Sorry, I wasn’t clear enough.
In which categories would you place the message?
Projects projects projects
Maybe also change the category descriptions in Schematic and Layout to include the word Kicad?
I haven’t seen that many of those but maybe someone else moved those before I saw them. The other misclassified posts I’ve seen are in software when it could be more specific.
I doubt you’ve missed many. There is a warning with a link if posts are moved.
I’ve never tried it, but recategorising also gives a link to the previous, I think.
As far as I can see it doesn’t because it’s just a tag change.
Maybe we should raise our awareness that those who readily reply to posts as discussed here (and go down the rabbit hole) contribute to the problem as well. Of course their motivation is to help, but anyways.
I think there is already quite an awareness. The problem is how to tactfully close a thread without being offensive. It is very hard to judge peoples reactions by the written word alone.
With respect to the example given, Hermit replied with a very subtle, polite reply, warning the OP.
That reply was either overlooked, ignored or lost in translation.
More warnings followed and were ignored.
The thread seemingly ground to a halt when it became technical or enough hints were offered.
I made a comment earlier suggesting the thread should have been stomped on, but my comment was in hindsight, and therefore pretty silly when I think about it. Stomping would have been offensive.
There is something like too polite. Pointing out what the rules are and the consequences of repeated breach is neither impolite nor inadequate. As you said, more than one hints were ignored (or not perceived). So there’s the red line.
To be sure what are you speaking about I was looking to find what hermit quoted (I understood that in this thread) and I can’t find.
It is not just a problem of being off topic, we have to be cautious of legal liabilities for dangerous advice.
It is all too obvious that some posters are way out of their depth.
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Some of you publish FAQs for other topics. Why not write a FAQ to be posted to the Projects category now and then, stating the main points, e.g.
- No dangerous projects
- No general design questions
- No homework questions
That should do for a start.
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Sorry @Piotr . I used the term “quoted” loosely.
Explicitly: The thread Hermit linked to the topic that was responsible for the opening of this thread.
It is in grey, under Hermit’s original post: Mixing or not 230V/5V/12V ? Need help - #12 by hermit
There are better places to ask specific design question (kicad implemented or not).
I personally don’t mind answering specific design queries as long as thought as gone into it but I draw the line at nebulous questions (or homework)
Fact of the matter is we have a lot of clever people that come here and more people are getting interested in kicad and to foster that, being open to some Q&A type interaction is inevitable
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One thing we could do is create an “off topic” category and not let anyone actually create new posts in there; moderators would have the ability to move posts in there as required. This wouldn’t necessarily squash the post so much as showcase that it’s not meant for a kicad forum. I could also hide that forum from the front page to discourage similar behavior.
Like you all said, this is a natural outcropping of a group of smart people and incoming folks looking for help with the projects. However, I do agree we should not encourage off-topic, non-KiCad posts, especially if they’re going to be risky and/or just answering someone’s homework question.
Concerning web page maintenance…
The FAQ link was hacked in, and on narrow screens a lot of the topic title is hidden.
Does anyone know anybody with a bit of web page design experience and goodwill?
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If you didn’t wrote this I would still have a problem to find it. I just missed that in statistics footer of the first message there is anything else and was searching (several times) a blue text in all posts before yours.
I’m used to not see what is grayed like I’m used to not hear TV commercials. Perhaps both things go to my subconscious, but certainly not to my conscious.
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I live in a world where I determine the need or “use case”, design the circuit, lay out the PCB, populate it, test it [and then write the firmware for it]. As with many things, all these different skill sets are connected to each other. As such, determining if a post “crosses the line” is hard because in any actual endeavor all the lines are very fuzzy and go everywhere.
In a special way, every new project has a touch of schizophrenic karma to it. You go back and forth between all those skills. I suspect many who post a “mixed skill set” question would not be aware enough to know if they crossed the fuzzy line. They probably would not know to post it in an “Electronics Design Questions” category. This makes determining if a post is appropriate a judgement call. As such, enforcement is always a nightmare. I very much appreciate the moderators, and I very much do not envy their task.
For me, the question to ask is “Does this question involve PCB skills in the mix of skills ?” Much like art, I can’t describe it but I know it when I see it as far as making that judgment call is concerned. I try to point to on-line resource where the person can learn. If someone is not willing to learn, I’m not willing to help. This is also a practical matter as most people posting the questions do not know enough to supply all the relevant information. This is also why such post become very long. And this is where you point the poster to the electronics forums with a “simple to copy-paste” message with links to electronics forums.
I do like the projects category, and if a project I did has the PCB design as an integral part of the project, I enjoy posting that so other can learn.
Not sure if this add clarity to this discussion, just $.02
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