Things are getting a little loosy-goosy on Dr. Eskapa's thread again. This thread is for him alone to post replies, subject to unusual circumstances (perhaps suicidal or other exigency) which you explain as a preface in your post if you just can't resist. Knowing the answer to the question is not an unusual circumstance.

N101CS set it up this was as a courtesy to Dr. Roy so he can pop in and read when he has a sec without wading through a bunch of posts.

We all are in the process of becoming fountains of wisdom on TSM, but sometimes a member wants to hear it "straight from the horse's mouth," as N101CS said in the "Read Before Posting" post on Dr. E's thread. You HAVE read that, right?? I thought not. Here it is: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=58

If you really really want to reply, post in General Discussion. Meanwhile, would y'all please consider deleting or moving your reply posts in the Dear Dr. E thread? Also, if you want to elicit input from the bunch, post a duplicate of your question in General Discussion.

Thanks to Nick who cleaned up his own post that generated a bunch of replies.

Thanks for enduring the little lecture. Again, this is something N101CS worked out for Dr. Roy's convenience so I thought I should say something.

A suggestion, if I may be so bold, Lena:

Restrict posting in the "Ask Dr. E thread to mods". Create another sub-forum where anyone can ask, or reply to questions. If a mod feels it needs to be asked to Dr.E (whether by request of the original poster or not), they can then move it.

I appreciate the suggestion, but I don't feel we should make the call. If everyone just follows the simple rule of no replies from members except for unusual circumstances, we'll be just fine.

PLEASE FOLLOW THE PROTOCOL FOR POSTING ON DR. ESKAPA'S THREAD!!!
THIS IS FOR THE BENEFIT OF DR. E!!
AND THEN WE CAN READ THE ANSWER FROM DR. E!!
IF YOU WANT TO DISCUSS, START A NEW THREAD IN GENERAL DISCUSSION!!!
PLEASE!!!

Most people will not read the rules for this Thread. Those that do, will follow the rules loosely at best.

It would take very little effort of the admins part to make posts to this thread moderator approval only. Posts to this thread that are not questions to Dr. Eskapa or responses from Dr. Eskapa could then be deleted with a click of a mouse by forum moderators. This too takes very little time and effort.

Quite honestly, it takes more time for the moderators to post warnings for people not to post answers in Dr. Eskapa's thread than it would be to approve/deny posts if the thread were moderator approval only.

Q

Q, I was reluctant to consider this as I don't like the prospect of pre-approving posts as it feels like censorship. But the current method feels like nagging and, you're right, it takes way too much time to post this thread, split posts, etc. It's so much easier for Dr. Eskapa when that thread is properly organized, and accordingly we all benefit from that because he is more likely to respond.

Thanks for your thoughtful input; it's greatly appreciated.

Lena - This is a moderated forum and we should abide by the rules. By and large we generally do. Sometimes though, we see a question that we'd like to answer and don't stop to think that it is explicitly for Dr.Eskapa, either through unintended ignorance of the rules, over-enthusiasm (yes, I posted an answer awhile back that was a question for the Dr., so I'm guilty), or even the fact that we have numerous folks here that post inebriated (I'm guilty on that too) and may not be as inclined to following rules at the time of their post.

All that to say, if there is one area of the forum that has a higher level of moderation, I would not find that offensive or view it as censorship. You, the moderator, just have additional rules for posting on that thread... they are to be exclusively for Dr. Eskapa or Dr. Sinclair. and subject to validation by the moderator. If I for whatever reason want to answer the question, I can PM the person who posted it OR post my answer as a quote under a new thread created in the General section.

Plus, if you did have an additional validation step for that particular thread, we could stop talking about it! {I hope the previous sentence is as funny as I intend it to be}.

Bob