[wp-forums] Long Time Lurker, Few Observations

[Chip Bennett]

Oh, neat! :/

I assume Otto is aware?

Chip

On Thu, Sep 1, 2011 at 4:57 PM, Andrea Rennick <andrea at ronandandrea.com>wrote:

> "Following the support link provided in the
> Plugin's (note: or Theme's) Extend listing page ensures that the subject is
> pre-pended, and the topic is tagged, with the Plugin's name."
>
> This is currently broken. :)
>
> Go try one and see.
>
> A.
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 1, 2011 at 6:45 PM, Chip Bennett <chip at chipbennett.net> wrote:
>
> > On Thu, Sep 1, 2011 at 4:33 PM, Jackson Whelan <jw at jacksonwhelan.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Howdy,
> > >
> > > I've actively been trying to help in the forums whenever possible.
> > Nothing
> > > makes me sadder than an unhappy WordPress user.
> > >
> > > Kudos to all who have been doing this all along. It's a great way to
> > teach
> > > yourself to be patient with people.
> > >
> > > My few observations;
> > >
> > > - Code often gets scrubbed from the forum post after the fact, and the
> OP
> > > is unaware. If there was some way of alerting users to this so that
> they
> > > could use pastebin like they should, it would certainly help resolve
> > things
> > > for them faster.
> > >
> >
> > While I would like to see a *bit* more leeway here (the "about 10 lines
> of
> > code" sometimes gets taken WAY too literally), there's not really much we
> > can do. Just about the only viable option would be to have the moderator
> > *move* the code to a pastebin - but that is asking entirely too much of
> the
> > mods.
> >
> > Perhaps a follow-up reply to indicate the code-moderation would be in
> > order?
> > That way, at least the people involved in the thread would get email
> > notification.
> >
> > >
> > > - Posts about specific plugins are often missing the [Plugin: Plugin
> > Name]
> > > from the title of the post, despite being tagged correctly. So you end
> up
> > > with generic post titles like 'Not Working', which upon closer
> inspection
> > is
> > > about a specific plugin I know nothing about. Perhaps this is user
> error
> > but
> > > it seems inconsistent.
> > >
> >
> > There's a very specific reason for this (and it pertains to your next
> > point): the way that the Topic subject gets pre-pended with [Plugin:
> Plugin
> > Name] is by posting the topic through the Plugin's specific support
> forum,
> > rather than in the general forum. Following the support link provided in
> > the
> > Plugin's (note: or Theme's) Extend listing page ensures that the subject
> is
> > pre-pended, and the topic is tagged, with the Plugin's name.
> >
> > If a post is tagged, but doesn't have a pre-pended subject, that's
> because
> > someone has tagged the post after the fact.
> >
> > >
> > > - People don't read instructions. This document is well written -
> > > http://codex.wordpress.org/**Forum_Welcome<
> > http://codex.wordpress.org/Forum_Welcome>- but I'd be willing to bet
> that
> > maybe 2 out of 10 new visitors to the forum
> > > actually read it. I think more painfully obvious instructions on the
> new
> > > topic form would help. Something to the effect of 'Help us help you.
> Make
> > > sure to read the Forum Welcome before posting. State your problem
> clearly
> > > and the steps to replicate it (ie: "It doesn't work" will not cut it).
> > > Include a link to your site. Use wordpress.pastebin.com to share
> code.'
> > > You get the idea...
> > >
> >
> > At the very least, the sticky posts should be made a LOT more prominent -
> > as
> > in, obnoxiously prominent. (And perhaps, culled from time to time.)
> >
> > ...and if I can have another $0.02: thanks again to all the mods; you all
> > do
> > amazing work!
> >
> > Chip
> > _______________________________________________
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> > http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-forums
> >
>
>
>
> --
> --
> Andrea Rennick, http://wpebooks.com and http://ronandandrea.com
> Co-author of WordPress All-In-One For Dummies http://rml.me/aio
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