I absolutely agree regarding not hassling people about questions that have been asked before. However, I don't understand why you would be against 'sticky' threads in each topic...even if they are just filled with reference links. Remember the story about "give a man a fish" versus "teach a man to fish"?

I think there is some value in trying to educate people in order that they might help themselves. Using Bobby's response as an example... if we all Google for answers, but the OP is never clued in that he/she could do the same (thus possibly eliminating the need for even asking a question), aren't we just perpetuating their ignorance? The name of this place is Learning Journal, after all! If the sticky FAQ does not answer their question, or if they chose not to read it...well, at least we will have tried!

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If members want to help themselves, they know where to go. Then there are those that need a little help, they hopefully come here - it's as simple as that.

About sticky threads; Let's say we have them; for example one that lists the best links to PHP tutorials and resources. Who is to say what the best is? Will it be me? Just because I run this site? No, that is one man's biased opinion - how can that aid "learning" really? For example, someone might want to include "www.php.net" in there but I personally find the site quite unhelpful to a non-programmer (like me). Besides, everybody has their own opinion on what works best for them. So no, I don't value lists like these and I cannot remember the last time I went through one of these "Best Resources Links" stickies inside forums anywhere. Can you?

If a member would ask on this forum, "What are the best sites to learn to PHP online?" Would your reply be a list of 5 links to php sites? OR would you suggest how to look for PHP information online?.

I don't want to dilute the potency of a sticky thread just by having it list "top 20 resources lists"; I'd rather use it when it's supposed to 'stick' out for the regular members here with important member/forum related information and/or changes. God knows even those are sometimes ignored by die-hard spammer-wannabes with only one thing on their minds.

Finally, the forums here are search engine friendly, so every thread / topic has a chance to appear on popular search engines on it's own. Look through some of the older threads here, some of them have thousands of page views, much better view counts than any 'sticky' thread can attract here on it's own. So if a topic / thread has useful information, it has the potential to be a 'sticky', not here on these forums but on popular Search Engine Result Pages.

Do you still think we need sticky "resource lists / FAQs" here? If a few regulars here agree with you, I may change my mind; so let's see if anyone else has an opinion.

By the way, did anyone notice the 'hidden mickey'... I mean the 'hidden url' in that image? What a fantastic way to get a few sneaky hits to his / her site, huh?

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ALL answers to such questions are inherently subjective. I don't see how that lessens the learning experience.

Actually, yes, that's why I brought it up!

I think I would do both -- supply a list of URLs that are considered as authoritative resources, then finish by giving them useful search phrases so that they might find further info on their own. One of the biggest problems for newbies is not knowing what to search for.

Sorry, but I'm not buying this "dilute the potency" reasoning. You said it yourself... useful threads have "the potential to be a 'sticky'" by virtue that active topics rise to the top. Why not make it a certainty by guaranteeing that the information will be up top and visible, where it can do the most good? Or, is your unspoken reason a concern that it will become a magnet for spammers posting links to themselves or unrelated sites?

I would welcome other opinions, but this really needs to become a new thread or poll.

???
The Bart image? I blew it up and even looked at source. I didn't detect any hidden text in the image or an image-map URL.

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DOH... I see it now!

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You chose a fine time to argue your point...

Here I am trying to rush the upgrade to vb3 and launching the new site and I keep getting pulled back to this thread. Fine... I would like very much to split this thread but right now I must get back to what 'needs to get done'.

However, I'd like to reply to your last post and leave the splitting for another day (or if one of the other mods can help me do this):

Here's how I would reply to a question like "What are the best sites to learn PHP?": http://www.desilva.biz/forum/viewtopic893.php <- that's the kind of discussion I am trying to encourage.

That's not what I said; I said each thread has the potential to be a 'sticky' on SERPs; there's a difference. I could start a thread today and post links on it for the best resources for some topic and make it appear on the first page off at least one popular search engine. I simply choose not to do it - I have my reasons. The point is I don't need to make any thread here a sticky to get the attention I think it deserves.


No webmaster is in his right mind would want to attract spammers anywhere on his site, so you comment is true. However, EVERY link inside a post here is hidden to search engine bots. So if one does post multiple links in a post with hopes of getting some Google PR for example, one is going to be disappointed.

Having said that, you could post a thread listing 10 most popular php sites, with some luck that thread might attract the attention of some readers searching the WWW for the phrase off Search Engines - it's just that I didn't need it to be a sticky for that to happen.#

re: the hidden URL, look at the fifth line in the image...

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If I'm not mistaken don't most of are guests come from google or other search engines? If so they go right to the post that was on google. It had to be something that interested them. So I wouldn't see the need for sticky or FAQs if they come straight to the post that they were looking for. If after that they want to have a look around there is a search here.

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