As many of you know - we are always seeking new ways to encourage active involvement at MaintenanceForums.com.

Several of our members have communicated to me at various times in the past that the frequent posters seem so knowledgeable that they are hesitant to post a basic question for fear of appearing "not knowledgeable".

We have created a trial message board for beginners only and we would appreciate frequent posters staying clear to see if we can create a new kind of conversation that will serve some of the members who are staying in the background currently.

This new forum is designed to create a dedicated space for those at the very beginning of their journey to reliability.

There may be great value for all of us in allowing beginners to share knowledge and experiences.

Feel free to voice opinion and dissent here.

Thanks for your support.

Terry O

I understand the reasoning behind this but if it's only for beginners where are they going to get advice? From other beginners?

Danny

I am not sure of the outcome yet but I think your conjecture may be correct that a conversation may take place beginner-to-beginner. I would not recommend pre-judging what will happen or what the value may be.

Let's see if anyone even posts anything - then we can see if there are replies. If a conversation begins - we stay out of the way - if not - we can always delete the new forum.


Terry O

Absolutely. I'll stay away since although I may sound like one, I'm not a real beginner.

I see where Danny's coming from. Will there be a moderator if conversations start to flounder? What constitutes a beginner or a beginner question? Maybe a different description could be "a beginner forum so expect beginner questions and give detailed beginner answers."

This issue comes up all the time in the software development world. Development forums seem like they are populated either with "nervous newcomers" or "seasoned pros".

The "pros" can often be pretty terse with their answers. A terse answer may be correct, but it can have the undesirable effect of leaving the person who asked the question even more confused.

Microsoft resolved this several years ago by designating certain forum posters as "Microsoft MVPs". MVPs are encouraged to come up with more detailed answers to questions asked by novices - in return, the MVPs get discounts from Microsoft on stuff, attendance at Microsoft conferences, public attaboys etc.

It seems to have worked pretty well, and creates a friendlier environment for novice posters. This is beneficial all around, for it gives novices a chance to try out posting in a safe haven, before swimming in the big ocean with the sharks (believe me, its no fun when you ask a question about C++ in a development forum and 6 different teenagers give you a document reference and sneer at you to "RTFM, loser!" within minutes of your post!)

Regards

Steve

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Steve Reilly,

I guess that Terry is a little puzzled about the relation: views x members x posts

Oddly enough I did not know the expression RTFM and I was about to ask the meaning (and lose my IMHO knowledgeable status ) when I remembered an article I received yesterday http://im.about.com/od/acronyms/a/acronyms.htm

The point, young "teenagers" members will be easier to spot, their vocabulary is quit different, imagine when we add our own acronym soup (RCM, RCM2, FTA, RCA, PM, FMEA etc..) on top of it!!!

Suggestion: maybe we need also a page with our maintenance acronyms so the beginner can "taste" what we are talking about

This message has been edited. Last edited by: svanels,

Sounds like a great idea.

It is too bad that people feel that way. But human nature I suppose.

It is one of the reasons that my username is not my real name. If I'm not worried about how I look when I ask a question, then I ask more questions and learn more from the forum.

I have the general impression that sometimes theoretical posts make some people feel left out, irritated or otherwise discouraged from participating. That's a shame also. Just as we don't want to discourage people from asking questions, I don't think we want to discourage people from posting a theoretical analysis as another way to try to understand a problem.

Just brainstorming some other ways that might skin the same cat:
1 - I wonder if there could be an option to post a question "anonymously". The system would still know and record the username of the poster, but it wouldn't be dispayed on the message.
2 - Would there be any value in a "theoreticians corner" where the more theoretical discussions would be encouraged. It might reduce the number of such discussions in the main forums. I'm not really sure whether this would be a good thing or not but I throw it out there as an idea.

I guess the general qustion is how to encourage more people to participate in the forum?

In the past, I have tried to answer all posts which are not responded. If the post is not clear or I don't understand the subject, I will try to clarify by asking more questions, then the knowledgable ones will answer the post.

However, this forum is knowledge resource, sometime my question very stupid to this forum and sometime my question not clear....it make you guy expert confusion and sometime my english very very poor....but this is first forum to find knowledge for me.

Panuphan,

Your English is much better than my Thai. We'll both keep on doing the best we can.

Hi everybody.

I consider myself a "newie" in PDM, but nevertheless I don't feel left out, I think that occasionally my questions are not clear enough because "experience issues", but that is something to cope with in time.

I value this forum as a knowledge community, it's selfless sprit and all the people that post reply to questions that are made. Sometimes (most of them luckily ) the answers people give are helpful, other times, not so much.

I agree a bit with danny, in order that a question posted by an "amateur" would be answered by an "amateur", but like pete says, maybe human nature would compel the kindness of more advanced users to anwers the questions of begginers.

In my opinion, the purpose and structure of the forum are very good as they are at the moment and maybe the apparent lack of participation of new members has something to do with expectations (an "aks the doctor" kind of thing) rather than shyness

This message has been edited. Last edited by: mechanical pawn,

Terry,

How about limiting the "Posters" to beginners only but allowing more experienced people to way in with answers? By knowing that the person asking the questions is new to the field, we could be sure to present our replies with more detail and understanding.