[wp-forums] 'Common Sense' Mod Rules when reviewing forum post that says 'me too'

Mon Jan 20 17:55:21 UTC 2014

Chip, yes that would be a great thing to have. I would agree.  I do think that there are genuine cases where the group can collaborate on an issue that is shared.  For example, I have a multi-site implementation and have had great success in joining in with an IDENTICAL post which had the EXACT issue that they were having difficulty in troubleshooting.  But with me also being involved, we were able to try things together.
I agree that there is a fine line though and if someone jumps in on a post with a different scenerio that, that person should be politely asked to raise a new support ticket.  But perhaps that decision should be left to the Author rather than the Mods.
But having something that allows us to say that is also affecting us (or even having a child relationship etc) would be great.   With that functionality also triggering the ability to be notified via email of updates.
5 minutes after mailing you guys, the moderator concerned in my instance (or someone here) has gone through and removed all of the un-needed responses that were added, so thanks to who-ever that was.
Maybe the forum rules can be tweaked a tiny bit to make them not so literal.  

> Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 12:42:44 -0500
> From: chip at chipbennett.net
> To: wp-forums at lists.automattic.com
> Subject: Re: [wp-forums] 'Common Sense' Mod Rules when reviewing forum post that says 'me too'
> 
> Would it be possible to add a "This Issue Affects Me Too" field for support
> topics? (Checkbox, Star, etc.)
> 
> As a matter of prioritization, such a field works well for bug-tracking
> systems (The *buntus, other Linux-related projects, Minecraft, etc.), and
> would provide a way for core/Plugin/Theme developers to gauge impact of a
> reported support issue, while not cluttering the topic with "me too"
> responses.
> 
> 
> On Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 12:37 PM, Mike Turner <miketurnermk at hotmail.com>wrote:
> 
> > So I use the forums quite a lot for plugin support and if I have an issue
> > the first thing I will always do is do a quick search through existing
> > posts to make sure it hasn't been raised before.
> > If I find an issue that has been raised already and is in the process of
> > being investigating then I see no issue with just adding a simple 'Me Too'
> > message to the post, for 3 reasons:
> > 1.  To Let the person who submitted the issue know that they aren't
> > alone.2.  To help prioritize the issue log for the author so they know what
> > are / aren't important.3.  So I can get email notifications of
> > To me, if I just raise another post with the exact same error report then
> > I would consider this as a duplicate (Most forums work this way right?)
> > So here is my experience today - see
> > http://wordpress.org/support/topic/please-update-oauth?replies=8#post-5132511
> > Now I will rarely argue with a moderator, but in this case, for me it just
> > felt like she was taking the 'Forum Guide' a little bit too literal and not
> > applying some common sense.  The issue itself was basically that the
> > install guide for a plugin was completely out of date since Google had
> > changed its API (OAUTH) functionality so no-one could use the plugin.  Now
> > someone had already posted the issue, so I just added 'Me Too' in order to
> > be notified by email if the author makes a reply.  Yes I know I could have
> > subscribed to an RSS feed instead, but frankly I don't use RSS and if I was
> > to check every support feed that I want to read about through RSS I'd be
> > checking it almost constantly at the moment, rather than waiting for an
> > update.
> > Surely by making everyone that found this issue report it seperately, it
> > would be a complete waste of time, and results in duplication!
> > Just in case my comments have already been moderated on the post the
> > conversation is below.
> > Does any one agree? - It would also be great if their was the ability to
> > 'Follow this post' so you could be notified of any updates (without then
> > needing to post)
> > 1.    theig072Posted 1 week ago #
> > The instructions for a new install of version 1.4.58 are outdated because
> > Google has deprecated OAuth 1.0. Does anyone know how to register a domain
> > and get it working properly? Also Google seems to only allow https://URLs when setting up the callbacks. Any way around that?
> > 2.    ravenoakMemberPosted 5 days ago #
> > Same problem here as well. :/
> > 3. northantsphotos   <<< THIS IS MEMemberPosted 5 hours ago #
> > Me too :(
> > 4.Esmi Theme Diva & Forum ModeratorPosted 4 hours ago #
> > @northantsphotos: If you require assistance then, as per the Forum
> > Welcome, please post your own topic   << HUH?
> > 5. northantsphotosMemberPosted 3 hours ago #
> > Seems a bit silly to me @Esmi since most forums will advise you to look up
> > existing issues so you're not raising duplicate posts. The only reason I
> > posted is that I wanted to be notified of updates to the article which you
> > can only do by adding your own comment on.
> > But as you wish, I've created a new topic with the exact same description
> > just so that I can get assistance.
> > @ravenoak, I guess the same will apply to you also.
> > 6. esmiTheme Diva & Forum ModeratorPosted 2 hours ago
> >
> > "most forums will advise you to look up existing issues so you're not
> > raising duplicate posts"
> > As you will see from the link I posted above, that's not how these forums
> > work.
> > "I wanted to be notified of updates to the article"
> > You can just subscribe to the topic's RSS feed - the link is at the top
> > right of each topic.
> > HTH
> > 7.northantsphotosMemberPosted 1 hour ago
> > It's just symantecs in my opinion, I had the exact same problem and wasn't
> > even looking for seperate help but to add to the post that it wasn't just
> > affecting 1 person, in order to help both the original poster know they
> > weren't alone as well as to help prioritize the issue for the author so
> > that they know its an important issue.
> > I've been using forums for over a year now and have seen exactly what I
> > did time and time again in posts and never seen a mod try to step in.
> > In my view I was helping out by letting people know its a wider issue
> > "Helping OutIf you are here to help others, you can view a quick list of
> > unanswered topics by using the "No Replies" link at the bottom of the front
> > page. The "No Replies" filter is often used by folk to find questions to
> > answer next. This is also a good reason why you shouldn't bump your topics.
> > Bumping is discouraged and bumps may be deleted by the moderators."
> > I'll feed back to the WordPress Complaints address about this.
> > p.s. I don't use an RSS reader so whilst I "could" subscribe to an rss
> > feed, its much more useful to me to be notified by email. (Otherwise I'd be
> > constantly checking a lot of RSS feeds constantly)
> > 8. esmiTheme Diva & Forum ModeratorPosted 1 hour ago #
> > Posting your own topic is smiled upon. Unless you are using the same
> > version of WordPress on the same physical server hosted by the same hosts
> > with the same plugins, theme & configurations as the original poster, do
> > not post in someone else's thread. Start your own topic.
> > http://codex.wordpress.org/Forum_Welcome#Where_To_Post
> > 9. northantsphotosMemberPosted 0 seconds ago #
> > It also says:
> > "Duplicate postings will be closed or might be deleted".
> > Maybe that should be a bit clearer that it means Duplicate Posting of your
> > own posts in the forum, rather than duplicating the same issue that someone
> > else has reported.
> > Either way, as I said above, I was trying to 'Help Out'
> > "Helping OutIf you are here to help others, you can view a quick list of
> > unanswered topics by using the "No Replies" link at the bottom of the front
> > page. The "No Replies" filter is often used by folk to find questions to
> > answer next. This is also a good reason why you shouldn't bump your topics.
> > Bumping is discouraged and bumps may be deleted by the moderators."
> > Moderators need to simply apply some common sense. Funny how you also
> > picked on me only when 5 days ago someone else had done exactly the same
> > but no mention of that here. One rule for 1 and then another for someone
> > else I guess.
> > _______________________________________________
> > wp-forums mailing list
> > wp-forums at lists.automattic.com
> > http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-forums
> >
> _______________________________________________
> wp-forums mailing list
> wp-forums at lists.automattic.com
> http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-forums