The mods ruin these boards...

[Whipsmack]

Search the forum, search the freaking forum. Guess what I do search your crappy forum and to be honest the stickied posts are just a jumbled mess of information. Why don't you spend the time and take the info that is within 12 pages and compile it into one? Instead you tell everyone to wade through the crap yourself.

Why do we even have forums? Just about every question has been answered "somewhere" so lets just lock all the forums and tell people to search it. /sarcasm off

If you're so annoyed by common questions (and let me say they aren't as common as you think they are) why don't you just leave them be? You don't have to reply to them. The more questions asked the more selection and more information a new user is going to be able to search through. Theres no such thing as too much info of the same topic.

Oh btw i've been to a lot of forums in my days and i've never seen mods as anal as you. And jesus christ you got some ego you know that.

[koolpenguin89]

Please refer to this thread and use the search function next time. Thanks!

Dylan

[PadawanGeek]

Please refer to this thread and use the search function next time. Thanks!

Dylan

Dylan, you just made my day!!!

[1]

The mods ruin these boards...

Not only the mods, but the forum owner SUCKS EGGS. He's a real dweeb that has no clue on how to run a forum. I heard he doesn't even have an HV20 or HV30 anymore. WTF??!??!

I'm totally with you on this; this forum is the pits and should NOT exist!

Sorry, no offense, but I just had to let that out.

Please don't ban me for speaking my mind!

[koolpenguin89]

Well you know, if the guy really hates it that much, i suppose he could just stop coming to the site. In fact, whipsmack, if you are using IE, Safari, or Firefox as your web browser, you can even set HV20.com to be firewalled, so that you won't accidentally type in the URL and visit the site. That way everyone will be happy! Let me know if you need help setting up the firewall.

Dylan

[koolpenguin89]

Oh my god, Mal, your killing me!!! LMFAO

Dylan

[booter]

If you need constant content that's deleted regularly... craigslist should satisfy you. You might even find an occasional hv20 or 30 on it... and sometimes there are pictures too!
I personally enjoy reading the constant questions and answers, its nice to see folks helping folks, talking about projects, showing off video and things they've done.
Just wondering, is Traveling Mal the one who was going to post a shootout and then 11 pages of posts later still hadn't done it? Boy, glad I used my search engine to find that enchanting thread. So helpful with my choosing my first adapter and wide angle lense.
Seriously, it would be nice to see some condensed info, maybe even a glossary for noobs like me who had to dig and dig to find out what a GG was, and still haven't found a definate definition of what a achromat is, except I'm guessing its some kind of a achromatic lense. I guess I have to dig deeper, I really haven't looked too closely to see if some of this stuff is actually answered.
Hope you find peace.
booter

ps, just found a good article by zeis on achromats, apochromats etc. So I kind of know what it is. I'll keep digging inthe forums...please don't delete them for a while!

[1]

The FAQ's aren't that good, I'd say; but they are the BEST thing we've got, and no one had time or inclination to come up with anything better, so I'm immensely grateful to the persons that devised them.

[1]

...is Traveling Mal the one who was going to post a shootout and then 11 pages of posts later still hadn't done it?

That be I.

Lots of good info in that thread, albeit not from me!

[2Bdecided]

Please refer to this thread and use the search function next time. Thanks!

I wish I'd seen that thread, but people can't read every thread.


I've seen several threads where the thread has been closed because one of the moderators thought the question had been asked before. But if you read the question carefully, it was a different question from the one the moderator pointed the newbie too - but because the moderator felt the need to close the thread, the question couldn't be answered.

And yes, CycleWriter is over-modding IMO. Still, at least I'm allowed to comment on that here at hv20.com - try saying anything about moderation over at doom9.org!

Cheers,
David.

[bluegrass]

I too am guilty of wishing at times certain subjects would be treated to a concise Q&A. There is a lot of useful info and because there is so much it is usually spread out on a thread and even many threads.

If the originator of this thread has the editing & technical skills to recognise quality questions and answers, he/she could pick a topic and go through all the threads that contain any information on that topic and filter them down to a neat concise Q&A. Than we could lock it down and allow new additions to it to be submitted to moderators for updates to these special Q&A threads.

There are dozens of important subjects talked about on this forum that help us to use our HD Canon camcorders. It would be an enormous task for any one or two people to tackle creating a concise quality Q&A for all of them but if a group of individuals wanted to work together, picking topics, & searching the forum for the best Q&As on a topic, maybe Mal and us Mods could create & lock special threads as they get developed.

Just keep in mind, that when mods such as CW and others suggest that you search the forum for answers first, many times they would have to do the same thing themselves for an answer. Many times, Mods and others have even done that to help someone out.

