Hi,

It is not uncommon to discover 'newbies' who tack on a post to an existing thread when they mean to introduce a new subject. I try to answer their first question and suggest they post starting a new thread. But sometimes, they don't take a hint. But how best should we handle them, if they are not being offensive:

1. send a PM with the suggestion
2. contact the moderators, bang-triangle
3. public response

I'm never quite sure but tend to think one response to the immediate questions followed by a request for a new thread makes most sense. It is polite yet firm that this is how we do things here. If they follow-up with another posting in the same, hijacked thread, ignore it. But I'm sure if this is the best way to approach the problem.

Bob Wilson

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Free speech, dialog and knowledge thrives without the poison of SPAM.

ONE of the forums that I frequent uses a Post Icon for this purpose. If you think someone was off topic, you can quote or reference it and use the off-topic icon, in that forum's case a red X and circle over the exclamaton triangle like the one I just used. A gentle, (but public) reminder (and training device?).

It is the ignorant among us that will eventually destroy us all.

I'd say Bang-Triangle. That way, the thread can be taken care of properly, getting moved into the appropriate forum or seperated into it's own topic. There shouldn't be any humilation or problem, and mod actions include a PM to the user telling them what's going on. If they don't understand the mod action (Which has happened a few times), they PM said mod and get an answer, thus learning from their mistake. There's no retribution for making a mistake like that here.

Personally, I don't "tend" to the message board that much lately, usually I check General and the FEH forum, and anything else that catches my eye, but I always check to see if there are any reported posts first, and take care of them as needed before I do anything else, so "Bang Triangles" get top attention from me.

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Yes, you can always report something to the moderators, but there of course is no need to simply hint at these things. You can go right ahead and say that such topics should have their own thread! Nothing wrong with that

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