This could become a giant circle of nothing; you want change, but you don't want to change anything.
If you detest the colors/bold/fancy text so much then why not remove the option from BBB posting all together. If someone can't access it, they can't use it. Then no one will get dissed for using it. And before you give me the "they're used for emphasis speech," why not just use "tags" for emphasis. There are bold/color/font tags yes/no?
That whole color/bold/fancy rule made no sense to me when I first got here. I honestly thought this place was run by a bunch of old timers who were simply clinging to the old "internet etiquette" standards. As time wore on I noticed how much easier everything is to read if it all looks the same.
You are going to have to do something about this particular problem; it appears to be a bone of contention with the staff here. Either lighten up on the new offenders, remove the option to use these features, or find a better way to explain the rule.
Just telling me that VB code is on, doesn't show me how to use tags. I am just not "getting" the printed instructions. It won't matter how many times you repeat these instructions, until I see pictures it won't sink in.
Every staff member here already knows how to use all the functions, features, and rules of BBB. If you want new comers to hang around, you are going to have to take their opinions in to account.
There are probably more people out there right now who are new to computers than there are old timers who are familiar with computers and the related "etiquette" that goes along with it.
Us "newbies" got into computers at a time when everything PC is filled with colors, animations, and very "lax" "internet etiquette." I, for one, am getting tired of being jumped on for every mistake I make and then having to apologize for something I didn't even know was wrong.
Everyone who has been using PC's from the beginning is now considered "the old guard," and us "newbies" look to you with reverence. Wow! You know all this stuff! That's amazing! But every time we reach out for help from the old guard and they jump on us; they don't come across as knowledgable masters, they come across as pompous and arrogant. Imagine how you feel when you walk in to a new store looking for a particular item, only to have a clerk there tell you to "read the signs above the aisles." It is not much help, and it certainly wasn't very friendly. Are you going to go shop somewhere else?
All the divisions in the forum categories here might make sense to you, but to someone new it just adds more stuff to filter through to get to what you want. If I go to a gaming forum, those are broken up in to the individual games. Not "weapons for that game," or "upgrades for that game;" it is one simple category. And yes, some of those game categories have huge numbers of postings, but it is easier to get to where you want to go.
