Which forum to post in?

[jeremyinsf]

I don't see another (recent) discussion about this so I'm propounding the following question:

Which forum should things be posted in?

I realize we have alliance sub-forums and at times people post there directly. But at other times, many users (including myself) want to post in the beginner section so that more people see it and there is more discussion around the topic.

I raise the question because before it seemed things were a bit more relaxed and people went along with it, but not so much at times recently?

I understand both sides of the discussion and understand why each have their merits. I'm just curious if there is more history around this, and, if it even matters.

[Tindomul]

It doesn't really matter. I myself tend not to visit the beginners section because I know what I am interested in looking for when I come to Orchid board. If you were to post for example a picture of a Masdevallia in the beginner's section I would totally miss it. I tend to look for those types of posts in the pleurothallid alliance sub forum or in the miniatures, or even in the whats in bloom subforum. I guess you realize that there is a lot of redundancy. That means, that you have options as to where you want to put the post and not be wrong.
I have been known to move stuff from the in bloom now forum and put posts into their respective alliance forums. The only ones I leave there are posts with multiple alliance orchids as the topic. Say a post that deals with phals and oncidiums. But I haven't done that in long time. Which means there is a lot of work pilled up in there. Hope that helps clear it up a bit.

[PaphMadMan]

Seriously? Do people regularly read posts forum by forum? I rarely even notice what forum someone posts in because I click on 'New Posts' and skim for whatever has a subject that catches my eye.

People should make an effort to post in an appropriate forum, of course, but most could probably go in more than one to begin with, and many morph to something outside the original question or topic. I rarely start threads of my own, but if anyone ever quibbled about what forum I chose to post in I'd be keeping a mental list of who doesn't deserve my help when they have a question or doesn't rate a positive comment about their photo, etc.

[RandomGemini]

I agree. I rarely read forum by forum either. I just hit the "new posts" button and read threads that way.

[Tindomul]

You know, I've never used the new posts option. I've always known about it, I do prefer to surf the forums. I also do prefer some forums over others, repeatedly visiting some while ignoring others. Just a personal habit I guess.

PaphMadMan,

I hope you have never encountered anyone who would argue with you about where you post something, or said something negative about a photo you posted. That would be horrible.

[WhiteRabbit]

I don't think we're horribly uptight about forums - if someone posts about a particular orchid, and mistakenly places it in the in the wrong alliance forum AND either someone notifies a mod to move it, or one of the mods catches the mistake - it will get moved to the appropriate forum, but no one should be chastised about it. I use the "todays posts", so usually don't even catch which forum posts are in.

Now, that said, we do get a lot of posts in 'beginners' that I think would be more appropriate in 'orchid lounge' as in they aren't really beginner's topics so much as general orchid chat - but again, I don't think anyone's too uptight about it all.

I have noticed occasionally, when the same thread is in two forums - usually in the related alliance forum, and beginners discussion - in that case the threads will be merged to one or the other forum.

Can be hard to know sometimes which is the most appropriate forum - just post where you think is best.

[RosieC]

I think we're still pretty relaxed. I've seen a couple of comments from folks that think the beginner section is too over-crowded with everything.

I'm a bit like Tindo, I don't always read beginners. I use 'New Posts' most of the time or 'Today's posts' if I've taken so long that that has timed out and cleared it's self. However when I'm short on time (a lot of the time at the moment) I pick out the forum's I'm most interested in and only read those. Because there is so much in Beginners it's overwhelming unless I have hours and hours available to read it, so I tend to skip it.

It often is hard to know where to post. Like Sonya I would advise not posting twice as moderators like me and Sonya are likely to merge them anyway and it means each post get's less answers. Pick which you think and post there. Unless it's quite obviously in the wrong section (such as an oncidium question in the vanda forum) we won't move it, and as Sonya says often it takes someone asking for it to be moved for us to even notice it's wrong.

[No-Pro-mwa]

I surf the forum as well, I do know about the new posts thing I have used it on another forum but prefer doing this way as well. That way I don't go into things I am not doing or can't such as S/H or Green House growing. If I have time I have gone into looking and reading but whats the use when I don't have a green house for one thing.

Also I don't usually go into the sections where I don't have the orchid or am not looking into them. Probably limiting myself but I have to cut it down some how. So I guess it really doesn't matter to me but I usually if I say have a question about a Catt then I put it in that section thinking that the people that are interested and grow Catt's will be in that section.

[Orquiadicto]

I usually open 'new posts' and read the threads that interest me. If I have time, I read all the threads, but that doesn't happen very often.
If I start a thread, I try to do it in the sub forum I think fits best the question I have or the picture I want to share.