Do we need a "beginner's guide" sticky?

[Rik]

It's sometimes difficult to remember that all the terms, acronyms and phrases we tend to bandy about freely may completely confuse someone who is new to either computing or ADSL.

Would it be worth creating a 'Glossary' style sticky for newcomers, or given that IDNet is something of a niche-market ISP (and, therefore, only likely to attract relatively experienced users), would that be overkill?

Can't decide myself so would appreciate your input.

[Inactive]

I personally detest stickies  Rik, they always seem to distract from the main input, and rarely get read by those that need to read them IMO, sorry that sounds negative.

Just my 2p worth.

[Lance]

or given that IDNet is something of a niche-market ISP (and, therefore, only likely to attract relatively experienced users), would that be overkill?

That would be my answer. I think most people that use IDNet and in particular this forum, are relatively high up on terminology therefore I can't see too much of a point at this stage. However, it is something which could be revisited in the future if we find that we keep having to explain what things mean.

[DorsetBoy]

No more stickies ............we have just about everything covered ,it's getting people to read it that is the problem.

[jupiter]

I think things are changing over time and as IDNet is attracting more people.  To me there seems to have been an increase in help queries over recent weeks and many of them seem quite basic i.e. not niche market types of queries in the sense Rik uses it.

But it is correct that getting people to read stickies is the hard part.  The way I think they work best is as a source to which posts can refer as a link.  This saves repeating info which is often better and more fully explained in the sticky. 

There have been some queries recently where IMO a link to an existing sticky would have been a better reply than a dribbling out of info over several posts.  And there has to come a point where, if people will not read what is put under their noses - then how much more help should they be given?

Having said all that, I don't especially like glossaries and it is so simple to Google terms when needed.

[Rik]

Thanks, folks. We seem to be thinking along similar lines - I just wanted to do a reality check.

I agree, writing stickies is the easy part - getting people to read them is harder, and this is true for every forum I have ever used. In many ways, as Jupiter alludes, they are best used by us, when we post, to avoid re-typing similar answers repeatedly.