I brewed my first AG batch (Share your experience here)

Do you think it's worth keeping all the first session posts together?

I think it would mean.

• Just one one thread to search read when looking for first time problems.
• Will mean less clutter in the forum
• Be a place for noobs to see common first time problems

If I is a popular idea then I'll clean up the discussion and maybe make it a sticky. A bit like the MR beer thread.

I think it's a good idea because there seems to be 2 new threads every day and they usually include very similar questions.

I think it's a good idea and would've posted to a thread like that when I went AG 2 weeks ago.

I think it is a good idea, but would you have to read throuhg like 500 posts to find the answer to your particular question? There's no way to search within a thread, is there.

Sea said:

I think it is a good idea, but would you have to read throuhg like 500 posts to find the answer to your particular question? There's no way to search within a thread, is there.

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+1. When the thread ends up being 500 posts in, I doubt many of us are going to go through each one. Plus when a thread gets too long, few people continue to post in them (typically).

The concept is good, but we know how it is for new guys. If you are in the middle of something or stressed, you are not going to take the time to search for threads or read through a ton of posts trying to figure out what the heck is going on.

I say we keep doing what we are doing. If someone asks a question, answer or at least give them some relevant threads to find their answer. If you get tired of answering the same questions, someone will step in and take care of things. That's what we are here for.

Another option would be to have a "My first brew" forum. It'll be kind of like the "Introductions" forum. We aren't going to condense every "Introduction" type thread into a single thread, so there's a separate forum.

If you are in the middle of something or stressed, you are not going to take the time to search for threads or read through a ton of posts trying to figure out what the heck is going on.

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I agree, but I must think that if I'm in the middle of a somewhat urgent brewing situation, I'm not jumping on a forum and hoping for a quick response. I'm going to seek out my references. I'm active on a number of forums- and there's an interesting psychology that seems to govern internet discussion boards where instant gratification replaces good old fashioned research.

I support Orfy's idea about doing some pruning of the threads.

I'm with everyone in saying that I'm really not too happy about answering anymore "is my beer ruined" threads. However, if we put all of the first time jitters into one thread I know I'm not going to look at it anymore than the "unanswered posts" thread. It'll get filled up and some of the noobs wont come back I think. The ability of seasoned vets to consistantly help the noobs makes this forum what it is. my 2 cents.

Sea said:

There's no way to search within a thread, is there.

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there's a "search this thread" function after you open a thread (below the main toolbar)

maybe someone could come up with a "first time all-grain troubleshooting" (sticky) thread and base it on all the questions that most frequently come up in this forum.

I'm not really talking about the thread for raising questions. Just the many threads where they want to share there first session.

Specific questions should be left in their own thread.

eschatz said:

However, if we put all of the first time jitters into one thread I know I'm not going to look at it anymore than the "unanswered posts" thread. It'll get filled up and some of the noobs wont come back I think. The ability of seasoned vets to consistantly help the noobs makes this forum what it is. my 2 cents.

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That's a good point. I enjoy seeing see new members post in the introductions thread, ask questions in the appropriate forums, and I like offering help whenever I can. Not that I'm a "seasoned vet" or anything, but if someone asks a question that I know the answer to, I enjoy helping them out.

I think when people stop caring about helping people here, it'll be just another message board full of elitists who are too busy gloating about themselves to care that nobody new is sticking around. I've seen once active message boards turn into ghost towns by these kinds of attitudes.