I'm no veteran here but I do dread getting to the site just to see someone else has asked a new equipment or new technique question that 5-8 minutes of searching the forums would have gotten them the answer to. I'm actually surprised that so many of them even get answers.

Maybe a 24 hour limit on contributions is reasonable with 4 days before starting a new thread. It might serve as a cooling off period for the new person and may spare them any level of existing user wrath when a "not very interesting" question is asked.

I will say that searching the forums is not always a home run. Somebody else may have said some of this but I have wished for some sort of keywording in the tagging/search functionality for threads. So that when you search, you could get pointed to a topic more quickly and hopefully accurately. You could search for "PID" and it would get you threads that were primarily about that instead of every posting instance of those three letters. I don't know how you would police it - maybe with some input from the lead barista?

A new approach to some sort of "WHAT MACHINE SHOULD I BUY" section, sticky topic, thread merging, matrix or something might help too.

WES

As someone new to this site, been a CG member for some years, these types of questions are not limited to this group.
The golf groups get (almost) equally inane questions about the best club/ball/how can I get better without taking lessons.
I greatly appreciate the level of discourse on this site. There is little or no sniping. One golf site I frequent has gone through several periods of flame wars with new members. And a couple disgusting attacks we won't go into detail on.
A closed community will wither and die, but a completely open one will fade in the noise. I think you've found a very good balance here. I've been making espresso at home for about a decade, and I've learned a good bit in the short time I've been here.
A probationary period is entirely reasonable. Preventing posts for a period is perfectly reasonable. Think of it as a cyber seven day waiting period. Enough to discourage most of the inane, but probably not all.
Maybe require they read a group of FAQ's before posting. And the firm nudge to FAQ's for starters is good.

Please don't delete the "quiet" people! My postings are very minimal, but I read here pretty much every day and use the search engine to read on problems as I encounter them. The level of detailed and experienced discussion here is pretty amazing, and I can easily appreciate that repeated questions by first time posters would quickly become annoying for some. That's why people tend to migrate from site to site as they grow in experience. But a site that is tolorant of new and yet also mostly populated with experienced users is great. I really like another-jim's attitute, that the best way to deal with posts that anyone considers annoying is to ignore them. To try and build a system to police it will be complicated.

Dan asked team HB about this a couple of weeks ago. I had an idea that I wanted to share publicly, now that the topic has been posed as such:

shadowfax wrote:Presumably, after a newbie finishes writing their question for their new thread, they have already entered all the data we need to give them the search results for the search that they should have done in the first place... So, when the user clicks "Submit," if they have fewer than 25 posts [or something along these lines], we might present the user with something like,

"Dear <username>,

Are you sure that your post contributes something new or asks a question that hasn't been answered? Below are a just a few topics on the forum that are related to your question. If you have not done so, please peruse these prior to posting your question--you may find that your answer has already been answered!

Sincerely,

The Home Barista Team

<related topics here>"

It seems like some people might well check out these search results, and get their answer, and we wouldn't have to waste our time screening newbie posts. Granted, it's unlikely to solve all our problems, but then we also have so much more ground humiliate the ones that ignore the advice and post silly questions in spite of it....

You might recognize <related topics here> from the bottom of each discussion thread. I'd propose showing this to users before allowing them to post their question. Obviously, a waste of time in the face of those who are lazy with gusto, but it's code that's already written and easy to plug in.

Some customer support systems perform a search for the user before allowing a help desk request. It works something like this:

1) User clicks on help
2) System prompts for one line issue description
3) System searches FAQs for similar issue reports (and their solutions)
4) User is presented with the search matches and asked to see if their issue is answered in the results

If PHPBB supports something like this it might be helpful. The new user gets spoon fed the FAQs, and the noise goes down.

Or, maybe a big "Please have a look at the frequently asked questions and their answers" click through before the new topic dialog?

What an idiot. Rich and lazy sounds like the perfect Starbucks customer.

Just make it mandatory that the topic starter shows that he did some effort. That a "what to buy" thread has to contain these things:
-Problem (I want to buy because)
-Potential machines (shortlist, so not the entire inventory of Chris Coffee).
-Argumentation for said potential machines
-Budget
-Purpose
-Questions
And then HB can answer the questions, make new suggestions for machines, talk him into spending more than his budget, forget about the TS and bicker with each other which machine is the best, point out flaws in the argumentation, etc. etc.

If TS doesn't the topic starter made some effort, lock the topic. No mercy.

PS. Dan, you were much too friendly with "Newbie".

I foresee a future post/question coming your way...

"I bought the GS/3 and Robur but the coffee's crap! I just stuck the beans in, ground them, sqidged the ground coffee with the flat thingie and stuck it in to the machine.

Tell me how to do it!"

I think the 24 hr first post limit and 5 day second topic limit, as well as a search prompter.

I frequent a board of Air Force pilots/crewmembers, and if a newbie or even a moderately busy member posts something that could easily have been found using the search function, a mod will quickly lock the thread and tell them only to use the search function. In that instance, it helps keep the noise down, but I think here it would be too harsh.

Having said that, one of my favorite things about this board is the lack of "crap posts", as opposed to other forums. Anything necessary to ensure that continues is worth it in my book.

Putting aside the rudeness (pignorance) of the "newbie" in question here, which is at the flavorsome end of the spectrum, newbie noise, as Dan pointed out is not at a level where it's particularly off-putting. So I don't think any action is required.

Take into account also, that the newbies of today are the valuable contributors of tomorrow, then I'd stick with the policy of politely pointing them to the search bar and FAQ, threads will sink or swim on their merit, and no harm will come to anyone.

I'd also resist the urge to get involved in a slagging match, deserved or not.

If it ain't broke etc.