Where are all these quality topics that are being buried by long ramblings?

Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Sep 9, 2012 at 04:25 PM

Foolness wrote:

>But worse I think is the elitist attitude of it is all there. I
>hadn’t realized this forum had an elitist attitude.

Neither did I. In fact, I believe it doesn’t. Elitism goes hand in hand with unintelligibility. Therefore, I believe that Cassius’ call for brevity and clarity is just the opposite of elitism: it supports making all contributions accessible by this forum’s broader audience.

>The forum topics I have read
>where those of posters who would help other posters looking for software
>recommendations. Sometimes even sharing and contrasting theories with them.

As far as I can tell, this remains this forum’s core theme. It certainly is the main idea behind my following it and contributing to it. And, after 8 years in it, I still hear new recommendations, including of software that I have known for ages but not realised its full potential, e.g. like Natara Bonsai.

>This was especially helpful and unique in this forum as many veterans would share
>not so well known software names to those who didn’t dig up old threads.

I believe that if you go just a few sets of articles back (i.e. via the “>” link), which is less than a month ago, you will find several threads referencing software than has been discussed many times in the past here. There has never been a ‘final word’ on any piece of software as far as I know, not even on ADM which is long dead and buried deep in the ground by its maker himself.

What I more and more believe would be useful (I mentioned this already, I know), is a functionality to suggest related threads from the near and long past. Not so much to avoid repetition, but mostly to bring up complementary opinions and experiences of the same software. For example, I recall that Stephen Diamond had written quite a bit on Maxthink. Since this software was mentioned recently, bringing up the older posts would benefit those interested in it.

This can be done manually, and I have tried at times to do such cross-referencing, but though my memory is strong, my recall is limited. By chance, I have later found even posts of my own which I didn’t recall during relevant discussions.