Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

Hi,
Not to argue, but I opened this topic: Sort templates and all of it's styles out... and I placed it under the "General discussion" category because I was not thinking specifically about writer... someone mooved it to the writer/templates section.
I really have no problem with that but it could have been better to have me discussing it with the admin who did it. Maybe I should better understand the organization of the forums...
Is there a way for me to know who did it so I try to PM him/her?

Normally a topic is moved for good housekeeping and the original poster is not informed, as we assume posters will track their postings by the "View your posts" link at Forum screen top.

I (almost) always send a PM when moving a post since the user is usually new and might not be familiar with the operation of the forum. On the other hand I got a polite message from the user after my most recent move of a post saying that he was capable of finding his own posts and there was no reason to contact him. I'll keep sending messages but someone will be unhappy either way.

You are right, I track my messages by the "View your posts" link. I was just wondering whether it would have been better to have discussed it before.
Anyway, I'm not unhappy, maybe FJCC approach is more newbie friendly.
:-)

FJCC wrote:... I got a polite message from the user after my most recent move of a post saying that he was capable of finding his own posts and there was no reason to contact him. ...

That's always been my assumption: that sending a PM would be less than helpful in most cases. I remember when I was first using the forum: it was quite challenging, and having to deal with PMs on top of it would have been overkill, doubly so when the PM is redundant. So I don't send PMs when I move a post.

I do (sometimes) add a note in the thread, if I'm not sure the move is acceptable, to say "we can move this back/elsewhere if you want".

Is it possible for the thread creator to move the thread after it's created? Seems like it could/should be but I haven't checked.

acknak wrote:I remember when I was first using the forum: it was quite challenging, and having to deal with PMs on top of it would have been overkill, doubly so when the PM is redundant. So I don't send PMs when I move a post.

Good point.

In my (just) four years on this forum, this is the first thread I can remember concerning the moving of a post. That is merely an observation (and I may be in error), not intended in any way as a criticism of you.

I normally do not send a PM when a post is moved as it often provokes a reply and a response; I am on several high traffic mailing lists and prefer to avoid as much extraneous email traffic as possible.

RoryOF wrote:I normally do not send a PM when a post is moved as it often provokes a reply and a response; I am on several high traffic mailing lists and prefer to avoid as much extraneous email traffic as possible.

Good point, also.

I was the one who moved the topic. General discussion is for topics not really related to AOO (at least technically) IMHO. We can move your topic to the Install, Setup & Troubleshooting section if you want. But usually, questions about styles are more frequent for Writer.

I think that the mods have a better picture of the forum organization and they are the most skilled to move topics. So I'm not in favor of allowing users to move their topics themselves.

Please add '[Solved]' at the beginning of your first post title (edit button) if your issue has been fixed.

Oh, no, no, no!...
Again: I really have no problem with it being mooved. I was just questioning whether the decision was the best possible one from an organizational point of view (since I had not thught of it in the context of writer alone).
By the way, this is probably one of the most well organized forums I know, so you guys obviously know what you are doing!
Keep doing it ;-)

The templates section is in the Writer forum because Writer is the module where styles are the most used I think. I agree, it somehow lacks for the other modules, but well, some compromises are needed.

Thanks for the kind words BTW! Yes there is a lot of work to keep the forum clean and well structured so that users find their answers easily.

Hagar Delest wrote:... I'm not in favor of allowing users to move their topics themselves. ...

You're right. I was just curious.

I would say that the posting location is most important for questions of programming or databases. My impression is that some of the serious wizards in those areas don't always monitor other areas of the forum. Outside of those, it seems that most people monitor all the forum areas.

I routinely use the "new posts" list, so I see all the new topics, no matter where they're posted.

acknak wrote:My impression is that some of the serious wizards in those areas don't always monitor other areas of the forum. Outside of those, it seems that most people monitor all the forum areas.

I routinely use the "new posts" list, so I see all the new topics, no matter where they're posted.

+1.
That's why moving a topic is somehow a balance between the risk of "losing" or frustrating the OP (not finding his own topic) and not having any reply because of lack of attention from the relevant gurus (if we wait too long, the topic may not be in the first rows once moved in the correct forum).

I also always use the New Postings" link, so I see (and mostly read) everything.