) are much stricter about this sort of thing than we are.

And I promise to stop repeating myself when my post count reaches, err....

well i, for one, have probably posted my share of inane questions. and i really do not want to discourage anyone from posting inquiries that "refresh the board". yes, of course we want to keep information current.

i started this thread as a "gentle reminder" that newbies might find it helpful to look about a bit first, both the get a feel for the "gestalt" of the board, as well as to see if there's any existing current information on a given topic.

that being said, newbies (or anyone else) should not be intimidated about posting about any ol' thing. we are a welcoming board--less strict than most, as nick points out--and we want to keep that mojo going, right?

but still.... <sigh>



excellent mechanism!

yes, captain, and that's part of my point. we have some excellent, informative old threads that sit stale and underused because people often don't consult them first, and then refine an inquiry in that same thread, which resurrects it. better that threads be resurrected that way--where all can see them--than as a "look here:" link embedded in a new thread. yes?

I think you're the only one who got it...such is the case with dry-witted women.

I laughed out loud when I read the Goa property bit.

So did I.

And I only get the bell ringing for the visa, malaria and Chennai shopping threads

how do you get any sleep then?

If you know the internet well enough to get to this site, yeah you should do some of your own footwork, I agree. But I heard that moderators get paid 1000 rupees for each question they answer. Oh wait that was an urban legend.

We do offer a personal service, of course.

But Rs.1000?

You can pay in dollars?