I have a suggestion that will probably go over like a lead ballon, but what if posting categories were expanded on BOL under each Regulation or Law that is of interest to posters?

The search option sort of works, but "filing" comments based on Regulations/Laws would save a lot of time. In addition, loan stuff gets posted under general items, etc.

Also, it would be nice if someone would go through posts and eliminate unnecessary, repetitive, and silly comments - dumping threads that have no value beyond one day.

I don't see a suggestion box, so I'm posting a suggestion here for comment.

No comment will be fine with me - just allow this thread to die and quiet death.

The only problem that I see with your suggestion is that the same post would be posted in a dozen different categories instead of just several (i.e, this suggestion). For those of us who already read "all" posts - it would be more of a headache to have more categories.

Here is some of what you want. But I wouldn't volunteer to do this.

I was not aware of that resource, Thanks Andy. I think I'm looking for something that does not exist, like a most frequent Q&A based on each Regulation/Law - it just seems that the same stuff comes up over and over again with you (and others) kind enough to point out a thread that has already covered the subject. Maybe it's just the nature of the Compliance beast.

There are times you need an answer NOW and if you aren't good at keyword searches, you post and then search. So I can see the redundancy happening again and again. (That is redundancy defined.)

But having to read and categorize the posts would be a HUGE task. The link I provided was done by BOL as a result of a suggestion similar to yours. I don't know that it stays updated. More importantly, I don't know that it is used as a research tool. Either it should be, or it isn't worth the effort.

So long as searches are second to questions, this is a hard request to meet and justify the efforts, IMHO.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that most compliance people I know have more work than they can handle and turnover is higher than it should be. We have a constant influx of new people learning the same basics over and over - including learning how to research their own questions. To a beginner the simplest question can take long periods of time to research. A year ago I would ask first. Now I know enough to know where to begin looking and can usually find my own answers, but I often feel like I need reassurance that my answer is correct. Confidence builds slowly, but I hope a year from now I can answer more questions than I ask - without stopping to research and confirm what I think I know. This kind of ties in with teaching users to fish rather than feeding them. We all started somewhere and we have to find a delicate balance between giving out the easy answers and teaching people where to look for the answers. I've been on the learning end all too recently and there's still way too much I don't know.

Don't know if it will help but here's what I do.

I have a 3-ring binder (old school, I know) with tabs for all the regs. When a really pertinent thread or "top story" comes up on BOL I print it (I know, I know) and put it in the binder. I also keep stuff from FDIC, OCC, etc. So far I am able to keep all the lettered regs in just one binder, with BSA, OFAC, and GLBA in another.

When I started reading this site I printed about half the threads I read. Now I'm more discriminating, but I still have files full of threads.

In reply to:

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teaching users to fish rather than feeding them

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What a great and right on quote! Andy just pointed out a URL with categories of threads that will be helpful that I did not know about. As luck would have it, the gurus on this site are willing to feed posters, versus encouraging them to look around this site. Some, primarily anonymous, have trouble even putting together a sentence or two that makes sense, so the gurus have to drag the elements out of them like pulling teeth.

You sound like you think about what you are posting and then post. If I had Andy’s expertise, I would get set up somehow to charge a dollar or two covering each question/answer. As a good goal in life is to find some way of getting a dollar or two from everybody - something like Bill Gates is doing.

Reducing threads to paper is an interesting concept in that why would you not copy threads to a searchable file on your PC? Paper = trees, and it's hard to search through paper.

As for me, I'm constantly overwhelmed by paper on a daily basis. I’ve created files in the past that I’m forgotten about, but that probably something to do with age. I do think of myself and other compliance/audit/operations types are quick studies, so find an online source of information is a beautiful thing. If I could get rid of all of the paper, I would be a very happy camper.

I copy the threads I need to retain and put them into WORD. I have folders that head up each major reg, like RESPA, TILA, ECOA, Section 326, etc. and just paste the comments under the applicable reg. This makes it so easy to find and does not require a lot of paper and notebooks.

The great thing about this form is that it is free! (Not much is!) I appreciate the fact that Andy and others with experience in the field are willing to answer and help others and not charge for their services. All to often the fear of "cost" makes people not able to get the right answer and can lead to costly mistakes. This free form is an opportunity for everyone to share their experience and knowledge. I think that many of the posters are not necessarily compliance professionals or are people who work for banks that do not have a full time compliance person that can research these questions. As mentioned above it might also be a time issue! Many times I have barely finished typing a question and I have a reply or two.

I don't know many answers and many times I do not have the time to search and get people the right answers but if I know the answer from experience or if I know I can find it quickly I will be more than happy to help someone out and hopefully sometime they will help me too!

and then there are some of us too new to the field to know where to start looking.