There's been a good deal of discussion the past week about the difficulty of finding good information quickly here at GH nowadays. Partly this is due to the site's growth- more contributors, more ideas, divergent ideas... but a lot of it is simply due to threads taking on a life of their own as a flowing conversation- a natural process.

This is largely good- akin to the flow of a normal conversation between colleagues. But (as one example, not picking on anyone/thing) it gets frustrating when the thread title says "Myth: non-hybrids are just as efficient" and then one sees the first page of recent posts talking almost entirely about tiptronic transmisisons, airdams, vehicles not for sale in the US, etc.

Even more frustrating to new members is a thread that looks like its about the price of a vehicle in some locale, and then it turns out that there are 2 pages of a few posters bickering (not flaming, usually, but a lower level discussion)- only the 1st few posts had anything to do with the topic at hand.

I am very guilty of dragging threads offtopic too.

So I ask folks: please sit back for a moment and look at what you're typing before posting it. If it doesn't answer (or is directly related to) the original post/thread title, maybe its better to post it as a new thread or a PM? You can always link to the new thread with a post in the old. Its far better to have lots of short threads that can be read quickly than a few meandering threads that have tons of information but its buried 3 pages down. Think about when you were first looking for information about your hybrid, and how easy/hard it was.

For example, technical questions deserve technical answers- not conjecture, hearsay, or running smartaleck remark between 2 or 3 people. Similarly for questions about features, price, etc. Once its been answered, its best to move on. Many times this does happen the way it should, but it is meandering more and more frequently nowadays.

As mods here we try to minimize intervention, and its far easier for posters to keep things on track than a handful of moderators.

As for peoplke getting 'confused' by acronyms and whatnot, please remember to use the glossary at the top of the page. It goes a long way to understanding stuff.

Also, hopefully we'll be able to put up some definitive FAQs for each model and appropriate areas to stave off repeated questions (e.g.: the eternal 'oil-change-interval' argument, or how to turn off the maintenance light in your Honda)