And no one is calling the posters out for it
As a moderator for this board i am perhaps partly to blame for not doing more to prevent these misdemeanors from occurring. Unfortunately having to balance my daytime jobb and the moderating duties undertaken on behalf of Forvm members, this does not always allow me the necessary time to keep track of all the posts lacking adequate and imaginative titles, weight and sizes. I do however if time is permitting, send a polite mail to members for whom for some reason or another have unwittingly forgoten to read Forvm rules. There´s only so much i can do to prevent this from occuring. There are of course Forum members that offer their assistance ( you know who you are ). I do not want to come across as a bad guy or a stickler for rules, so inevitably i refrain from grilling new members during their initial posts.
I think PtolemAE summed this up quite nicely. "No one wants to discourage anyone or be unkind about it, but life is short and some may naturally respond to a thoughtfully composed post that offers the best chance for productive discussion."
Arados (Martin)
Thank you, Arados. Those who click on post titles that
border on trolling ('ID Please', etc.) or respond to content-free posts (with another post to drag out information that should have been in the first post) participate (maybe unintentionally) in the ongoing practices that inspired this
thread. The desire to be helpful is usually admirable but maybe sometimes misplaced. Follow-up 'please give (information)...' replies waste time no less than the posts that beget them.
The most helpful experts here who like productive interactions in their valuable spare time do neither and the many thoughtful requests for
help don't require a preamble series of posts just to extract minimal information. If someone, even a beginner, is thoughtful and genuinely interested in identifying a coin there'll be no need to drag them kicking and screaming into a productive conversation.
Thread-starts with meaningless subject titles needn't be moderated, deleted or policed if no one 'rewards' them. Those that lack basic information needn't be 'rewarded', either. It may be unwise even to ask someone who obviously couldn't be bothered to do so to 'read the rules' or remind them about discussing prices, values, etc. It's all voluntary and some issues can be self-moderating if not inadvertently encouraged. Everyone here has an important right they are free to exercise: the right 'not to click'
PtolemAE