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snidely · 12th December 2003, 23:28

I can understand and empathize with both sides of this issue.

1. To see a newbie come in to the forum and post the same "What's best" post as has been posted a thousand times before is very frustrating, as usuallly these types of questions are born of sheer laziness to do even a quick search on the subject. These types of posts should be squashed quickly, if for no other reason than to force the user to learn how to use the search engine.

2. on the other side of the coin, THINGS CHANGE! That is, someone could look up info on InstantCopy (for example) and at one time that program was significantly better than the competition. If a user made a decision now based on this very old information, he could mistakenly come to the conclusion that IC is a good choice for transcoding, while the rest of us understand that its shortcomings make it one of the poorest of the current choices (I like to live dangerously, don't I?

).

Ok, kidding aside, the point is still that as various programs evolve, while others stand still, what was "best" a year or 6 months ago will not necessarily be the "best" any more, and if we do not allow discussions of this nature, then people will be stuck with old methods and outdated information.

As far as "opinions" are concerned, yes it is true that everyone should evaluate things for himself, but if everyone felt confident in their own abilities, then movie and equipment reviews would cease to exist. People want to know the opinions of others so that they at least can establish a base line for their own opinions, investigate the pros and cons of the product, and decide for themselves what is important to them and what is not.

In my forum (AV Science), we allow discussion of "what's best" and it is the job of the moderators to oversee the threads to make sure that things remain civil. If members get into name calling and flaming, then we close the thread, but if the exchanges contain valid debate and opinion, then we allow people to talk about the subject to their heart's content.

In the end it is not our decision to vote this rule in or out, though, and we must abide by the policy of the administrators. So whatever they decide, I will remain a member here and follow their rules. My opinion is that people should be allowed to speak their minds, as long as they don't interfere with the rights of others (bad language, name calling, etc.).

Cheers....Snidely

BTW, here is one of those "what's best" discussions that pops up over and over again at AVS - What is the best software DVD player? If we didn't alow discussion of such a topic, then real gems of programs like TheaterTek and Zoom Player would have fallen by the wayside in favor of more mainstream products like PowerDVD, WinDVD, ATI Player, NDVD, etc.

12th December 2003, 23:28	#10 \| Link
snidely Central Scrutinizer Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 193	I can understand and empathize with both sides of this issue. 1. To see a newbie come in to the forum and post the same "What's best" post as has been posted a thousand times before is very frustrating, as usuallly these types of questions are born of sheer laziness to do even a quick search on the subject. These types of posts should be squashed quickly, if for no other reason than to force the user to learn how to use the search engine. 2. on the other side of the coin, THINGS CHANGE! That is, someone could look up info on InstantCopy (for example) and at one time that program was significantly better than the competition. If a user made a decision now based on this very old information, he could mistakenly come to the conclusion that IC is a good choice for transcoding, while the rest of us understand that its shortcomings make it one of the poorest of the current choices (I like to live dangerously, don't I? ). Ok, kidding aside, the point is still that as various programs evolve, while others stand still, what was "best" a year or 6 months ago will not necessarily be the "best" any more, and if we do not allow discussions of this nature, then people will be stuck with old methods and outdated information. As far as "opinions" are concerned, yes it is true that everyone should evaluate things for himself, but if everyone felt confident in their own abilities, then movie and equipment reviews would cease to exist. People want to know the opinions of others so that they at least can establish a base line for their own opinions, investigate the pros and cons of the product, and decide for themselves what is important to them and what is not. In my forum (AV Science), we allow discussion of "what's best" and it is the job of the moderators to oversee the threads to make sure that things remain civil. If members get into name calling and flaming, then we close the thread, but if the exchanges contain valid debate and opinion, then we allow people to talk about the subject to their heart's content. In the end it is not our decision to vote this rule in or out, though, and we must abide by the policy of the administrators. So whatever they decide, I will remain a member here and follow their rules. My opinion is that people should be allowed to speak their minds, as long as they don't interfere with the rights of others (bad language, name calling, etc.). Cheers....Snidely BTW, here is one of those "what's best" discussions that pops up over and over again at AVS - What is the best software DVD player? If we didn't alow discussion of such a topic, then real gems of programs like TheaterTek and Zoom Player would have fallen by the wayside in favor of more mainstream products like PowerDVD, WinDVD, ATI Player, NDVD, etc. Last edited by snidely; 12th December 2003 at 23:48.