# Context, lovely context



## winklepicker

It's clear from posts in the English Only forum that many posters (even experienced ones!) don't really understand what is meant by context. (Assuming they have even read the guidelines!)

Example1

Example2

Can we somehow give them more instructions of what might be helpful context - perhaps on the page where new threads get posted?

I know the instructions are really clear and appear in several places, but they're not getting through!

WP


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## french4beth

Perhaps there could be additional information whenever someone clicks on "Ask a question"? Some people will ignore everything no matter what you do, but that's life...


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## winklepicker

Context? What am him?

New rash of posts in English only today from those who are well-meaning but have failed to understand what context actually IS. So I revive this thread.

French4beth is absolutely right: we can nail down as many corners as we like and there will still be defaulters. But it's a question of playing the percentages and going as far as we can to reduce these guessing games to a minimum.


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## .   1

Sometimes the games are fun but the obvious solution is to hit the red triangle.
I have also sent a couple of PMs warning of upsetting the mods and asking for context.

I am of the opinion that some of these bursts of contextless requests are intentional folderol.

.,,


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## Cintia&Martine

Hi, 

In Spanish-french forum we (Gévy and I) opened a thread about, where all foreros can express her feelings about context and say what they expect as a context for a good translation.

When a forero doesn't give context we link to the thread.

It's working .
Martine


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## heidita

Cintia&Martine said:


> When a forero doesn't give context we link to the thread.
> 
> It's working .
> Martine


 
Wonderful idea! I hope it does _expand_, sort of, to the rest of forums.  

(Cintia, one little thing, the green colour really hurts the eye, why not change it to blue? It was the French part, but I think it is very useful, so one should be able to read easily.Possibly it is just me... )


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## TrentinaNE

A more succinct but nonetheless helpful post about context exists in the EO "read this" sticky thread. Perhaps EO members can start linking to that.  Or as the sticky itself says:





> *Threads without context will be summarily closed.*
> Please help promote useful questions and answers by reporting such threads (use the red triangle), instead of wasting time begging and pleading for background and context.


Elisabetta


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## winklepicker

Yes, I must confess I don't red triangle first time every time. It sometimes seems a bit fascist - especially when the poster is new or clearly well-intentioned. 

And there are clearly wind-up merchants out there with too much time on their hands.

But a post entitled 'What is context?' like Martine's would be great. Should it be a sticky up front - or should I just start a thread?


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## fenixpollo

I think it's a good idea start a thread in EO asking about the definition of the word "context" and ask how people conceive of it in their minds (post a link to it here if you do, k?).  But I think it would be up to the EO mods to define context from a WR point of view and to set expectations about its importance.

Many posters in Spanish-English are also unclear on the definition of context.  Whatever suggestion is adopted based on the ideas in this thread, should be considered for adoption in all of the forums.

Cheers.


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## Nunty

There is an excellent, succinct and brilliantly clear definition of context here. If people won't read the sticky, they won't read a thread, in my opinion. Maybe the Context Posse needs to set out to work again, as they did a few months ago...


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## tunaafi

I've added my post to a very old thread to show that what I am about to say is not a new issue.

Since I have been dropping in more often, I have become very aware of how many members, including many who have been around long enough to know better, pay no attention to these guidelines:


The *title should contain the specific words or phrase* you are asking about. (Forum Rule 3)
*Write out your question clearly in the post itself.* DO NOT use an image. DO NOT rely on the thread title or on links in your post.


Provide both *context and a full sample sentence* for every new thread.
When I click on Edit to remove a typo in one of my posts, this message pops up:

Please be considerate of users who have responded to this post.
Don't edit it in a way that makes their responses seem strange.

Would it be possible to have the guidelines I quoted above, or something similar pop up when members click on Post Thread?

As french4beth said in post #2, 'Some people will ignore everything no matter what you do', but a pop-up message might encourage more members to do what we'd like them to do.


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## DonnyB

It's long before my time, but I believe at one time we experimented with pop-ups, or perhaps it was banners?

The trouble with pop-ups is that most people ignore them and/or just do whatever you need to do in order to make them go away, usually without reading them.  Even if we had a screen with a series of "Have you ... ? questions and boxes that people were required to tick,  they'd doubtless just tick all the boxes regardless.

 We experimented for a while with the wording and placement of that message about not editing a post after someone has answered, and still, as you say, people do it regularly.  Short of actually disabling editing after a thread has been responded to (and I'm not even sure that's technically possible), it's difficult to see how we can actually _prevent_ it. 

I've just had a look at the 'Post thread' screen.  I don't know enough about the technicalities of it to say whether a pop-up would be viable or whether a few brief messages could be incorporated into it, a bit liken the ones at the bottom asking you whether you want to view it first or add an attachment.  One possible fly in the ointment is that you select which forum you want to post in first, and so your pop-up or message would have to be customized for that forum, as some of them are slightly different.

The two big problems I see as a moderator are firstly the number of new members who appear to suffer from 'TLDR syndrome' (Too long, didn't read ). The guidelines (which are separate from the formal forum rules themselves but in some cases duplicate them) were written originally to cover everything you could possibly want or need to know - and quite a few things you probably don't. Even the "quick" guide at the very beginning lists 21 separate do's and dont's. But would shortening it to, say,_ "half a dozen essential points to note before you post a question" _have any effect? 

The second significant problem is the number of serial offenders we currently have (that is, members who ought to know what they're supposed to do but 'forget' or plain can't be bothered to do it).

I don't think it's something which will ever be solved, but it would be interesting to hear from new-ish members what their experience was of using the forum for the first time.  Did you find it easy to use? Were the instructions clear? Is there anything you think should be altered?


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## machadinho

The first post in a new thread could be a *form*, instead of a single text box, with a required phrase field, a required context field, and a required question field.


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