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Make it possible to "Ask a Question" only when located in a specific forum RRS feed

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    I move (to Off-Topic) an awful lot of posts that are sent to the "MSDN and TechNet Search Feedback" forum.

    I recently got fed up of doing this for several messages a day and added a Sticky post to the forum saying "This forum isn't for software and hardware problems".

    As a result of my posting that sticky post NOTHING has happened. Still roughly the same number of off-topic posts come to that forum.

    My conclusion (after sufficient sampling data) is that these poor misguided people are not posting from within the "MSDN and TechNet SearchFeedback" forum at all, but instead are using a "Ask a Question" link that is somewhere (anywhere!) else which gives them the usual choice of a) a set of forums followed by b) a forum within that set.

    The set of forums that includes that forum is called "Feedback and Discussions" and once they've selected that, their only real choices for a problem post are "MSDN and TechNet Search Feedback" and "TechNet WebSite Feedback" which I also move several posts a day from (although not quite as many).


    Getting rid entirely of the "Ask a Question" option when outside a specific forum will remove this general problem. Removing the option of selecting "Feedback and Discussions" would help in this particular case ...
    WSS FAQ sites: WSS 2.0: http://wssv2faq.mindsharp.com WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007: http://wssv3faq.mindsharp.com
    Total list of WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 Books (including foreign language titles) http://wssv3faq.mindsharp.com/Lists/v3%20WSS%20FAQ/V%20Books.aspx
    Friday, April 10, 2009 3:18 PM

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    Agree 100%

    I always thought it was odd that you could start a thread from the main MSDN forum page (for example), but you have shown that it is in fact very harmful.

    Making it "easy for novices to post" is not a good thing if it makes it easy for them to post incorrectly.
    David Wilkinson | Visual C++ MVP
    Friday, April 10, 2009 3:31 PM
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    I think it's safe to say that the majority of the off-topic posts there are from novices.

    My favorite was from the person who was asking why it was she wasn't able to access policewives.org (!) and there are lots of one liners mostly about things like no sound or can't play back DVDs and the like.

    In fact now you come to mention it, since I posted that sticky the percentage of "sensible" (meaning technical questions about C# and the like) questions has gone down and almost all that is left are these beginner ones shouting for help.

    (and before anyone asks, I leave the helping to the MS guys who cover the Off-Topic forum - lucky guys!)

    WSS FAQ sites: WSS 2.0: http://wssv2faq.mindsharp.com WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007: http://wssv3faq.mindsharp.com
    Total list of WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 Books (including foreign language titles) http://wssv3faq.mindsharp.com/Lists/v3%20WSS%20FAQ/V%20Books.aspx
    Friday, April 10, 2009 4:04 PM
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    I agree.  I had not realized you could post from a category page.

    I think it is a bug.
    Friday, April 10, 2009 9:36 PM