Being fairly new to this forum I'm just curious how my thread moved from one forum to another. Is there some form of editor who sorts items based on his/her interpretation of material content?

Fallon - the forums have moderators, and Marc is always the "over-moderator". If you go down the list of forums, on the far right a moderator is usually identified. The moderators review the forum postings, and if they feel a posting would be more appropriate or gain more responses in another forum they can choose to move it to that forum. There is a more detailed description posted by Marc in the background information on using the cove. Just a short nutshell description.

What Kevin H. says is true. However, most Moderators send a note to the original poster about the move (just a courtesy) and (when folks have already responded to the original post) leave a notice in the original Forum that the thread has been moved with a redirect link to find it. Do you have an email or Private Message from one of the Moderators?

Perhaps with this thread, the original Moderator who moved the thread will return and explain.

I note it was moved this afternoon by Marc with the notation there was a "redirect" left in the original Forum. Which was the original Forum?

I notice your most recent thread had to do with the old Mil Std surface plate business. Is this the one which was moved? It seems to me to "belong" in the Forum about calibrations and certifications of measuring instruments and certification labs in general. The Moderator of that Forum, Hershal Brewer, is a crackerjack expert in the field.

Kevin and Wes have given you the basics. For the most part, thread starters choose an 'appropriate' category. However, as the forums have grown a lot more forums have been added which does make it a bit harder to choose the correct forum to post in.

It is true that sometimes a thread could 'fit' in several categories, but we try to look at a thread and make what we think would be most appropriate. Because of this, it is also possible that a thread could be moved more than once - But that isn't common.

Most of the moderators will leave the thread starter a PM or e-mail, but I don't require that and typically I don't because with a 'Redirect' in the forum the thread was originally in I don't see it as 'significant'. In part this is because the redirect should be easy to see if the original thread starter goes to the forum where the thread was originally posted.

But there are two other factors. One is that a thread has a 'serial number' so no matter what forum it is in it will always have the same identifier. So - A link to any thread will always work because it does not depend upon which forum a thread is in.

The second factor is that when one registers one has the option of setting a 'default' notification (called a 'Subscription') when a thread has been updated (a new post is added). The options are: Immediate, daily summary and weekly summary notification. These options are also available when a person starts a thread and they are also available to anyone who reads a thread or posts in the thread. No matter what forum a thread is in (or is moved to), the notification will always give the correct link to the thread.

By the way - One can also 'subscribe' to an entire forum (the option is in the Thread Tools dropdown) so that one gets a notification when a new thread is started in that forum or when someone ads a post to a thread in the forum.

Why are threads moved? It is a 'best attempt' to keep like subjects / topics together so that readers do not have to jump around too much as they focus on a topic. If one goes to a book store, one expects to find fiction books in the fiction section, not in the cooking books section.

We want to make it easy for folks to find relevant information and, as is done in a library, we use 'topic grouping'.

Thanks for the info guys,
I was beginning to wonder if i'd broached some form of user ediquette when I posted to "coffee break chatter"(CBC). Because I was being told this standard was antiquated, obsolete, etc., I was more interested in getting a general concensus on how others view it in industry than the fact that the "surface plates were not installed in compliance with GGG-P-463c". When I visited other forums, I've noted the traffic in 'CBC' is significantly more than the other ones. I was just looking for the broadest cross section of Cove users with one shot. There seems to be a lot of experience in the Cove. I was hoping someone with vastly more years than myself might see my post in the CBC and jog his/her memory and tell me either "..no, what they're telling you is BS.", or "..believe it or not, that is how the standard is viewed." Unless someone goes specifically to the particular forum you post in, after 24 hours your post would fall from site of the masses. Again, I'm new to this and I'm definitely not out to reinvent the wheel. I posted in the CBC only after reading other posts which seemed to ask general questions about quality. Thanks again for the info.

I've moved threads another moderator has moved several times and I've seen moderators move threads I had moved earlier. That's the weird extreme and isn't common, but my point is it's relative and sometimes mostly an opinion. Other times it's an easy call.

The 'CBC' forum is widely read, but it's not a good place for 'business' threads, in my opinion. I haven't waded through that forum in a while, but business threads there should be in the appropriate forum. On the other hand, for example, there's a current thread on 'burnout'. I thought of moving it to the 'Occupations' forum, but after thinking about it figured the CBC forum was ok for that considering all.

You are right - There are no hard and fast rules on where a thread should go. Just our opinions based upon content or the first post.

Note that I do retitle many, many threads - As do some of the moderators - So if your thread could be better titled let me know and I'll change it. I'm trying to make sure thread titles reflect the content based upon the first post, but I'll admit I don't always 'get it right'.