Simviation Forum - Advanced user section?

Feb 8^th, 2010 at 11:11am

snippyfsxer Offline
Colonel

Posts: 404

May I humbly suggest an additional section dedicated to answering questions for more advanced users?

FSX and FS9 are very complex, obviously, and the amount of realism is directly proportional to what the user is willing to put into them. Questions of mind boggling complexity are sure to arise.

The current FSX and FS9 "general" sections don't seem to cater to that situation. It is very frustrating to post a complex question requiring a sophisticated answer, only to find that the inquiry has been forced to the bottom of the page by an endless barrage of "how do I turn the music off?"; "where do I find the config file?"; and "how do I start freeware aircraft xyz?" Those questions are valid, of course, but I think it would be great if there were a place for simmers who are beyond that level. I doubt that some of the more experienced fsimmers even bother reading that section any more.

Anyone else interested?

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Reply #1 - Feb 9^th, 2010 at 1:43am

pete Offline
Admin
'That would be a network
issue'
Cloud Cuckoo Land

Posts: 8500

I can see your point ....

If there was enough interest we could probably do this ...

Think Global. It's the world we live in.

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Reply #2 - Feb 9^th, 2010 at 12:30pm

JBaymore Offline
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Under the curse of the
hombuilt cockpit!

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The biggest issue for this idea (which is pretty darn good in cioncept) is getting our users to actually post things in the correct places. While some people don't give a ^%$ about others and just post their stuff anywhere they happen to be at the moment...,,,,,, the REAL issue is likely not to be that, but in honest "interpretation" differences.

It is going to be that "defining point" between what is an "advanced" qustion....and what is a "basic" question. And that decision is going to rest in the brain of the particular poster.

So the question, "How do I change the resolution of the mesh displayed in the sim?" might seem "advanced" to a newer user of the sim....... but to an experienced user....... that is a total "noob" question.

"One man's trash is another man's treasure."

best,

.................john

Intel i7 960 quad 3.2G LGA 1366, Asus P6X58D Premium, 750W Corsair, 6 gig 1600 DDR3, Spinpoint 1TB 7200 HD, Caviar 500G 7200 HD, GTX275 1280M, Logitec Z640, Win7 Pro 64b, CH Products yoke, pedals + throttle quad, simpit

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Reply #3 - Feb 9^th, 2010 at 1:35pm

Fozzer Offline
Colonel
An elderly FS 2004 addict!
Hereford. England. EGBS.

Posts: 24861

JBaymore wrote on Feb 9^th, 2010 at 12:30pm:

The biggest issue for this idea (which is pretty darn good in cioncept) is getting our users to actually post things in the correct places. While some people don't give a ^%$ about others and just post their stuff anywhere they happen to be at the moment...,,,,,, the REAL issue is likely not to be that, but in honest "interpretation" differences.

It is going to be that "defining point" between what is an "advanced" qustion....and what is a "basic" question. And that decision is going to rest in the brain of the particular poster.

So the question, "How do I change the resolution of the mesh displayed in the sim?" might seem "advanced" to a newer user of the sim....... but to an experienced user....... that is a total "noob" question.

"One man's trash is another man's treasure."

best,

.................john

Sounds like a recipe of an argument and fist fight amongst knowledgeable? intellectuals.... Wink

....

...!

Paul.

Dell Dimension 5000 BTX Tower. Win7 Home Edition, 32 Bit. Intel Pentium 4, dual 2.8 GHz. 2.5GB RAM, nVidia GF 9500GT 1GB. SATA 500GB + 80GB. Philips 17" LCD Monitor. Micronet ADSL Modem only. Saitek Cyborg Evo Force. FS 2004 + FSX. Briggs and Stratton Petrol Lawn Mower...Motor Bikes. Gas Cooker... and lots of musical instruments!.... ...!
Yamaha MO6,MM6,DX7,DX11,DX21,DX100,MK100,EMT10,PSR400,PSS780,Roland GW-8L v2,TR505,Casio MT-205,Korg CX3v2 dual manual,+ Leslie 760,M-Audio Prokeys88,KeyRig,Cubase,Keyfax4,Guitars,Orchestral,Baroque,Renaissance,Medieval Instruments.

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Reply #4 - Feb 9^th, 2010 at 2:17pm

SeanTK Ex Member

Maybe if the sections were titled:

"New to FS? Post here." & "Advanced User Inquiries/ Advanced Theory Discussions."

Obviously there is still the risk mentioned previously in regard to distinctions between questions, but I believe that if the sections were titled in a certain way, it would at least reduce the risk of a multitude of "newbie questions" appearing in an area for advanced users.

