What isn't clear...

[biketips666]

... about the name of this sub-forum. Which is "Does anyone know, General Cycling Advice (NOT technical)"

There's a sub-forum for technical questions. It's called "Bikes and bits - technical questions".

[philvantwo]

[Mick F]

Been discussed endlessly over the years on here.
Very narrow margin with Does anyone Know vs the Technical Section.

Never has been clear, and has been chatted about with the mods and everyone.
Threads wander in and out of all sorts of sub-subjects.

Very difficult indeed to differentiate between a tech question and a general question that has technical aspects to it.

[simonineaston]

Funnily enough, the first post in the topic titled "What isn't clear..." is itself unclear. I agree that the difference between Does anyone Know & the Technical Section appears to overlap, but in effect the way that topics are displayed via the active topics filter and via the search feature makes this irrelevant, at least in my view (no pun intended ).
Can I ask you, what is the point you are making, bt666? How does the overlap affect you?

[biketips666]

Can I ask you, what is the point you are making, bt666? How does the overlap affect you?

It increases the number of sub-forums I "need" to visit.

Sub-forums I hardly ever visit are LEJOG, Women's cycling interests, Off-road cycling, etc. Oh, and Helmets. I went there once, and that was enough!

Sub-forums I do visit, are Bikes and bits, Health and fitness. Very occasionally I might be able to help, and sometimes I learn. If subjects aren't in an appropriate sub-forum, I'll miss them. For instance the "tired Quads" one should be in Health and Fitness, shouldn't it?

There are some people here who seem to spend a great deal of time reading and writing posts. That's fine, everybody needs a hobby, as they say. Me, I'd rather look at sections I'm interested in, and not at ones I'm not.

[simonineaston]

Thanks for taking the time to explain. My own way is to browse by active topics and occasionally, by searching for key words. I seldom visit specific sub-forums. It's interesting to learn about other folk's ways and methods.

[Benz3ne]

What isn’t clear is where I might post something that some deem technical that others do not.
Eg a bike project thread. I’m not asking anything but I might be discussing technical aspects (at some point).
Surely if a thread is in the wrong place and bothering you there’s a means of notifying the OP or an admin though?

[Jdsk]

Surely if a thread is in the wrong place and bothering you there’s a means of notifying the OP or an admin though?

Yes. Click the exclamation mark button and let the Moderators know, with your reasons.

Shirley

[biketips666]

Surely if a thread is in the wrong place and bothering you there’s a means of notifying the OP or an admin though?

Yes. Click the exclamation mark button and let the Moderators know, with your reasons.

Yes, tried that. Makes no difference. The mods are fully tied up making sure nobody gets upset by disagreement.

[Oldjohnw]

Surely if a thread is in the wrong place and bothering you there’s a means of notifying the OP or an admin though?

Yes. Click the exclamation mark button and let the Moderators know, with your reasons.

Yes, tried that. Makes no difference. The mods are fully tied up making sure nobody gets upset by disagreement.

You know that?

[mattsccm]

I agree in some respects. It isn't hard to sort tech from not. If it is about a bike or another bit of kit it is tech to my mind. Even "what bike shall I buy?"
I suspect it is a mixture of laziness and unfamiliarity and a hope to hit a bigger audience. Many new posters bung their bike questions in DAK?
Ah well , no big deal. I wonder what would happen if Tech was above DAK in the menu?

[Oldjohnw]

I agree in some respects. It isn't hard to sort tech from not. If it is about a bike or another bit of kit it is tech to my mind. Even "what bike shall I buy?"
I suspect it is a mixture of laziness and unfamiliarity and a hope to hit a bigger audience. Many new posters bung their bike questions in DAK?
Ah well , no big deal. I wonder what would happen if Tech was above DAK in the menu?

Some of us have questions about aspects of bike (not just cycling) which might be technical but don’t want a highly technical reply because that would be beyond our intellectual capacity to process - I speak for myself only. So we ask here. It has worked for me.

[biketips666]

I suspect it is a mixture of laziness and unfamiliarity and a hope to hit a bigger audience. Many new posters bung their bike questions in DAK?
Ah well , no big deal. I wonder what would happen if Tech was above DAK in the menu?

Yes, I expect the reason is that DAK (Does Anyone Know...?) is top of the list. I daresay if Touring and Expedition were top of the list then that might become the default sub-forum for some, especially new, posters. It's having DAK and Bikes and Bits next to each other that's probably the cause of the thing.

Like you say, it's no big deal, just that the randomness of sub-forum selection reduces the value of having sub-forums in the first place. "Why am I so hungry..." in LEJOG (Lands End to John O'Groats), "Quads get tired..." in DAK. And as I say, the mixture between DAK and B&B (Bikes and Bits). The mods don't seem particularly interested in maintaining any sub-forum "discipline" and I've been told not to make any more reports, so there you go.

[De Sisti]

What also isn't clear are acronyms and abbreviations that that people throw into a post,
expecting that others know what they're referring to. In my opinion, if someone wants to
abbreviate a word, they should spell it out in full, with the abbreviation in brackets immediately
afterwards.That way it will alert readers that the abbreviation may be used later in his/her post.

[DevonDamo]

What also isn't clear are acronyms and abbreviations that that people throw into a post,
expecting that others know what they're referring to. In my opinion, if someone wants to
abbreviate a word, they should spell it out in full, with the abbreviation in brackets immediately
afterwards.That way it will alert readers that the abbreviation may be used later in his/her post.

Completely agree - it's a blight on most forums. I've not been impressed by the moderation on this forum because it's too intrusive, especially when the moderator is regularly making incorrect judgement calls. However, when it comes to people attempting to save themselves 5 precious seconds by typing an initialism or acronym, which the majority of readers will then spend ages attempting to decipher, then I'm all for a police-state of censorship and deletions. If people start being forced to re-type their entire post, they'll soon reconsider whether avoiding typing those few extra letters was worth it.