(tye)Re: Where'd my post go?

[tye]

in reply to Where'd my post go?

I guess if you learn nothing else from my reply, the thing to walk away with is this: Post to Seekers of Perl Wisdom instead of Categorized Questions (and no, I'm net yelling at you; I didn't expect you to know most of this. Consider it a dry run for a possible FAQ. These ideas have finally congealed in my head.)

Reasons:

1. You are Level 1. Most Categorized Questions get posted by Level 1 monks (now that AnonyMonk can't) and most of them then get moved to Seekers of Perl Wisdom. Yes, I'm aware that this is at least partially a website interface design issue.
2. Cat Q+A is for FAQs, that is, very simple questions that a lot of people are likely to ask and that can be described nicely in a node title w/o having to actually use node text. So Cat Qs should be very carefully chosen and worded. This is one reason why the Level 1s' Cat Qs are so often moved.
3. Super Search by "Author:" will never find Cat Q+As unless you specify an author of QandAEditors as all Cat Q+As are "owned" by that group. Exactly why is a bit complicated.
4. If you post to Seekers of Perl Wisdom, then you can find your nodes very easily by clicking on the link that is also the number of write-ups you've posted (found on your home node. Cat Qs and Cat As don't show up in this list (even though the count includes them). Blame item (3) for "why" they don't show.
5. If you go to User Settings and enable "/msg me when a reply to one of my posts arrives" and then post to Seekers of Perl Wisdom, then whenever someone replies directly to your question you'll get a private message that lets you jump right to the reply. I don't think this feature works for Cat Q's. Blame item (3) again.
6. You're more likely to get more and better answers by posting to Seekers of Perl Wisdom because that section is more widely read, perhaps in part because the Cat Q+A section is "different" and a bit harder to work with.
7. It only takes a single member of QandAEditors to just completely blow away your Cat Q without leaving a trace. If this is what happened, then that person probably should have /msg'd you about it, but that isn't required. If you post to SoPW, it takes 3 editors to blow your question away without a trace (it can also get "reaped" but that leaves a trace).

It is also possible that some minor database corruption just made you question disappear or turn into an empty node. This certainly doesn't happen very often, but it has on rare occasions.

        - tye (but my friends call me "Tye")

[particle]

Perhaps raising the level to 3 or 4 on Cat Q+A's would clear up some of this confusion. Right now, there are many different areas where users can post questions, it can be confusing as to where is the best or proper place to ask.

It says in the intro to Categorized Questions and Answers,

So go add any questions you hear asked a lot, or you yourself have but think others could benefit from the answer

Is this appropriate for a Level 1 to decide? When I was Level 1 (not a very long time ago,) I knew I had questions that I asked a lot, but since there are few perl programmers on my site, I didn't know if they were general enough to post there, so I went to Seekers of Perl Wisdom. Actually, I'm Level 5 now, and I have a better idea as to what goes in Q&A, but I will continue to post to SoPW, and let them be moved if deemed necessary.

As an aside, I still find it funny when nodes move within the site, I'm not used to this navigational quirk quite yet.

Back to my point, perhaps users with more site experience would have an easier time deciding where a post belongs. Do Level 1 users have enough site XP to decide? I sure didn't.

~Particle

[tye]

Yeah, no kidding. See No Q&A from new users, (tye)Re: Q & A, should it all be moderated?, and (tye)Re: SOPWIFY!! for QandAEditors. Like I said, I know that it is at least partly a website interface design problem. /:

        - tye (but my friends call me "Tye")