The response to my concern about the forum

I've noticed, from time to time, that some folks post about searching threads about previously discussed topics and the fact that we shouldn't repost them or ask a question more than once. The reason I send this message is that I don't know if you realize how difficult this forum (or perhaps forums in general) are to use for newer players. I'm not complaining ..but every time I've done a search, I have to read for 20 minutes to find my answer (if it exists..and IF it is applicable to the most recent patch). Having a job and raising a family only allows me about an hour a day to peruse the forums....and typically I get about 15 minute sound bites. Folks like me won't be able to play the game if we can't just ask questions. I love PA....and I very much appreciate the advice the forum has provided. I just think that the tendency to tell folks that things are already posted is not helpful to the public who wants to learn how to play the game.

I've been here for a long time and I know that the search function isn't the greatest. There's also Google, and the FAQ. It's annoying how many times people ask questions that are answered in the FAQ.
Searching is in the forum rules. It is needed in the forum rules because otherwise the forum will become bloated with people asking the same question over and over again. That will make the forums completely unhelpful and drive people away from the forums, killing them.
Duplicate posts used to be a major problem where the front page of the forum would have 2 to 4 threads with the same question/discussion. That fragments discussion and lowers the quality. That makes it bad for the forum posters as well as bad for Uber.
Forum mods on other forums will ban people for several days for posting duplicate questions.
It's in the forum rules, and it's in there for a reason.

Kill the forum or help the end-user? are those the only options? I just want to know how to play the game.

It's only because there are certain topics that have been discussed over and over and over and over to the point where most people are just sick of talking about the same topic, or if there are several new threads all talking about the same damn thing, thats why people post about using the search engine first before you post because its guarenteed whatever you're about to write about, there is already a thread talking about it..... Some people just get tired of seeing dublicate threads all over the place, dont take it to heart.

I agree that the community has appeared pretty unwelcoming with this sort of thing. duplicates of threads aren't nearly as bad as some people seem to think.

If you want to know how to play the game, there are many many many resources out there to help you out.

Posting a question that has been asked and answered time and time again lowers the quality of the forum.

It is really frustrating to see someone with 1 post come onto the forums and create a new thread with some suggestion or question that is by no means new and has been answered over and over again.

It shows that the poster doesn't respect the time of the other people on the forum and just expects us to give them the answer even though the answer is readily available, often in the stickied FAQ.

All in all, this is an extremely helpful community and we always answer the duplicate questions anyways. Other forums will just temporarily ban you for breaking the forum rules.

All we ask is that you respect the time of the other people on the forums and do a little searching before you post. The answer is out there 9 out of 10 times. And most of the time, it's not even that hidden.

Edit: Your "Kill the forum or help the end-user? are those the only options?" is also off base. We already help the end user and the help for the end user is already out there. I've put quite a few hours into the FAQ to help the end user. All I ask is that you abide by the forum rules and respect the time of others.

agreed their not as bad as their made out to be.

edit: I think if you're new to the forums, you should really look around the forums first and see exactly what is posted though, don't have to go through all 100 pages of threads of anything just a few pages and see whats there you might find a lot of it worth while reading.

There have been issues with this in the past and it was made clear that accidental double posts are to be respected and have to be answered in a polite way. Duplicate threads are not the best thing in the world, but they are okay and MUCH better than to put off new players.
There has been a bit of bad habit around the more frequent posters to go "hey search please", but it is getting better.
Even so, never has anyone been banned because he has asked a duplicate, but honest, question. So yeah rules might state "no duplicates", but that's mostly about people posting stupid stuff, not new players asking honest questions because they do not have the time to search all existing threads. Hell the forums search is so bad I sometimes can't find older posts of myself.

I find them quite annoying. Especially when it's someone posting a suggestion when there is already a topic on the front page(ie a while back there were to "nukes need to be changed/are to OP" posts on the general forum front page).

I don't see why people can't click on something like the FAQ before they post another "We need bubble shields" or "I want a megabot" threads.

It's not that we're not friendly, it's that people who act like 5 year olds and don't look before spouting off an over discussed topic should be treated like 5 year olds.

It's as bad as people posting "bump" on a page and leaving it.

I think there is a middle ground though. This post from garat is still the best way to explain how I feel about it.

https://forums.uberent.com/threads/...-nice-to-new-forum-members.55640/#post-853524

I appreciate the posts. I just want to learn how to play and not be treated like a stupid kid because I have questions. I can tell you that I am of a notion that playing early access games is only for those who don't work. Ok...I was angry when I said that, so I will edit it to say that I feel frustrated. I just want to know how this game works. No manual...no one to tell me....and my friends and I get posts telling us to research past posts we can't find.

The best way to learn right now is probably to watch videos from the gameplay videos section of this forum. We can't really have good tutorial!s right now because things change so fast that every new tutorial video is outdated in a week.

https://forums.uberent.com/threads/guide-how-to-search-2-0.56355/page-2#post-868993
https://forums.uberent.com/threads/guide-how-to-search-for-fun-and-profit.44066/page-3#post-804156
I've said it oven a dozen times on this forum, the search function is a rotting piece of garbage.

what you should do is type "site:forums.uberent.com" in google and after that your keywords.

I frankly felt annoyed by the hypocrisy of very few in this sense. Brian in primis, who's always first in scolding new users (who little still know about the content of the forum) while regularly excusing himself for breaking his own *laws*.

If a newcomer publishes a duplicated topic, he does it with passion. He deserves more respect.

We really need to be respectful of new people coming into the forum. This is something vanguards should be taking a lead on.

If you have an issue with me, PM me rather than blow things out of proportions and spread falsehoods. I've created a duplicate post a few times, but they're normally on things that haven't been posted in months, or even a year in one case. I also admit my mistake from time to time when I've big time missed that someone recently posted on a topic. I create lots of threads on the forums, I'm bound to make fringe mistakes from time to time.

You also conveniently ignore the fact that I answer every single question whenever I tell players to abide by the forum rules and search.

You also conveniently ignore the fact that lately I have regularly not been the first person to tell people to abide by the forum rules search.

You also conveniently ignore the fact that the vast majority of my posts are not duplicate posts and any duplicate posts are very much so fringe cases.

Finally, it's not my "law." It's the forum rules set by Uber.

Again, if you have an issue with me, message me.

I do laugh a little every time I see you post a playtest recap when there are already two threads on the front page for the exact same thing...

I don't want this to become a gang up on Brian thread, but carlorizzante isn't entirely wrong. That said, I'm the one that doesn't actually care that much about duplicate threads.

They are indeed the forum rules set by Uber, However, I don't think uber wanted to have every interaction between new members and the community to have "You should do a search before posting etc.".

This statement doesn't apply just to just you Brian, but everyone. No one is perfect, noobs to pros.

With that said, You do good work to improve the community Brian, sometimes it just comes off a little sharp edged.

I would like to share my opinion in this matter, I think that killing new threads by saying that "it was suggested/discussed to death" (and stuff like that) is much worse than making another thread about certain topic as anyone who will search (including thread OP) about this issue may later find dozen of such topics witch are in fact dead ends.
It's easy to say that this topic has been created before but it doesn't bring anything constructive into topic if you won't answer to users question or show them (link !) where he can find active threads about topic so he/she can go there and join the discussion.

An easy solution that other forums have used is to have moderators merge the threads when duplicates are found. I don't know if that is possible with this forum, but it could be helpful if it doesn't take too much moderator time.