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The Financial Forum Beginner Question Thread
Ask your beginner, repetative, or simple questions here without fear of being flamed. Of course, it still helps if you do a simple forum search or Google search first - if nothing else, you can narrow your question or educate yourself so you will better understand the answers you may receive.
If you choose to read and respond to this thread, please keep your answers constructive. Pointing someone to a thread where his exact question has already been discussed is OK, but please don't be too much of a jerk about it.
By the way, this thread will be much more useful if (a) it's stickied and (b) people use it for what it's meant for, instead of debating whether or not it's a good idea or whether it will work or not or why people should neg threads. If you think it's a dumb idea and a waste of time, why not just move on?
These threads may be examples of questions that could have more efficiently been posted here: (Roth IRA, Mutual Funds, & Timing) http://www.fatwallet.com/t/52/662292/
(Opening a CD) http://www.fatwallet.com/t/52/662335/
Exactly. Would you rather have one thread be a mess or the entire forum be a mess of duplicate and stupid threads where information gets so spread out you can't find anyting.
While I believe it's a noble idea, I don't think the forum is taken over by junk threads. Yes, there are red and there will always be red. However, people have a tendency to want to be the center of attention and have their question answered NOW. In particular, new members who don't know what they are doing. So instead of posting a dumb question in a thread where there are already questions, they will still create new threads so that they are the only one who has a question. This will lead to more sarcastic and useless answers. I'm also I big fan of the "do something on your own" mentality where most infomation can easily be found by a search of obvious terms.
What actually needs to be done is to have a minimum post count to create new threads. ie, you can't make a new thread until you have 10, 20 posts. That would help filter out the trash a little. That being said, there is no 100% effective solution to the problem.
richfish13 said:So instead of posting a dumb question in a thread where there are already questions, they will still create new threads so that they are the only one who has a question.
asdf9876 said:Problem: A lot of people are asking the same questions over and over again without searching and without doing any basic research on their own.
Sorry, I don't get it. If they're not doing any research, what makes you think they're going to know to post in this thread? (kamaltk beat me on this point!)
So instead of flaming them, asking them to go to an appropriate thread, we'll flame them and tell them to go to this thread, where they will then be directed to the appropriate place flame-free?
HC5831 said:What actually needs to be done is to have a minimum post count to create new threads. ie, you can't make a new thread until you have 10, 20 posts. That would help filter out the trash a little. That being said, there is no 100% effective solution to the problem.
richfish13 said:So instead of posting a dumb question in a thread where there are already questions, they will still create new threads so that they are the only one who has a question.
I really like your idea, but have a feeling people might tend to either post really dumb things in the first 10 threads to meet the post count and put up their thread immediately after, or post the same thing 10 times in thread. I don't know how you would fix that other than making a post count with a minimum time (ie. you need to post 10 times and be a member for atleast 7 days to start a thread), but that has the potential to be very unfair to people with legitimate questions.
hmm, going through and looking at the people commonly giving reds: xpguy-never seen him contribute anything useful. all he does is neg. he's useless. gforce841 skwiggey bozo007 asdf9876-the original poster for this new thread. seems to neg a lot also.
so, what's the point of making a thread red? it seems these people make it red cause it doesn't relate to them. so, what if happens to relate to somebody else? oh, the problem is then that person didn't search.
so basically, you expect every new thread to be something new. ideally, that'd be fun, read something new and exciting every day on the forum. but practically speaking, there is no such thing as infinitely many new topics for discussion. this forum would be a lot slower, and not as much discussion would go on. right now, a lot of topics may be redundant, but sometimes they open up new points of view that weren't discussed before.
hokiedokie said:asdf9876 said:Problem: A lot of people are asking the same questions over and over again without searching and without doing any basic research on their own.
Sorry, I don't get it. If they're not doing any research, what makes you think they're going to know to post in this thread? (kamaltk beat me on this point!)
So instead of flaming them, asking them to go to an appropriate thread, we'll flame them and tell them to go to this thread, where they will then be directed to the appropriate place flame-free?
Often what happens is someone flames them and they are told to go thread X. Then they say their situation is not like thread X. Then they get flamed for how their thread IS like thread X. Then flame, flame, flame, and the thread that everyone admits is dumb keeps getting bumped to the front page.
Now you flame that person and tell them to come here. This place is made exactly for them. You stop posting in the old thread after the first link to this thread has been made. That old thread will wither away and never get bumped to the main page. The beginner will then have no choice but to ask their question here. Once here they won't get put down and they might eventually become an experienced user.
To answer s0ss remark, I do rate negative a lot questions which go against the rules of this forum and/or have been answered repeatedly and could be found on a quick search and/or questions that could only be answered by the company they are asking about.
Go check out my dozen or two dozen latest posts. I do contribute a lot and I'm frequently rated green by many people including SIS.
By the way, I can't remember when I saw the last constructive helpful post by s0ss.
Of course this thread can become a flame fest if you the members let it. I ask that each one individually not do that. I think not flaming new members in one thread is worth the "sacrifice" for slowing down (never completely stop) all of the useless threads created here.
Of course new members will still post new threads. But if it only gets one response, "go to the begginner question thread, this has been discussed before" and they don't get the response they so desperately crave, they will soon come here.
Actually, there is a simple solution to all of this. Noob hits "new topic". Page pops up asking for TITLE ONLY and they title it "What should I do with $183.79?", and hit "OK". Next page shows search results, with a heading that says "From your title, it is highly likely that this question has been answered before. Please review the threads below before starting a new topic". They can then choose to proceed (at the bottom of the page) or cancel after finding a good match. It will even be good for them to see similar stupid question threads with lots of red. Once you have posted X posts or Y threads you no longer are confronted with this title search.
FW, please deposit $64,000 in my FatCash account for this phee-nominal idea.
currently i'm under 18 and my mom said she would put my name as a "authorized user" on 1 of her cards that i use for internet purchases and pay her for it, will this start my credit history?
stupidfool said:i'll actually ask a question here it goes:
currently i'm under 18 and my mom said she would put my name as a "authorized user" on 1 of her cards that i use for internet purchases and pay her for it, will this start my credit history?
It is generally reported to credit reporting agencies. As long as your mom is responsible and doesn't have any late payments it shouldn't hurt. Go ahead and try it and then wait a few months. Then pull a free credit report and see if it shows up.
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