is there a way to knock posts out of the new category? I used to read all the posts, but the number of these and the fact that I find them very unrewarding to read leaves me wanting to delete them in bunches.
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I canât tell which ones are which except seem to be a bunch more unusual posts.
The posts seen to share a writing style that leaves out almost everything I need to know. Someone writes, âtruck shakes when I step on the brakes.â Thatâs pretty certainly one of these new posts. Car Talk posts were sent in by people who at least tried to convey some basic facts along with the problem.
There are unusual questions asked. Yesterday a guy that had owned two 1972 Olds 98s asked what the forum thought about him buying another one!!!
I agree the âask someoneâ needs its own separated category, separate from âcommunityâ.
What I do now. I display the new topics. I tend to avoid the topics with the âAsk Someoneâ topic, unless its a car I have or had (or a close relative). Read the remaining ânewâ ones of interest. I try to read fast and click off it quick if itâs poorly written or I donât understand it; I typically donât waste time replying. Then click the âDismiss Newâ button. If I happen to miss a good one, itâll pop up in the âLatestâ topics later on with 7+ replies and I might catch it then.
I donât want to categorically eliminate all them because there have been some well-written ones and some things that Iâve learned.
Morning. When the posts arrive, I go in a few times during the day to rename them and move them into the appropriate category. It has been pointed out that they donât immediately fall into the list of topics on community.cartalk.com, and that they sit in their own category. There are a handful of people who go in there and answer questions, even before theyâre moved.
I do delete some that are so incomprehensible I canât even identify a problem statement. But if I can tell thereâs a problem, however loosely described, I leave it.
It is true that the questions are often missing many details. I can tell the difference, but I think it has to do with the fact that the questions are generated by people looking at another site entirely, who donât necessarily know to describe the question a bit more.
Thank you for the feedback and please know that we are discussing how to improve. We are all part-time on this project, though.
Beware the Rides of March,
Carolyn
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âBeware the Rides of MarchââŠ
We are getting the type of questions common in the site Yahoo Answers. Users seem to feel they can just type a few words and get an answer immediately. I have no idea where that mindset comes from, but it is common.
some examples (this is the complete question)
my curser is frozen?
Was the solution of Einstein field equation= time?
So what if the name is incorrect?
Can composition b be detonated from a distance???
Maybe that site should be renamed to Yahoo inquiriesâŠ
Just chiming in here. Carolyn said it best, but I wanted to add that I appreciate the patience many of you have showed. Itâs clear that some of it is a format/context issue, but from my experience modding other forums, sometimes people just arenât able to ask good questions,âand that includes those cryptic five words posts with no make or model. Iâve worked at service and parts counters, and there were versions of this same issue every day. But again, thanks so much for working with folks when theyâve been able to provide more info.
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Yes there isâŠbut theyâre not doing it. I have no idea why.
My suggestion is that any question submitted should be acknowledged by the Board with a reply that lists the basic facts that are generally helpful in generating a useful answer. Year, Make, model of vehicle, auto trans or stick shift, engine size if known, miles on vehicle, things already tried, how long problem has existed, etc. Iâm sure my fellow posters would be happy to suggest what facts they need.
The reply should have a simple graphic to show how to edit the original post.
A popup on the other site when you click/tab into the question box on the form that says âPlease provide the year/make/model/mileage of your vehicle when asking questions!â would go a long way toward helping this problem I think.
You win. 
You sound rather confident that there is a way for us to do this. But @oldtimer-11 I had attempted to change the settings last week so that these posts could be addressed before they went to the category, but when I changed the settings it disabled the feature altogether. For the time being, they will initially go to the Ask Someone category, also visible from the New posts tab.
Iâm looking at it from a Software Engineer whoâs designed and built several commercial web sites. And trust me itâs trivial.
All I can say is that this whole idea is unfair to Carolyn and her fellow coworkers. There are so many of the transferred posts it makes you want to say go away and come back when you learn to express yourself. Of course out of respect for Carolyn I will not do that.
The statement was made the plan was to get more traffic but is this the kind of traffic that is beneficial for the advertisers.
As another retired engineer, I agree with you, but CarTalk is just dealing with a software package they purchased. Like asking someone to redo Excel because they donât like the way the cells calculate.
Car owners that donât know anything about cars sometimes ask stupid questions and donât understand why you canât answer them.
People like me who donât understand computers at all, apparently do the same thing.
It must be a generational thing and not genetic because I have a grandson who had a masters in computer science and engineering and a PHD in some aspect of computers, AI ,I think.
Now Minnesota just spent 93 million designing their own licensing system instead of buying one from another state and changing the names-and it still doesnât work. They say they need another 40 million to work the bugs out. I dunno, write your own, buy someone elses, who knows? Personally I think Minnesota needs to get away from their main frame fixation. I donât know anything about computers and software but I do know something about organizational dysfunction.
I think itâs great to get more folks to post their car problems here. The more the merrier. Iâm assuming part of the problem is that this new source of posters isnât aware of what a useful CT forum post looks like. Some of the posts we seem to be getting now appear like they are typed out on a cell phone one-handed by someone simultaneously driving a motorcycle sentences run together, no punctuation etc. I wonder, is it possible to provide an example post for these new posters so they have a format to follow?
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