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Reply #5 - Feb 14^th, 2010 at 2:42pm

B-Valvs Offline
Colonel
Jaggie Police
5B2

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Posts: 5949

I don't think this would catch on for a few reasons:

People would be confused as to where to post and would frequently post in the "wrong" spot.

New members wanting to have their questions answered faster and by an "expert" will just post in the "wrong" section anyway.

I don't know. It may depend on how this is set up, but I'm not sure if it will work.

Cool

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Reply #6 - Feb 14^th, 2010 at 4:31pm

Steve M Offline
Colonel
Cambridge On.

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Posts: 4097

I read the FSX forum every day. It is very simple thing to spot the difference between complex querries and new simmers querries. One of the ways I learned when I was new was to be surrounded by posts that were way over my head at the time. The teacher always needs to have more knowledge than the student, so to speak.
Making beginners go "to the back of the bus" will not help them learn.
Granted though.. many new simmers will walk away from simming because it is a rough road to happiness. I certainly am gratefull to all the Sim V folks that answered my newbe questions. Wink

Flying with twins is a lot of fun..

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Reply #7 - Feb 17^th, 2010 at 3:29am

beaky Offline
Global Moderator
Uhhhh.... yup!
Newark, NJ USA

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Posts: 14187

It's bad enough for us mods as it is, finding posts in the oddest places... a lot of posters here simply do not understand or care where they start threads, or they post them where they think they will get the desired attention.
Creating a second section for queries, I presume for each type of simulator program (!!), would simply create another query section, that would soon become just like the first.

Every third thread would have to be moved... and that's just the obvious ones! There are a million possible topics or questions that could be considered either advanced, or basic, depending on one's POV. Who is going to determine that for every thread? That's going way beyond "hm, this is a link to a video in the CFS3 forum" or "this is spam"... there would be controversy about mod rulings, and lots and lots of bickering. I find the silly questions annoying too, but flame wars are even more of a nuisance.

More helpful for everyone, and a lot less work for the mods, would possibly be more stickys.
That might reduce the number of "Total n00bish question; sorry" queries (about stuff that's been covered a million times in earlier threads), so that the sim-specific forums will be more useful for figuring out new or difficult problems.

I've considered this, but soon realized that if there were a sticky for every "how do I change views" or "what do the flaps do" question, there'd be 5 or 6 pages of them. Grin

Maybe there should be a sticky that says, in the largest possible size font:
"READ THE MANUAL FOR YOUR SIM, THEN COME BACK IF YOU DON'T FIND THE ANSWER THERE." Grin

But that would seem... I dunno, it would put people off.

The bottom line is that SimV offers a Search feature for a very good reason, and it works pretty well. Many users actually use this feature, instead of "prolly BPB, sorry". Grin

Also, if you have posted a query, rather than scroll through all those pesky "newbie" questions to see if someone has answered, you can have yourself alerted via PM when your question is answered, and receive a link that will take you right to that thread. ("Check this if you wish to be notified of replies to this topic" appears as an option under the message dialogue box). Wink

But if you mostly want to just breathe the rarified, Olympian air of some elite advanced user world, far above the stink of the sweaty noobs... well, it ain't gonna happen here, not without the kind of modding you have to pay for. Grin

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Reply #8 - Feb 17^th, 2010 at 4:56am

Fozzer Offline
Colonel
An elderly FS 2004 addict!
Hereford. England. EGBS.

Posts: 24861

......^^^^^^^.....

...what he said...10/10.... Wink

...!

Paul....G-BPLF...and a pile of Aircraft Owners Manuals.... Kiss

...!

« Last Edit: Feb 18^th, 2010 at 5:44am by Fozzer »

Dell Dimension 5000 BTX Tower. Win7 Home Edition, 32 Bit. Intel Pentium 4, dual 2.8 GHz. 2.5GB RAM, nVidia GF 9500GT 1GB. SATA 500GB + 80GB. Philips 17" LCD Monitor. Micronet ADSL Modem only. Saitek Cyborg Evo Force. FS 2004 + FSX. Briggs and Stratton Petrol Lawn Mower...Motor Bikes. Gas Cooker... and lots of musical instruments!.... ...!
Yamaha MO6,MM6,DX7,DX11,DX21,DX100,MK100,EMT10,PSR400,PSS780,Roland GW-8L v2,TR505,Casio MT-205,Korg CX3v2 dual manual,+ Leslie 760,M-Audio Prokeys88,KeyRig,Cubase,Keyfax4,Guitars,Orchestral,Baroque,Renaissance,Medieval Instruments.

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Reply #9 - Feb 18^th, 2010 at 8:37pm