Happy Birthday to us

[StuartR]

It is now one week since we welcomed our first member to this new lounge. In that time we have accumulated about 90 users, and more than 3,500 posts in hundreds of threads.

If this site is going to be a long term success we need to ask and answer more questions in the technical forums, as well as continue to enjoy the chatter in these social forums. So if you know of anyone who is looking for help with windows, office, or any of the other topics that we have forums for then please encourage them to come over and ask their questions.

Thank you for making it such a pleasure to be an administrator of this site.

[DenGar]

It is now one week since we welcomed our first member to this new lounge. In that time we have accumulated about 90 users, and more than 3,500 posts in hundreds of threads.

If this site is going to be a long term success we need to ask and answer more questions in the technical forums, as well as continue to enjoy the chatter in these social forums. So if you know of anyone who is looking for help with windows, office, or any of the other topics that we have forums for then please encourage them to come over and ask their questions.

Thank you for making it such a pleasure to be an administrator of this site.

I was thinking the very same thing the other day--we are not getting many technical questions, which is where the essential value of the forum is.

[ChrisGreaves]

It is now one week ...

Q1: You are happy, then, if I send an email to me fellow-entrepreneurs, many/most of whom need basic help?
Q2: Should one, ahem, invigorate the VBA forum by posting sample utility functions? (along with an explanation of their use)
(It has not escaped my notice that the Excel forum appears to have something the others don't have. Free beer?)

[StuartR]

It is now one week ...

Q1: You are happy, then, if I send an email to me fellow-entrepreneurs, many/most of whom need basic help?
Q2: Should one, ahem, invigorate the VBA forum by posting sample utility functions? (along with an explanation of their use)
(It has not escaped my notice that the Excel forum appears to have something the others don't have. Free beer?)

Q1. Please don't send email that other people might see as SPAM, but feel free to invite people you know personally.
Q2. Small numbers of highly reusable and useful utilities would be appreciated, large numbers of very specific un-reusable modules are not going to win you many lounge kudos points.

[Bigaldoc]

In my "somewhat cloistered" life my circle of contacts is rather small, but I'm passing out the word whenever I can.

For the little traffic my personal web site gets, I've made a prominent link to this forum for anyone who happens in off the street.

As one of our new Loungers has already revealed, I have also added to my profile in the WS Lounge a link to Eileen's. I think some others of you may have already done the same thing and probably beat me to it. But I don't think it's unethical to do so.

Keep the faith Loungers. It'll take time but most, if not all, who come here IMMEDIATELY see the friendly, family, helpful atmosphere we exude and "they will come."

[viking33]

You are absolutely right, Stuart.
This first week of existence has been one of euphoria for all of the original loungers. It's a GREAT feeling but it IS time to start "takin' care of business". I have also posted a link to here on the WS Lounge site and I'm sure we will see the new members coming in. The word will get around.

[DaveA]

It does not hurt to be posting some "Tips and/or Tricks" that you have found, these may open the doors for more questions.

[Hey Jude]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY By The Beatles

[Bigaldoc]

It does not hurt to be posting some "Tips and/or Tricks" that you have found, these may open the doors for more questions.

But Dave, we have to GET PEOPLE HERE to ask the questions!

[TonyE]

Are there any plans to let the Google, Yahoo and other bots index the Lounge?

[HansV]

Not at the moment or in the near future. As you know even the WS Lounge, which has many more resources than we do, is hardly Google-searchable almost two months after they started to allow search engines. We don't have the bandwidth to support massive searching, and although we hope we'll grow, we don't want 30,000 new members in a few weeks...

[Slim]

Keep the faith. They will come. It just takes a bit more time for the word to get out.
Regards,
Slim

[GeoffW]

So many experts.

So few idiots

[ChrisGreaves]

So many experts. So few idiots.

I resemble that remark!

[ChrisGreaves]

Q1. Please don't ... Q2. Small numbers of ...

Got it, thanks.

[Prasad]

So few idiots

You mean, we need more to compete with me.

[GeoffW]

So many experts.

So few idiots

Gotta elaborate.

It used to be really really bad to call people idiots.

But now there's so many books araound.

So this Lounge maybe could be called "Help in MS products for the complete idiot".

It's no reflection on anybody- just like the series of books.

Just showing that so many of us (myself included) have so many questions, and are often afraid to ask the questions for fear of being labelled "idiot".

There is no problem of that in here.

As people will realise from the responses from people in here from the old forum- any question is answered with complete respect.

There are really no bad, stupid, or even "idiot", questions.

[Skitterbug]

So many experts.

So few idiots

Gotta elaborate.

It used to be really really bad to call people idiots.

But now there's so many books araound.

So this Lounge maybe could be called "Help in MS products for the complete idiot".

It's no reflection on anybody- just like the series of books.

Just showing that so many of us (myself included) have so many questions, and are often afraid to ask the questions for fear of being labelled "idiot".

There is no problem of that in here.

As people will realise from the responses from people in here from the old forum- any question is answered with complete respect.

There are really no bad, stupid, or even "idiot", questions.

Thanks for your explanation!

There were times when I wondered whether I ought to ask about something that wasn't making sense to me for fear of being thought about in a negative way. And I think back to many of the posts I made when I finally "got started" asking!

I'm sure I wore that label then and probably still do at times, now. But Oh well! However I'd rather ask than flounder along not getting the problem solved! As Geoff has pointed out, asking questions doesn't really mean the person is an idiot. To me it means the person is smart enough to realize that s/he needs help! And asking for it indicates the person is trying to learn. Nothing wrong with that!

[StuartR]

I still ask lots of "stupid" questions.

People who are too proud to ask are welcome to remain ignorant.

[Argus]

So many experts.

So few idiots

Geoff,
I laughed at your "sad smiley" and thought; what a wonderful place to be at, not like some workplaces.

But it wouldn't work to say: "Hi, would you like to come to our place and be an i...

To expand a little, and explain what I mean: in my opinion, a person who ask a question, as long as the intent is good and honest, can never be seen as an idiot. On the other hand, if a person can't behave in a reasonable decent way towards other people, well, then that is what they should be called, no matter if they are "experts" or not. Furthermore, no person is an expert in every field; another day, the position can be the opposite, the expert asks a question. And finally, to ask questions is the best way to push the boundaries in research.

I agree with you, Skitterbug and Stuart.

"A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing."
George Bernard Shaw

Oh, how honourable I feel now.