11-30-2010, 06:33 PM

Anyone up for writing "Which Mac should I buy?" and "Battery Life" sticky threads?
These two subjects seem to come up over and over and over and over and.... you get the picture.
I think there are many more, but these seem to be the flavour of the month!

So, if anyone who has the time and ability is up for putting something together to pass onto the mods, I have no doubt that we would all be grateful

11-30-2010, 06:47 PM

Battery life isn't really too necessary, as Apple provides an outstanding site for battery info that people can refer others to:
http://www.apple.com/batteries/

No need to reinvent the wheel on that one.

As for what mac to buy, that might work, but I think it will be very hard to create something that covers everything and keeps it pretty succinct so someone would actually read it. May be better as a multi-part blog post.

Overall I'm not a huge fan of having very many stickies due to the fact that most people don't read them anyway, and the more you have, the more ignored they are as they lose their importance. So we have to make sure they're really good and really important or whether there's alternative ways to communicate the same information.

12-01-2010, 04:15 AM

Your link doesn't work.

Edit: I'm tired and didn't notice the mistake with the url, i feel slow.

12-01-2010, 04:16 AM

Originally Posted by Feniks80

Your link doesn't work.

Too many https.

http://www.apple.com/batteries/

Originally Posted by 6string

Anyone up for writing "Which Mac should I buy?" and "Battery Life" sticky threads?
These two subjects seem to come up over and over and over and over and.... you get the picture.
I think there are many more, but these seem to be the flavour of the month!

So, if anyone who has the time and ability is up for putting something together to pass onto the mods, I have no doubt that we would all be grateful

Sounds good on paper. I'm also kind of tired of seeing this topic every week and the answer is always the same. It would be nice if people actually read the stickies.

12-01-2010, 04:50 AM

Apple - Why You?ll Love a Mac - A Mac is the ultimate upgrade.
Apple - Why You?ll Love a Mac - See what makes each Mac different.

Apple's website usually has a link to a "which mac are you" page. I have linked to the current one. And it's hard to make a "which Mac should I buy" topic. Cause each persons needs are different. Differing needs and budgets make a personalised answer the best thing.

Though I do like stickies people can read and get a lot of information, I am also against random impersonalised answers that do nothing bar have people think "yeah that's nice but how does that apply to me?".

Sure we are sick of answering the same questions each week, but the people asking the questions sure appreciate the personalised answers we give them. So my opinion would be if you can write such a topic and sticky it, good idea as a first resource for people to go to. Include the 2 Apple links too. But if they ask questions that's ok too.

12-01-2010, 05:02 AM

I made a guide at my website once, its here: Buyers Guide, Mac Buyers Guide Helping With Mac Purchase

You can use it if you wish, however I should probably update it and correct some grammar/spelling errors..

12-01-2010, 07:47 AM

I think stickies in general are not effective since the people that really need to read them, never bother to look at them first.

What they are effective for is to point people to them when they ask the questions so you don't have to repeat the answers every time. But again I stress that they serve mainly a reactionary rather than a proactive purpose in all reality.

So if there exist great resources out on the web we can link them to for the same purpose that's probably better (e.g. Apple's battery page) as it's just better quality. Now if there's something that's not really covered elsewhere, covered poorly, or something that can be much more specific to what MF does, that's the right time for a sticky.

12-01-2010, 07:59 AM

And what I've found in writing the thread just for connecting your Mac to a TV, the info required to answer most of the questions that come up becomes intolerably long for most readers looking for a quick answer. (Although, it seems that the question has slowed down from it's 3-5 times a day. So, maybe there are some folks using it.)

Most folks don't want a book. If they're here asking questions, they're looking for someone to provide the answer / make the decision for them so they don't have to learn anything. Even though we know, a ton of questions just can't be answered properly that way.

12-04-2010, 04:28 PM

Stickies are a great idea, but since the *cleanout* i dont bother looking at any of them anymore. Before i use to link new members to them and then get back a "Thanks" "Great Info, will use this more".
But since Admin/Mod has cleaned them up, Deeming them of no relevance anymore i havnt been bother to check them out.
I know there still out there in the achives and i have a few Bookmarked but in all honesty after the effort gone into writing them and then removing them i havnt been bother to link people anymore.
The only time i go looking for them is when the thread is #posts long and the Info hasnt popped up as yet.
Good idea Kane, but it is my belief that unless you are a academic there are certain Mods that dont want to see them here. Im talking ALL stickies in General not just the 2 Kane suggested here

And just wondering Schweb

Overall I'm not a huge fan of having very many stickies due to the fact that most people don't read them anyway

does this mean there isnt a democracy when it comes to having certain content on the forum is it because your not a fan ??
Just trying to work out the "Chain of Command" here is all

Cheers

12-04-2010, 08:59 PM

A "Which Mac Should I Buy" Sticky sounds like a great idea...but the best you can hope to do with a thread like this is to steer a person towards the best model Mac that fits their needs....or at least narrow things down.

What would work best would be a set of questions for the "confused" person to answer. For example:

1. Do you need your computer to be portable?:

A. Yes
B. No

If yes...person needs a laptop. If no...person needs a desktop.

2. What is your budget?:

A. $500 to $1000
B. $1000 to $1500
C. $1500 to $2000
D. Over $2000

3. What do you do or want to do with your computer?:

A. e-mail & Internet
B. moderate gaming
C. high end gaming
D. word processing and/or spread sheets
E. application development
F. combination of answers (enter combination)

Etc. Etc. Etc. You can see where I'm going with this. This sort of thing could work with some folks.

But many folks when they ask the "What Mac Should I Buy" question...already have two or three specific Mac models already picked out...so they want help deciding between those 2-3 models.