[Whipsmack]

Also i'd like to apologize. While my feelings about the moderation remain about the same I could have approached this more tactfully, and I do not want to be banned from here I just had to vent.

[bluegrass]

Apology accepted by me and I'm sure others you may have offended. I'm sure we all know how easy it is to get aggessive on the Internet with statements.

Now, why don't you pick a subject such as how to avoid "gain grain" and start researching this forum. Maybe contact a buddy you have on the forum and work together on it. If I was doing it, I would open up my "Notepad" or "Word", start searching and when I found some really useful Q&A or just good insightful information, I would copy it and paste it to my local editor. After you have gathered some useful data, you could edit the info you have collected and than paste it into a new thread.

Maybe after a project like this is done you could alert one of the admins on the forum via PM and they could get a new main thread started to keep this and other subjects like it at. We could wind up with something like an HV20/30 operations Wikipedia, encyclopedia, or CanonHDpedia.

We might even find some "wordsmiths" here on the forum to volunteer their services to edit these threads into even more concise & clearly worded Q&As.

I would like to challenge anyone or group of you to tackle a highly discussed aspect of our Canon camcorder and beat it to death and come up with the best clear & concise Q&As you can, from all the threads you find here on this forum. This is a great forum. Let's make it even better.

[CycleWriter]

To Whipsmack and others, what is most offensive about your attitudes is the underlying sense of entitlement and expectation that they convey. This is a free forum. No one that posts here is paid a dime for their expertise, they offer it willingly. To complain about a service that is supplied for free seems a little misplaced, to me. We are not here to serve you on demand.

When I close a thread it is because I have personally seen the answer in here already, not because I suspect it is here. And when I offer a link in response it is because I found it by doing a search. There's a perfectly good reason why closing redundant threads is better for the forum. You even stated yourself that a search often returns a lot of useless info. How much worse do you think that would be if we let every redundant thread continue? When possible, I often merge a thread rather than close it, but if it was in the wrong subforum to begin with the OP may have some difficulty finding it again. Whose fault is that?

I would like to see us clean up some of the Stickies, but that would take a lot of time for a small group of volunteers with varying skill levels. Some of us have real lives (not me, of course).

Keep in mind, the next time you want to vent, how much it costs you to be a member here and what you can get in return. I'm pretty sure you're coming out ahead.

[Ian-T]

Whipsmack…I thought that was cool of you to apologize… I understand your frustration (I think a lot of us do)…but Cyclewriter basically stated the same thing I was going to say. I’ve heard many other folks say that mods should leave the questions alone and not answer if they are unwilling to help. I thought about that…but…if you think it’s bad right now to search for anything then..as Cyclewriter suggested, “How much worse do you think that would be if we let every redundant thread continue?”…. That type of behavior would render this whole forum useless….and those who were once willing to help would be put off. These small issues are what most of us making statements like that do not think about. Someone is going to have to clean up that mess…and all that would do is make the mods job much more difficult. As a mod…it would not be worth my time….at all. It's a lot better nip that sucker in the bud...

[HedsIc]

I don't know. I am new here and this site has served me great. I have made a few posts with questions and have gotten nothing but extremely friendly and helpful posts in return. Including that of moderators.

I also run my own MMA forum for local fighters here in Iowa so I know how it go's. You can't just let the place get clustered with a million posts about the same crap. Yes it gets frustrating asking a question just to hear "do a search" but that suggestion isn't given by mods or members to be assholes. Just to be helpful and prevent a cluster mamamama of the same posts over and over. In many cases it is needed as it's someone that is lazy. Yes sometimes you can't find what you are looking for and someone else can but most cases it's just someone being lazy and not wanting to search.

I think the mod's do a pretty good job around here as do the friendly members of the community.

[Ian-T]

Hey mods…I have a small suggestion. Maybe you can insert a small generic disclaimer (in your signature or in the body) that explains what and why. The font could be small, yellow, italicized and bold faced. Sort of a friendly explanation. This is so that you don’t have to keep typing over the same responses and also to not make the new guys/gals feel like this is a personal attack at them. Add a smiley face….and hardly anyone would be offended. Just a thought.

It might sound stupid...but...some folks are more touchy than others. This way they can't claim they are being attacked...personally. I'd hate to be new somewhere and feel offended right off the bat. But...CW, SW, LB, M, BG,,Eugenia...and others...you guys are doing a great job.

[previdman]

To Whipsmack and others, what is most offensive about your attitudes is the underlying sense of entitlement and expectation that they convey........... Keep in mind, the next time you want to vent, how much it costs you to be a member here and what you can get in return. I'm pretty sure you're coming out ahead.

