New Rules

[Will Prowse]

Here are some new rules that I would like to present:

If you do not know the answer to someones question, do not reply to a thread. Responding to every thread with more questions, or trying to answer something that you do not 100% understand, can be misleading for beginners. If you wish to help, and you can help, do it. If not, let someone else respond.

If someone proves you to be "wrong" about something, accept it and move on. We are all adults, and we are here to help each other and learn. If someone proves that something you said was wrong, say "Wow! Thank you for teaching me this new information" and move on.

If someone has answered a threads question, give them a "like" and move on. Having 10 different people post the same answer in a thread, fills it with redundant information. If you see a good answer, give them a like, and move on.

Understand that everyone here has different skills. Some people are good with batteries, others are good with grid tie arrays. Try to use language that can make an exchange of ideas as simple as possible. If someone is using simple language, respond with simple language. If someone asks an advanced level question, hit them with more advanced words and concepts. Try to mold yourself to the persons needs if you wish to help them.

If you post a thread in the wrong category, it will be moved. I am going to enforce this myself, and tell the mods to do so as well. We have a lot of categories for a reason, to help organize the vast amounts of information that can pass through the forum. Also, stay on topic. If a thread is informative and it goes on an extreme tangent, and it detracts from the help that the thread can provide, I will delete those comments. I do not give this right to the mods, but if a situation seems fit and hurts the help that a thread can give to people because it goes on an extreme tangent, it will be dealt with and I will notify the members involved.


These rules will be enforced from now on, unless someone can provide some form of logical discourse to make me think otherwise.

What do you guys think? Would love to hear some feedback.

 

[eddie1261]

What do you guys think? Would love to hear some feedback.

Love everything you said there!! I would add my request that people explain what they are talking about with clear language. If the XKJT-2963 is a battery, say it's a battery. I don't know if people think it makes them look "solar hip" that they know specific products by model names, but I can say that just since this forum came online I have had to cut and paste model numbers at least a dozen times to find out what a product even is, much less if it applies to me.

Remember that a large portion of the users here are brand new to this here newfangled solar thing (like me) and as Will said, these forums are here to help people, and that sector (like me) needs things explained in simple terms. I have been on many forums in my 20+ internet life (I started back when the internet was all text, no images, no video.....) and I have seen many posts that have a condescending nature like "I know this and you don't and that makes me better than you!" Many forums devolve into that. I would hate to see that happen here. When it does, people start leaving.

 

[azdave85650]

Not a lot of forums have a hands-on founder... Way to go Will.

 

[dcaulton]

suggested title for this thread: "Will tries to fix the Internet".

 

[azdave85650]

suggested title for this thread: "Will tries to fix the Internet".

Where theres a Will, theres a way

 

[offgriddle]

We are here to learn from one another and contribute what we know to be accurate and it is essential that we ask questions. Now, on to the matter of planning our first DIYSF gathering, Las Vegas Nevada could certainly host such an eclectic group, no?

 

[dcaulton]

The Mirage would be happy to host the convention

 

[azdave85650]

We need to find someone local to LV and appoint them head organizer. Does anyone have suggestions??

 

[azdave85650]

We are here to learn from one another and contribute what we know to be accurate and it is essential that we ask questions. Now, on to the matter of planning our first DIYSF gathering, Las Vegas Nevada could certainly host such an eclectic group, no?

Do you think LV could handle a group like us? We get "charged up" anything could happen.

 

[electric]

What if you don't know what you don't know? You think you know because you heard someone else say it. Engineering by popular opinion, another achievement by modern social media
Soon we will refer to laws of physics as opinions - Ohm's opinion, Kirchhoff's opinion, Faraday's opinion, Newton's opinion

 

[electric]

here is an idea, come up with a multiple choice test before allowing someone to post on the forum, or attach their test results to their profile, so people can see how knowledgeable the poster is. I know I'm half joking here and such test is probably not very practical, but there must be some gate or a filter for people spewing nonsense on forums.
How many people can tell the difference between power and energy? basics of Ohm's law, etc.
It should be possible to come up with an entry exam for posting, but not sure how to deal with cheating.

 

[Rider]

but not sure how to deal with cheating.

Google is our friend....

 

[b.james]

Google is our friend....

Stormy Daniels has the answer. I like the basic thread rules just keep the Moderators under control a bit.

 

[atatistcheff]

If you do not know something, do not reply to a thread.

Can you share this with Amazon? One of my pet peeves is people who answer questions about products with "I don't know." Or, "I don't know but here's an answer to a completely different question." ;-)

 

[svetz]

Can you share this with Amazon? One of my pet peeves is people who answer questions about products with "I don't know." Or, "I don't know but here's an answer to a completely different question." ;-)

ROFL!
I think those people got fooled into it by Amazon. That is, Amazon sends them an email asking them to respond to the question and people say "I don't know!" not realizing it's getting published into the Q&A. What they really need are moderators to delete that sort of junk (which they're afraid of lest people think bad reviews are getting scrubbed). They have a new thing now where a response to a question get's approved, so perhaps they're working on it.

 

[eddie1261]

Similar in concept to people who call into news station polls that ask for yes or no and their opinion is "I have no opinion". Then why'd you call? No opinion as not one of the provided options.

This is a good policy here. If you don't know, leave it to someone who does know.

 

[svetz]

How about some new emoticons? I've used like/love, don't think I've seen the angry or sad used. But I've occasionally wanted:

• Me too! (e.g., I've seen that, that's happened to me, I would like to know the answer to this too)
• Agree (no need for a disagree since if you disagreed you'd probably want to state why).

 

[Rider]

There are a lot of embedded smiles too, but you have to know what you are looking for. Another forum I'm on, same xenforo format, has a link to the entire list. They integrated a lot of animated gifs in place of the boring smilies, and I copy/paste them in my messages.

These are meant to be used as part of a post or reply. Here's a few examples:

:angry:

gets you ?

:handshake:

gets you ?

Type in a colon and start typing. If there's a match for it, it will appear in a list.

 

[Rider]

These are copied from the other forum.

 

[Freddmc]

"Can you share this with Amazon? One of my pet peeves is people who answer questions about products with "I don't know." Or, "I don't know but here's an answer to a completely different question." ;-) "

I buy a fair amount from Amazon so get these requests often. Most times I have an answer but sometimes not. I have a feeling that its impolite to NOT at least respond. Simple solution is to ignore those responses.
As far as solar is concerned I consider myself to be a newbie. Having said that I have installed a system on my bus(motorhome) consisting of 3- 100 W. Renogy panels and their controller to charge 2 deep cycle batteries. I had no trouble installing this but still have trouble relating watt,volts and amps.(at least I did until I watched Will's video explaining it) Hopefully as I learn more here my questions will become more advanced. Looking forward to the "convention".