[wp-forums] State of play

[Scott Merrill]

Podz wrote:
> I'll be very honest here - I am dreading the release of 1.6 (or whatever
> it's called). WordPress gets even more coverage, WordPress gets more
> widely covered - yet the single resource to support it stays the same.

I agree that the release of th enext version of WordPress will be an 
issue for the support system.  Folks will dive in without reading any 
instructions, then demand help without reading any FAQs.  Not everyone, 
mind you -- in fact, I suspect that many (most?) will read up, and 
prepare accordingly, and that we'll never hear from them.

The traffic in the support forums is largely the minority of people: 
those who have problems.  I've installed WordPress for several friends, 
and it "just works" for them, and they have no occasion to post to the 
forums.  How many thousands of others are out there, blissfully using 
WordPress without problem?  We'll never know.

One thing that will help the transition to the next version will be 
release notes bundled with the download.  These notes must include a 
list of things that are different between the last version and this. 
Almost every other software package I download includes such notes -- 
often in the form of a changelog; but many products take the extra step 
to ensure that "issues" are identified so that the user can prepare 
accordingly.

It'll be boring work, but I will commit to helping write such a document 
for inclusion with the download.  I know that many people will simply 
skip right past this, but I also know that some people will read it and 
never need to ask support because their question is answered before they 
need to ask it.

As for your revised FAQ, Podz, I think it's great!  Don't expect that to 
clear up all the problems with the forums, though.  If it helps a 
hundred people, then I think it's worthwhile, but there will always be a 
hundred more who jump right into asking for help -- it's the same with 
every software project.

-- 
skippy at skippy.net | http://skippy.net/

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