[wp-forums] Finding Codex Articles and Help

[Michael B]

But my question to this is, is the primary goal to funnel people to
the codex, or is it to help them solve their problem?  I'm finding all
too often, someone asks a fairly specific question, one or several
members chime in, and then along comes, IMVHO, a generic link to the
codex.  Sometimes even after one link to the codex has been offered up
in the thread.  If the real goal is to funnel questions to the codex,
then perhaps my efforts would be better served working on the codex,
rather than working one on one with forum members.
Don't get me wrong, I fully understand it's purpose and use the codex,
however, there isn't always (yet)a definitive page in the codex for
specific questions.  And I will say it took me a little while to get
comfortable with the interface there, and understand the format.
So I guess I'd like some more feedback from those that have been doing
this longer as to the real "goal" of the forums.


On 7/1/05, lorelle at cameraontheroad.com <lorelle at cameraontheroad.com> wrote:
> There is a page on the Codex that lists the most "popular", most visited
> pages on the Codex.  It may help you to determine which articles are the
> most in demand.  This is not a page to point a user to, it is just as a
> reference for you to use to find the most commonly sought Codex articles
> and issues.
> 
> http://codex.wordpress.org/Special:Popularpages
> 
> On my website I also posted the "list" of the links to Codex and
> WordPress related sites that come up the most on the forum.  You are
> welcome to use that list at http://www.cameraontheroad.com/?p=600 to
> start to build your own resource list. There is also a list to technical
> articles about WordPress and WordPress references outside of the Codex
> at http://codex.wordpress.org/Technical_Articles.
> 
> As has been said before, there is nothing wrong with posting a link to
> an article on the Codex that will help the person. Describe what the
> article will help with, and give specific help if you can, but if the
> article will "hold their hand"...let them have it. ;-)  More
> importantly, with the focus on "Search First", six months or two years
> from now people will search and find these links to Codex articles as
> well as the help in the thread and be thrilled to have found the answer
> they need. We're building a huge resource here.
> 
> We also have articles that are specifically targetted towards new
> beginners, the ones that title their posts with HEEEEEELLPPPP and
> ARGGGHHHH. These are now categorized under this link:
> http://codex.wordpress.org/Getting_Started_with_WordPress#WordPress_for_Beginners
> 
> For those who are new to helping, you can use HTML in the forum posts
> for links like the last one, tuck them into link tags like this:
> 
> <a
> href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Getting_Started_with_WordPress#WordPress_for_Beginners">WordPress
> For Beginners</a>
> 
> Again, if you find any topics worth of inclusion in the Codex, list them
> here:
> http://codex.wordpress.org/Codex:Tasks#Forum_Posts_to_Articles
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Lorelle
> 
> 
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Michael B aka miklb