Do many of these threads belong in the beginner area?

[BeeCurious]

I just feel that we spend a lot of time answering really basic questions

taxonomy,

You have been a forum member for over two years and you've made 154 posts. I don't think you've spent a lot of time answering basic questions...

[Barry]

Maybe the best solution to repeat question is a barrage of links to the question answered. It's an idea.

No, that is not something I wish to see happen and delete when I do see it. This is a place for discussion and interaction, not an index of links. I see the main improvement on the forum being an index or listing of a lot of the repeat and basic questions that get asked and answers that adequately address them.

[squarepeg]

not a bad idea barry, but please, don't change a thing. this forum really works, well done.

[MattDavey]

...use them as a way to provide insight to the reader of a reply, as to the potential knowledge, skill and experience level of a poster. It would provide a better understanding of the context of the post by illuminating the posters conditions and perspective. ...

An indicator on each post, showing of the number of years experience (maybe also the number of hives managed) of the poster would be a better indicator to me as to who's comments I should take more notice of. Keep the threads open to all, just make it more obvious who is speaking from experience.

A number of times I have seen Newbee's posting as if they were experts, but when I check, I find they have little practical experience and are perpetuating old folks tales!

Matthew Davey

[sqkcrk]

No, that is not something I wish to see happen and delete when I do see it. This is a place for discussion and interaction, not an index of links. I see the main improvement on the forum being an index or listing of a lot of the repeat and basic questions that get asked and answers that adequately address them.

So would that be one of those word cloud thingys? Or, when certain words or phrases are used a program would recognize them and suggest looking in a certain place for similar questions and answers?

Every now and then, usually due to an event, we have w/in one or two days three different Threads about the same exact thing. Sometimes those Threads get combined by a Moderator. That seems to work alright. I don't know if a Program would be able to recognize that situation and handle it as well as a person or persons. Can it? I understand it is a matter of how well the Program is written.

[sqkcrk]

An indicator on each post, showing of the number of years experience (maybe also the number of hives managed) of the poster would be a better indicator to me as to who's comments I should take more notice of.

Matthew Davey

I would hope that a person spending some time reading Posts and getting to know who Posts and whose Posts indicate credibility would know who to listen too and pay attention to.

One can put almost whatever one wants as their Tag Line. Some folks indicate Longitude and Latitude and/or Grow Zone. That tells me where they are, but doesn't tell me much about them.

Indicating an AAS from OSU/ATI, 20 years as an Apiary Inspector,owning bees since 1976, being Commercial for 15 years(I guess), currently running about 500 hives, could seem impressive to some or it could look like bragging.

Compared to a guy I met a cpl of weeks ago in the blueberry barrens of ME I feel like a smallscale beekeeper. He runs 20,000 colonies. I wonder if he knows a lot more about beekeeping than I do or is it something else. Something other than he spends no time on beesource or other social media.

[BeeCurious]

Two years ago I suggested the following:

Another thing which could be interesting, and stir up some debate would be the creation of a FAQ's forum. Members could propose solutions to a variety of beekeeping questions/situations and perhaps polls could be used to serve as a guide to beeks who need to choose a response that they are comfortable with. The benefits are twofold; the current knowledge would be gathered on specific topics, resulting in a great resource and secondly, experienced beekeepers would have more time to respond to additional questions, perhaps one of the "unanswered postings" for example.

http://www.beesource.com/forums/show...041#post532041

I suggested having a number of solutions to a frequently asked question in an effort to avoid alienating one or two highly experienced beekeepers who have a different approach to dealing with an issue.

I think this could be a valuable addition to Beesource and the final FAQ would present any number of solutions, but presented in order of their general acceptance by practicing beekeepers.

What we need is a "Gleanings" of Beesource answers...

Make it a game/competition to collect potential answers. A public poll could decide the order of the answers.

[cg3]

Speaking as a relative newbee, I find it didn't take long to sort out whose posts have credibility.

[Seymore]

This is what is so great about ISPY. I don't really pay attention to which forum it is in - I scroll to find something of interest or someone I can help. Me thinks y'all haven't tried it - ISPY???

[Seymore]

I say this because most beginner questions have long ago been answered on these forums. It is a matter of finding them. There is of course a search function to aid in that. So lets discuss that feature and why it may not be used to answer such repetitious questions. I will speak for myself. I don't use the search function because it quite frankly is a complete waste of time. The result of nearly any search is a ridiculously long list of nearly completely irrelevant posts. It would be faster to find the information I seek by attempting to read each and every post on these forums one at a time. Also not realistic. It is by far easier and also completely realistic to simply ask the same question that has been answered before again.

Amen to that! I am in my 3rd year. STILL am very much a beginner in many ways. Have given up on using the search feature. It finds every use of every word. Advanced search offers no help. There needs to be a way to search multiple words - like process+wax, or winter+nuc+management. I am one who has given up on the search and just post what I KNOW has already been asked and answered but cannot easily find due to current forum limitations.

Sometimes I get to the right question by doing a search on google and looking for beesource answers. Shouldn't have to do that tho.

[BeeCurious]

Just use the Google search on this page: http://www.beesource.com/

[honeyman46408]

Amen to that! I am in my 3rd year. STILL am very much a beginner in many ways

I have 15 years and feel the same way.

"If a beekeeper tells you he knows everything about beekeeping you can bet he will lie to you again"

[Seymore]

Just use the Google search on this page: http://www.beesource.com/

I'll try that, BC! I so seldom land on that page directly that I forgot about it (have a direct link to what I use most).