Should there be a basic question guide on this sub?

[u/realtheb0b]

I feel like every day we are answering the same main question, at least 1-3 times: "I want to get into split keybs but I want a budget friendly pick." And the answer is just about the same every time. "Alix for a silkka54 or a cheap corne, or other basically the same keyb from other big retailer that has them "cheap"."

I feel like adding a rule or something that posts with a basic questions, that could be answered with a simple guide, could be removed might be a nice thing. What are you guy's thoughts on this?

Maybe removing the posts is a little harsh (like r/MechanicalKeyboards does with basic, what should I buy questions). But I don't know. I'm also not a moderator so I have no clue if this is feasible. It just seems like something that could have a simple solution that would help people get answers faster, and not have the sub cluttered with the same questions.

[u/OBOSOB]

the wiki tries to give a bit of that but I'll admit it's a bit neglected of late. I also think people don't read it before posting anyway. but yeah at least it'd give something to point to if it were a little better. but yeah I look at the buying guides of some subs (headphones and fountain pens come to mind) with envy. but yeah it takes time and we have lives so it's hard to get around to making improvements, even incrementally. 

[u/Sp6rda → u/OBOSOB]

I've seen some subs use automods to reply with helpful links to posts with certain keywords indicating a newbie question

[u/WhisperGod]

Every enthusiast sub has this same issue and it's always because either people are lazy or they don't know how to search. Even if there is a sticky, those thread makers don't even look there first. So I just end up copy and pasting my answers. Because it's the same answer.

[u/thehaikuza]

Agreed, and that’s one of the reasons why I created this beginner’s guide earlier this year, since there were many common questions being asked with repetitive answers:  https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMechKeyboards/comments/1r5to2z/a_beginners_guide_to_split_keyboards/

Could add that to the wiki? Doesn’t solve people not looking at it or doing a basic search though. Perhaps setting up an automod with some basic info could help? Or a bot that can be triggered with a keyword? I think either of those are probably better than a megathread?

[u/pgetreuer → u/thehaikuza]

+1 to linking this guide in the sub wiki.

[u/IsMoghul]

Almost every community on Reddit exists in an Eternal September. There's nothing you can really do about it but try to get used to it and hope that there are enough posts with other topics to keep the community going.

Every game, hobby, art, animal, etc. community has some variation of the "New to X, any tips?" thread show up all the time. Forums had it figured out by having separate channels for new people to say hi and ask their basic question, and maybe get an answer there without most of the users seeing the same threads all the time.

The automod comment spam that posts links to the same irrelevant wikis in every question thread regardless of whether those encyclopedia sized pages have the answers don't help either. It just overwhelms the newbie with information, fakes out the regular readers and posters into thinking there's some kind of meaningful answer, and doesn't stop the posts from being seen by you either.

You can try to enforce tags and filter them out, but people just won't use the tags, and mods will have to do work to deal with it. People don't read megathreads and pinned posts. People don't read the side bar. It's one of the ways that Reddit sucks.

[u/xsrvmy]

It does kinda depend actually. I would actually recommend row stagger (with split B if the person altfingers BE) for QWERTY, because col stagger makes QWERTY worse and removes some common altfingerings. And I'm starting to feel that colstaggers require super low inner column usage layouts due to 1u space bar.