No I don't even know what phpbb is and don't care so No that's not what I was saying at all. Who said anything about converting at all? oh that's right... you did. But then later when you quoted what I said about wiping the board clean you should have realized that your whole rant about conversion was pointless.
When I talked about making a noob tutorial it would obviously take a lot of time but I think after several revisions.. most of the important facts from the important discussions could be conveyed. Of course nobody could go through all the posts or find all important information but that's the beauty of xbox... there's really not that many new problems or something that is just really strange and rare and really needs to be preserved since all the consoles are basically the same. So forget your converting issue.
I liked your "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" line... mainly because by saying that it's difficult to sort through all the new posts and weed out the noob posts and find what you're looking for, that I'm implying that there is a problem. Maybe nobody caught that. Maybe you don't agree and that's ok. Also, yeah I agree noobs should read rules and pinned topics before they post but they don't... and if my idea were put in place there wouldn't really be noobs.
Yeah SOME of the tutorials are in .pdf format but you missed my point entirely. I was speaking of a "master tutorial" that pretty much explained everything that there is to know and answered all noob faq. It'd be huge and need to be searchable. I was suggesting it not only exist as a page on the site, but be in .pdf format so that it could be owned. People could store it locally and reference it whenever they see fit.
Also, when you got offended when I said nobody cares about rank, that was pertaining to post count. Nobody really does care about it and I really don't think moderators care about post count either but regardless the moderators would still be moderators, their post count didn't earn that for them.
I guess I can see it turning into a flame war too.. but I don't understand why. I know it will never happen but it is my right to suggest. If you'd give it a real though instead of immediately getting mad that someone would like to change something then maybe we could avoid all that. I hope no one took what I have said so far personally. I do not mean to attack or offend anyone. I am just defending my position on the issue that I brought up.
Everything suggested here has been suggested at least a dozen times before.
The result is the same.
We will not force users to take a test.
We will not force feed user to have knowledge FIRST before becomes an active poster.
We won't take any extrodinary effrots to duplicate existing or future guides into multiple formats. One is plenty.
We will not restrict or limit the first "x" number of posts a user makes. Some of the best and brightest in this scene have VERY FEW posts. I'm not going to add a system that castrates those people.. nor will I creat a cast system.
.. and there will definitely not be a wipeout of the user DB. (or the post DB.) It's not necessary.
We only require members sign on if they need to search. I don't want people having to sign back on a second time because someone decided to wipe out accounts for some perceived "benefit" when all they need is to search.
Despite what some people might think the see as a huge problem.. the incidents that include asking for warez, illegal files, etc is far less than 1% of all posts. For those posts.. we have an active moderation team to deal with the morons. They are volunteers, hand picked. But they do an excellent job given the circumstances.
There is no magic wand for dealing with noobs. You cannot get rid of them.. and they will continue to post in the wrong forums.. and make assinine posts.
What bothers me more than a noob that asks where can I get this for the 1 millionth time.. is the member who thinks he's above the other members, and the newbs, by posting anti-noob posts...
What worse.. some noobs make posts in the complain forum.. instead of searching in it and realizing the topic has already been heavily discussed.
I have no idea if the other people in this thread were offended.. but I/we the staff aren't.
All that has been accompished in this thread.. is the the original poster here.. is just as much a noob as the people he claims he'd seek to educate.
Search is your friend. Use it before posting again.
Let me just squeeze this in..
I think the best idea is to get rid of Newbie Chat, so posters will learn quickly where to post.
Ok, that was it
...Another thing that won't happen. Despite the Newbie Forum being a mosh pit of themes.. it serves it's purpose.. as a buffer that absrbs alot of crap so the other forums have less garbage to deal with.