How can we all help Fluther with our questions and answers?

Post the Q in General, and be vigilant about flagging. Some users hate the deal of being restricted by the parameters of the Q as written and think the discussions should all be a free flow, and are unwilling to respect the intent of the asker.
We all go off topic from time to time, just this morning I apologized to someone for not answering, but in general, just being mindful helps a lot.

Avoid using other people’s threads as your own personal chat room. Your little stories and off-sides might be interesting to you, but they aren’t to others. As @canidmajor said, we all go off-track occasionally, but some people take pretty much every thread they participate in off-track.

Make one or two posts to a thread, not a whole stream of irrelevant posts. Avoid dominating the discussion with drivel.

The above answers are perfect aside for one thing…Social allows going off topic, and personally I have little use for General as most times I can just Google it instead of waiting 14 hours for someone to come tell me to Google it.

Cynicism aside, I finf that Fluther and its denizens are there when it truly matters. I wouldn’t worry about it much.

@Berserker, I understand social allows for some departures from the topic, but increasingly many threads go way off-topic and become chats between a small number of people. That’s not what Fluther is supposed to be. I can’t speak for anyone else, but it’s happening so much now, it diminishes my enjoyment of Fluther.

Ask a precise and easy to understand question. Make it clear what you are asking.

Give more clarification if people ask for it.

Don’t ask the same question over and over and over, disguised as a completely different question.

Realize that examples from user’s own lives, and examples from other Fluther threads can often be useful as a tool for clarification.

Do your homework.

If you don’t know the answer, and are just hanging around to make sarcastic remarks, please go watch TV or do something else.

If you are the person asking the question, and you don’t like the answers you are getting, say goodnight Gracie and call it a night.

Don’t blame the messenger.

@Berserker, as @Earthbound_Misfit points out, so many threads, even in Social, are destroyed by side-talk. It has been said that the threads are “done” when that happens, but those actually end the original discussion. I have talked to a number of people, like me, who may come upon a Q a day or two later where 2 people have taken over and we no longer feel that there is any point in coming on to be part of the original discussion.

@canidmajor and @Earthbound_Misfit You guys aren’t telling me anything I don’t know. I know it all.
Back in the day we had Auggie to snap us back in line with straying too far in Social, and to remind us that said section does not allow complete and total anarchy.
But the point remains; the rule is slack amd people are going to bend it, or, if there is no longer anyone here to heed us of it as Auggie did then people will forget.

@Berserker, both @Earthbound_Misfit and I were here back in the day, we remember. But the question asked “how can we help?” and we are trying to work with that.

Unless the moderators start to treat this issue, and others, with an iron fist, you’ll have to get the cooperation of every single member for this to be constant, from both regulars and new users, and you never will.

I don’t plan to stop trying. The most egregious transgressions are usually made by a handful of the same users. Maybe if they understand that it annoys more people than are amused, they might rethink.
Maybe not, but it can’t hurt to try.

There is truth to this, as I can think of certain users as well to whom this addresses more than others. Good luck trying to convince them to stop being themselves though. (not sarcasm or criticism)

Good luck also addressing said users, without trespassing the “thou shall not name names” rule.
Plus, who’s to say that said users identify themselves as being one (such derailing member).
For all I know I am one.

^
Which means then, that the only solution would be to make stricter rules, and nobody wants that. I think people here enjoy the freedom Fluther offers, plus with what I have seen of certain users being targeted and given different treatment, (it has happened) it gets quite ugly.
Not to mention that people here bitch and whine about every moderated message and whatnot, it might make our atmosphere more tense than it already is when it comes to this kind of thing.

Personally, I love how these threads can meander, much like the natural course of any face-to-face conversation. But, that’s only for Social or Meta. In the General section, we all need to be mindful of providing helpful information and staying true to the OP’s question.

I’m with @Berserker and while I understand keeping levity and off topic rambling to a minimum in the straight and narrow zone of “General”, personally, I think that free flowing discussion is much more stimulating than stick in the mud, tow the line, hardcore enforcement of the rules. Just difference in personality style, free spirited vs. control freak. I always post any questions I have in social for that very reason. I want to encourage humor, free association and a lax unfolding.

That’s just me, I am not one that enjoys rigidity & micro-managing. I think that even in general a little levity is a good thing if merited, I like to see things unfold without extreme censoring.

If someone is annoyed, well, that’s really their problem now isn’t it? haha

Or perhaps others can’t help having no manners and making it all about them.

@Earthbound_Misfit of course, it’s all about balance. I’m not talking about completely derailing a thread with an all about me bent, just allowing a little space for some spontaneous interaction. The chronically annoyed will always remain the chronically annoyed it seems.

Be nice if the serial meanderers used an ounce of common sense themselves & took their wonky chit chat to pm’s

Ok, this is not about what others are doing, but what it is you are pledging to not do. No one is perfect right?

@flo It’s both IMO. Let the punishment fit the crime in my mantra. Minor infractions do not warrant beheading, a friendly reminder will suffice.

@flo: I’m not pledging anything.

I have no idea, they don’t seem to like my questions anyway, I’m always getting kicked back for editing, or having my questions sent to another section. I tend to post everything in social, so people can respond how they see fit. Like it, don’t like it, tell me to drop dead, break a leg. I’m frankly just here for shits and grins anyway. I don’t see myself as an intellectual giant.

Btw, I gave the being distracted, and going off topic example in my detail just as one example.