[wp-forums] Forum makeover

[Matt Mullenweg]

skippy wrote:
> Personally, I find it alarming that the project leader finds the primary
> support mechanism for his project "pretty much useless".  I'm tired and
> grouchy, with two kids with strep throat (and my own infection looming),
> so I'm trying hard not to take umbrage at the implication that our
> efforts in this useless forum are also useless.

To clarify, the support forums are invaluable, not at all useless. 
However I think the "forum method of organizing posts in the forums" 
could be done better and could be more inviting to people who don't have 
time or want to learn the vagaries of our system. I'm sorry "our forums" 
got mixed up with "forum categorization" in my sentence.

> Do I read "I'd like for there ot be no forums at all" to mean that you
> want the primary support mechanism to be something other than a bulletin
> board?  Or do you want the arbitrary hierarchy of our current forum
> topics to be completely replaced with free-form tags?

The latter, to an extent. Our current structure is *completely* 
arbitrary, I know because I made it up. It's pretty much the same it was 
2 years ago. I would prefer something community driven.

>  If the floor is open for "pie in the sky" suggestions, I think that
> composing a post requesting help should be a guided process, with form
> elements to help define the problem:
> * Have you installed WordPress?  Yes/No
> If they select "No", a new prompt is available:
> * Do you have a hosting provider? Yes/No
> etc etc etc.
> 
> It need not be terribly thorough, but with a few simple prompts we can
> at least ensure that most items get placed in the appropriate category
> (or have the appropriate tags applied, if you insist on going this route).

I like that idea a lot.

-- 
Matt Mullenweg
  http://photomatt.net | http://wordpress.org
http://pingomatic.com | http://akismet.com