How do you deal with really general questions on your forum?

I'd welcome some suggestions on how to deal with new threads that only have really general questions. Supposing for example you own an SEO forum and someone were to start a new thread with the single question below;

"What are the best methods for promoting my website?"

When I get a question like that on my forum I post a reply asking for more info such as the site URL. But the issue I have is that members will post replies such as;

"Blog commenting
forum posting
directory submission"

In other words, the replies to general questions are normally very general and the thread really doesn't add anything to the community.

So, how do you deal with threads like that?

 

I think I see where you are coming from.
Maybe if the question is a little vague then general answers may be justified.
One way may be to ask the members who do answer, to explain in more detail how they see their answer being utilized.
Such as " What type of blogs do you feel may help to increase good traffic and attract the type of members we are looking for" Sometimes you can draw them out and increase the value of their answer.

If you can ease one good and workable answer out of them, then it is worthwhile.

Another way is to expand on the original question such as "What do you see as some of the best methods for promoting my website to attract the good people, Does anyone have any ideas that they can share that could help, if so please give an explanation so we can discuss it ?"

Some members are good people, but may be a little shy in voicing their opinion, so a nice friendly request could work for them.
And of course ALWAYS thank them, this may help them to feel confident enough to add more to their answer.

Every one likes a pat on the back in public. Good post !

 

Thanks for the suggestions Big Al, I do agree that it is important to thank members for their posts and I will make an effort to do it more often.

Thanks Cerberus, it's not so much that the posts are really short, just that they provide very general info and this info tends to get repeated by different members, in the same thread.

Having given it some thought I'm considering dealing with as follows;

1. Creating a "How to ask your question" thread.

2. When members post questions that are too vague or general. Replying to the thread with a link to the "How to ask your question" thread and asking them to post their question again with more specific info.

I think the above would help improve the quality of posts on the forum, but am a little concerned that new members would find it off-putting if their first question was dealt with in that way.

 

Number 2 must be used wisely, it can alienate some people if misused.

 

Thanks for your reply flametiger, can you please expand on it a little to explain your reasons for saying that?

 

I usually reply with a response, and ask another question to point the thread in the right direction. If I notice a thread has a lot of similar replies, then I'll lock it.

 

What was the topic of the forum the person posted in? "SEO General Discussion"?

Sometimes a too general forum topic like above invites too general threads.

Scott

 

Scott, the question I gave above was really just an example. The forum I was asking about is a business and webmaster one. Another example of the type of general question that doesn't get helpful questions is "What type of business should I start?" The question would be OK, if the member posting it gave some background info about themselves. But when they don't give relevant info, the question results in general replies that are not very helpful to anyone.

I've started doing this and so far it seems to be working OK.

 

Yeah, what I meant to say is, sometimes people add (sub)forums to their forum, which are too general and don't get the discussions down to a more specific topic. A (sub)forum like "General Business Discussion" is an example. That very general forum would invite threads to be started, which are too general like, "What type of business should I start?". Making the (sub)forums more specific in nature helps stop the threads being too general.

Scott