[wp-forums] search

[Phu]

> "I'm personally not willing to search FOR people even though search on wp
sucks rocks through a straw...."Hey, sorry I don't know the answer.""
If I received that, I'd be annoyed. If you don't know the answer or can't
point me directly to a place that does, why are you responding. You've just
wasted my time and yours. Telling people to search for "term_x term_y"
without checking if that leads to the answer only leads to frustration.

On 12/24/05, Vicki Frei <vkaryl at allvantage.com> wrote:
>
> So you want either no response - totally ignoring a first-time-poster
> perhaps,
> or a totally individualized one with us doing a search FOR the poster or
> some such?
>
> No response causes stuff like Razorhide in this thread:
> http://wordpress.org/support/topic/52630 - where he states he'd tried 3
> times
> (which means he'd started 3 "same-sort" threads).... and he was QUITE
> irritated.
>   I'm aware that a non-helpful response removes the thread from the
> "appropriate" listing.  However, new posters don't know that AT ALL, and
> they
> feel ignored and abandoned.  Do you have a "happy medium" for this
> conundrum?
>
> I'm personally not willing to search FOR people even though search on wp
> sucks
> rocks through a straw.  In fact, it's not even cool that I personally have
> to
> use google to find the answers to some questions that I just can't
> remember
> offhand.  Sad fact of life:  wp is increasingly complex, and I lose track
> of the
> proper answers to things over time.  It's going to get worse with the
> release of
> 2.0.
>
> I don't find "generic" responses a problem otherwhere.  I'm always pleased
> when
> someone says, "Hey, sorry I don't know the answer.  Hang on, someone else
> (sometimes a name, sometimes not) will be along (different time zone or
> whatever
> reason not there at that point) to help you a bit further."  I've not once
> had
> that sort of generic response either put me off, piss me off, or not
> result in
> information later.
>
> V
>
> On 12/23/2005 5:10:33 PM, Phu (wordswithstyle at gmail.com) wrote:
> > > "Well, I'd prefer almost any response to being ignored...."
> > The reason a non-helpful response is worse than no reply is that it
> > removes it from the no-replies list; people (including myself) also tend
> to
> > scan for posts with no response so it makes it less likely to receive a
> > meaningful response.
> >
> > >"we probably should come up with a "generic" reply of some sort"
> > Once again,
> > I'm against generic responses. This will only end up hurting the
> volunteer, "anyone will help" feel of the forums. We're
> > not a faceless company support group; why emulate one?
> >
> > On 12/24/05, Vicki Frei <vkaryl at allvantage.com [link:
> > mailto:vkaryl at allvantage.com]> wrote: Well,
> > I'd prefer almost any response to being ignored.... but yes, we probably
> > should come up with a "generic" reply of some sort - and of course,
> those who
> > spend seemingly 3/4 of their time on the forum posting nothing but links
> to
> > search results should probably be asked to "refrain, restrain,
> retrain"....
> >
> > V
> >
> > On 12/23/2005 5:00:09 PM, Phu (wordswithstyle at gmail.com [link: mailto:
> wordswithstyle at gmail.com]) wrote:
> > > >
> > > "I agree - which is why I _hate_ people being told to search or just
> being given links that are searching."
> > > On that
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--
Phu | http://ifelse.co.uk
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