My brain is not working very well right now from the incredible heat - a tourist in my own country, the shame!
- but I'll give this a shot:
Most of us regulars (whether lurkers or posters) have certainly noticed the increase in randomness - if not been guilty of contributing to it. I suspect it is also aggravated by being between Match cycles, and by the increase in the so-called "popularity" of the forum.
What I have noticed in my time on here is that some "serious" posts get sidetracked when nobody really knows the answer to the question. So perhaps it isn't so much a lack of respect towards the OP's question as a lack of knowledge. (Most of us aren't yet pathologists after all. Which is why I think it will be important for us to continue to have some sort of presence on SDNPath as we each advance through our programs and careers.)
Now that we are all aware of what makes the randomness tick though, we can be more mindful of avoiding such things in the future. We have always managed to self-moderate
and I certainly have faith in the general communal responsiveness.
Last but not least is the organization of "serious" information. The issue of how to make past responses easily accessible is quite near and dear to me
since a fair number of questions which turn up on the front page have been answered very thoroughly in the past.
That certainly does not mean that they cannot be asked again, and I don't mean to be rude when I post a brief "See this post:" in place of posting a screen-long response, I simply think that the original responder answered the question much better than I could have.
We have our stickied FAQs (I think the challenge is to make them relevant to progressive stages of residency training), and if anyone has any ideas for more entries then feel free to let me know and I will see what I can do.
(And that is going to be the last intelligent thing I say all day... Gawd the heat! At 9am! I need to get out of the valley.
82 °F / 28 °C
Mostly Cloudy
Heat Index: 88 °F / 31 °C
Humidity: 74%)
