Moderators moving posts around

[edelweis]

When you moderators merge newbie questions into relevant threads, do you somehow contact the newbie to let them know about it?

I remember as a newbie here, not knowing how to use the tools in my profile, and not knowing about the moderators moving posts around in such an active way on this forum, I had a hard time finding my own threads in the many subforums even though they weren't moved around, I can't imagine finding them if a mod had merged them into another thread.

(and, yes, the newbies should look around, search, and so on, however young people are clueless and need to be coached IMHO.)

[character]

There is a way to view all your posts. At the top of the forum there should be a drop down with your username. Click that and select My Content. Then on that page, click Only Posts. Once you can see your posts, you can click on the topics to see all posts in that topic.

[edelweis]

Yes, I know that after 3 years on the forum.

My point is, newbies don't

I'm afraid they'll just think their post never made it through moderation...

Unless perhaps they receive email notifications for the thread their post was merged into?

[imron]

do you somehow contact the newbie to let them know about it?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

It depends a lot on the post. A lot of things like tattoo and name translations get posted in other forums and they typically get moved to Quick Translations without much notification (at least when I move them, and I don't see Roddy being any different in this regard).

Other times if I'm splitting out a new member's post from an existing thread to its own thread, I'll probably drop them a line to let them know, but if it's just moving it from one sub-forum to another I might or might not depending on the post.

Most posters seem to be able to find their posts anyway even without notification, and the ones that don't will send a message to the admins asking where their post went, which resolves the issue.

[edelweis]

@Imron: thanks, the situation is very clear now.

[roddy]

It's probably something we should do more (ok, I should do more), but very often it's a case of someone starting a topic entitled, eg, 'Where should I live at BLCU' when there is a 'Where to live at BLCU' topic sitting right below it. When people do get in touch ask where where something is, 9 times out of 10 it just didn't make it through moderation.

Thanks for your concern for the newbies though - I should be kinder to them.

[edelweis]

Thanks for your answer Roddy. I must however confess that my question wasn't entirely altruistic. When I answer a newbie's question, said newbie may chose not to acknowledge my answer, but I'd like to know that he or she was at least able to read it. Otherwise, why should I bother answering newbie questions when there is any suspiscion that it may have been moved without the newbie being aware? I don't want to end up feeling superfluous and forum-weary.

(Also, as a newbie in a new forum, I would not automatically bother to find out how to contact the admin if somehow my post disappeared. There are other forums on the internet. Only the people who speak only English are somewhat restricted to CF for China and Chinese language related matters. This makes me think that the people who do contact you are just the tip of the iceberg. But there is no way to check that, of course.)

Edit: I forgot to mention, I obviously can't contact the newbie myself to tell them "are you aware that your post was moved" since I can't send MP to newbies. Not that I really want to. I wish there was no need for me to.

[roddy]

Fair enough, hadn't considered that. I've already got a bug report pending with the software vendors which will improve the way notifications are handled when topics are merged which I think will pretty much solve the issue.