Well put and concise, too.

But don't you exist ONLY to serve my needs and expectations? Paid or not, that should be your first and only priority. After all, it IS all and only about me.



Oh, and to '1': Still ROFLMAO!

[2Bdecided]

To Whipsmack and others, what is most offensive about your attitudes is the underlying sense of entitlement and expectation that they convey. This is a free forum. No one that posts here is paid a dime for their expertise, they offer it willingly. To complain about a service that is supplied for free seems a little misplaced, to me. We are not here to serve you on demand.

As far as I'm aware CycleWriter, you don't fund the hv20.com hosting. If you do, my apologies for assuming otherwise - I am very grateful for the presence of this forum.

I'm also grateful for moderation that removes spam before I even see it.

However, I'm not at all grateful for the more petty acts of moderation on this forum, which subjectively seem to have become more numerous recently. Not overwhelming, but most days I see yet another closed thread. Superficially, this looks very unfriendly.

Here's some advice that I offer willingly and freely (if you don't like it, I won't mind): many other forums survive with far fewer locked threads. You should try answering as you do now (point to the FAQ or answer), but don't lock it. Try it - it might work!

Cheers,
David.

[Ian-T]

You should try answering as you do now (point to the FAQ or answer), but don't lock it. Try it - it might work!

Cheers,
David.

...that's part of what I originallhy concluded myself...but what happens in situations like that is..others can jump on to that thread and give great info... but somewhere between that thread...and the multitude of others that are similar....becomes a nightmare for someone else looking for a simple answer on the same topic. Think about it. This is why threads are either merged...or closed.

[oddmanil]

As far as I'm aware CycleWriter, you don't fund the hv20.com hosting. If you do, my apologies for assuming otherwise - I am very grateful for the presence of this forum.

I'm also grateful for moderation that removes spam before I even see it.

However, I'm not at all grateful for the more petty acts of moderation on this forum, which subjectively seem to have become more numerous recently. Not overwhelming, but most days I see yet another closed thread. Superficially, this looks very unfriendly.

Here's some advice that I offer willingly and freely (if you don't like it, I won't mind): many other forums survive with far fewer locked threads. You should try answering as you do now (point to the FAQ or answer), but don't lock it. Try it - it might work!


Cheers,
David.

As always, wise words from you!!

odd m

[twoneil]

In most forums, the first page of a thread is usually disregarded after for sometime (a month, a year...)

But there is a new culture that I see most often only in the HV20.com forum,
is that the information in the 1st post of the thread gets updated.

(particularly in the 'Trade & Exchange' section)


And I'm most proud that many have followed this new approach
(HV20 forum exclusive)

[elantric]

I'm not a fan of "locking" a thread, as I regularly go back several days later after posting a possible solution and "fix" / "correct" "update" the text URL links, etc. in all my posts after I realize I may have originally posted invalid information - I figure there will always be new people scanning / searching old threads - and I prefer to maintain a high useful information signal to noise ratio on the forum.

Locking threads prevents me from doing that. Frankly if a thread is considered redundant I'd rather see the whole thread deleted.

So If a newbie posts a really lame question - I no longer answer, as I don't want my response to be permanently locked forever - contributing to the noise!.

[Ian-T]

Frankly if a thread is considered redundant I'd rather see the whole thread deleted.

That's a good idea. On top of that...the OP should get PM'd on exactly why.....which would be necessary to prevent a re-post.

[Whipsmack]

Yes i've gotten a lot of useful information from here, yes its free. But it almost isn't worth the frustration. The clusters of information is not hard to find because of multiple threads about the same topic, it's hard to find because that info is buried in a thread of 10 pages. Asking a direct question in the title provides the searchee a much more precise, easy to find answer.

Im a very new user to the HV30, i'm just now learning about locking my exposure and shutter speeds, I would love to compile together some easy to understand to the point guides once I learn some more. But I am afraid to ask anymore questions because I will be labeled a selfish punk.

There is no such thing as a dumb question, only a dumb answer. I'd recommend you start looking at other forums and how newbies asking simple questions doesn't hurt the forum. It builds the community further because other newbies have a chance to answer someones basic question, where as the advanced users can stick to answering the advanced questions.

And yes I realize you all volunteer your time to answer questions here, perhaps you should take a break because you seem to be really jaded. I'd rather deal with a newbie with an attitude. /shrug

Oh and just because one person has answered a question before doesn't mean all other discussions are useless. There are many different answers from different folks, explaining things from a different perspective or with another style of communication that could be much more beneficial to another person. There is no definitive answer for many things. This allows for much more discussion.