Lastly. Since folks posting this sort of thread pick specific Mac models (and configurations) they need help with...the computer models are always changing from year to year...so a "sticky" would have to be very generic (just steer a person to a specific type of Mac computer)..either a Mini, iMac, notebook, or Mac Pro.

I think this would be a great idea...but because the specific computer models, model configurations, and price points are always changing from year-year (and each persons computer needs & computer budget are different)...this sort of "Sticky" would be very hard to keep on top of and keep current....and also be able to tailor it enough to be helpful for each individual user.

- Nick

12-04-2010, 09:16 PM

pigoo3 you could set this up as a multiple choice quiz and based on the answers you give it spits out at you what mac it thinks is best for you. And this is awesome. But very impersonalised. We have to remember the personal touch is why people come back to M-F time and time again.

12-04-2010, 09:24 PM

Originally Posted by the8thark

pigoo3 you could set this up as a multiple choice quiz and based on the answers you give it spits out at you what mac it thinks is best for you. And this is awesome. But very impersonalised. We have to remember the personal touch is why people come back to M-F time and time again.

Yeah...this is what I was thinking. But the best this sort of "quiz" could do is generically narrow things down to:

- Mac-mini
- iMac
- laptop
- Mac Pro

And of course it's more complicated than that...but this could be a good place to start if a person didn't know anything about Mac models.

Of course even if someone was able to narrow things down to "I need a laptop"...then the question is which one:

- 13", 15", 17" display
- which graphics card (if multiple are available)
- how much ram
- what speed processor (if multiple are available to choose from)
- etc.

This is where the personal touch comes in...and where a "Sticky" would have a tough time answering...since the models & prices change from year to year.

- Nick

12-04-2010, 09:43 PM

Well said. The quiz would help people who have no idea even what questions to ask. And when they kind of work out what Mac they think they want (from the quiz), then they can ask questions. it's always hard to ask questions when you have no idea what to ask.

12-05-2010, 07:47 AM

Originally Posted by TattooedMac

Stickies are a great idea, but since the *cleanout* i dont bother looking at any of them anymore.

I think there's a general misperception among people who would either write/read a sticky and everyone else on their actual usefulness.

Most people don't read them. Not only do we have the anecdotal evidence that users don't read them (e.g. how many "virus" threads are started despite having a virus sticky FAQ? How many how do I hook up my computer to a TV threads do we get despite having a sticky, etc), we also have hard, data based on actual page visits and user behavior tracking on the site to prove they are very underutilized, especially by new members.

Stickies are just not the best way to communicate information in most cases. There are more effective channels that can be used to do what they're actually being used for.

But since Admin/Mod has cleaned them up, Deeming them of no relevance anymore i havnt been bother to check them out.
I know there still out there in the achives and i have a few Bookmarked but in all honesty after the effort gone into writing them and then removing them i havnt been bother to link people anymore.

Just for the record, to add a little reality into this, almost all the stickies were written by the staff anyway, and 99% of the removed ones were staff generated. So please stop acting like we went through and hatefully removed user content that took years to write as we cackled all the way back to the staff forums.

Not sure why you have all this angst about removing old, outdated, unused stickies?

And I'm not saying we're not interested in the information, just that there are other ways to share it beside a sticky.

And just wondering Schweb
does this mean there isnt a democracy when it comes to having certain content on the forum is it because your not a fan ??
Just trying to work out the "Chain of Command" here is all

It's never been a democracy, not sure why you thought that.

We have Community Guidelines which right from the start limits what you can say and do here. As for types of content, the forums we have, and how information is shared, that has always been a decision of the staff based on the focus of this site.

This forum cannot be everything and just because you personally find something valuable doesn't mean it actually is for the majority.

And as a side note, just be lucky that I don't go on a drama fit in the forum about certain members' attitudes and attack them personally like you just did to me in this thread...just think about that for a bit.

12-05-2010, 05:42 PM

I don't know - the battery info from apple is good when trying to understand the technology but usually we end up giving info on software. How about something like this


Apple - unlike its windows counterparts seem to give a battery life you can actually get. For example my MBP has a claimed battery life of 7 hours and if I have it properly setup I can get ~6:48 after a year of use.

What do you have to do to get the battery numbers and keep your battery in good working order?

First calibrate your battery.
Apple Portables: Calibrating your computer's battery for best performance
If you use your computer off power a lot you don’t have to do this very often. The recommendation is if you use your computer all the time on power - then you should calibrate once a month.

Battery Monitoring
I like iStat Menu. It puts a bunch of monitoring on your menu bar. It does take a lot of real estate but it is all there to see. Plus it gives you easy access to preferences related to what is being monitored.
iStat Menus, a Mac app by Bjango
There is also istat pro and istat nano - available for the dashboard
Mac apps and Dashboard Widgets by iSlayer
Coconut Battery is a dedicated battery monitoring program
coconutBattery 2.7 - by coconut-flavour.com

Battery Issues
The latest batteries for Macs are not user replaceable. The batteries are not your grandma’s AA alkaline. There is a microprocessor that monitors the Mac’s batteries and there are multiple ways your battery can fail. Here are a few things to try.

First make sure you ran a recent calibration.

Try resetting the SMC.
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

Try a different Power cable.

Take it to an Apple store and have them look at it.

Maximize Battery life (How to get the 7-9 hours claimed by Apple)
Get gfxCardStatus and set your video card to the internal card
gfxCardStatus: menu bar gpu status monitor for os x / cody krieger - mobile, desktop & web developer

Turn off all wireless that you aren’t using. (Bluetooth, Wifi)

Remove peripherals that you aren’t using.

Turn off the keyboard backlight(This is the one that isn't mentioned anywhere)
System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Tab -> uncheck illuminate keyboard in low light conditions

Turn down your brightness as far as you can.