Alchemist
Hazard to Self
Posts: 93
Registered: 22-6-2002
Location: Hostton Texas
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
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Small complaint on moving new post.
Hello all,
O.K., I started a new post in Organic Chemistry titled "Phthalic acid/anhydride via Aqua Regina" It was just a WILD idea of mine about maybe
oxidizing Naphthalene to Phthalic acid via Aqua Regina. It was getting a lot of reads about 47 or so then Nicodem (a moderator) moved it stating it
should be with others of the same subject. Well I have absolutely no problem with this as he is right it should be with all the other Naphthalene to
Phthalic acid/anhydride topics. The problem is now it is buried. No one has read it at all for 3 days now. MAYBE the best thing to do here is leave it
as a new post and then have the MODERATORS say move the post to there proper place in say 10 days. I was really hoping to get some feed back on this
post and know ones even seeing it. I think many NEW posts may have the same thing happen to them and then at some later date we all just stumble
across them.
Regards, the Alchemist.....
P.S., I have NO bad feelings towards Nicodem. He did do the right thing.
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Sauron
International Hazard
Posts: 5351
Registered: 22-12-2006
Location: Barad-Dur, Mordor
Member Is Offline
Mood: metastable
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You can't fight city hall. Nicodem is moderator of the Org.Chem. forum and moderator at large.
It is true that there have been many threads on oxidizing napthalene and other materials to phthalic acid or its anhydride. I suspect Nicodem's view
was that we (for forum) didn't need a new such thread. Did he append your post onto one of the existing threads? If so I must say I agree with him.
Sic gorgeamus a los subjectatus nunc.
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Nicodem
Super Moderator
Posts: 4230
Registered: 28-12-2004
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
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The thing with the thread view count is a misleading thing. You might notice that there are members who regularly check the forum for new posts (for
example, when I'm at work and have a minute of time I will often waste it by checking what's new, but when I'm at home I will nearly not bother so
often). I don’t remember what the view count of your thread was before I merged it with the main thread, but as long as a thread is on top of the
list you can expect that all those members who regularly check new posts will read it (and there are only a few such members), then you can expect
some members who have a particular interest in the topic to also check (there are also only few such). So this accounts for maybe 20-30 views and once
these are done the view count will hardly increase any further. Since the thread I merged your post with has a nearly identical title as your original
one and the last poster was reset on your handle all those who already read your question understood that there is nothing new besides the thread
merging.
What you have to do if you want to attract attention to your problem is to start a discussion. I say this all the time but I rarely get listened to.
You need to provide a literature review and explain the idea/problem/experiment thoroughly. The literature review is really necessary because the
chance of finding someone who already has enough background knowledge of that specific idea/problem/experiment is negligible (somehow many members and
nearly all the newcomers simply don’t get this). If you provide the starting material for a discussion new ideas and solutions can develop. I tried
to help you by replying, so that you could reply back and attract others to join the discussion (which can only continue if the thread is kept active
= on top), but apparently you did not catch this hint.
The reason for having one thread per topic is for having information on one place so that people looking for specific things don’t miss anything or
have to do impossible jumps through the wonderful world of the search engine. This forum is many years old and I expect it to live for several more
years, so just imagine what a mess will it became if everyone will open a new thread for the same exact topic that was already discussed just a couple
of moths previously.
Sauron, I would appreciate if you would put less effort in trying to make the moderators and the administrator look as some autistic authoritarian
rulers as you often do. I understand you mean no harm, but the moderation crew is here to maintain the forum quality, help the discussions, prevent
flame wars and keep the spam/trash/rule breaking/off topic post out. This means I have nothing against members expressing their concern about my
actions. As long as their critique is reasonable I will listen to them and if I find that a change in moderation policy could benefit
all members while improving the quality of the forum at the same time, I will most certainly consider a change. You might notice (from
the underlined words) that it is impossible to do this job without doing arbitrary judgments which to the affected certainly appear as a authoritarian
decisions (and they are by definition). This makes the moderation function quite unpopular and unpleasant, but the possibility of a dialogue is always
open (after all this is a forum – the prototype of any democratic discourse).
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