[wp-hackers] Advice on providing plugin support

Fri Jul 15 17:31:49 UTC 2011

Why not have a bbpress forum on your site and direct all faqs and support requests there?

Sent from my iPhone

On 15 Jul 2011, at 18:21, Travis Northcutt <travis at travisnorthcutt.com> wrote:

> Do you think most (many?) people who visit the support forum for a
> particular plugin know that?
> --
> Travis Northcutt
> 
> 
> On Fri, Jul 15, 2011 at 10:29 AM, Chip Bennett <chip at chipbennett.net> wrote:
> 
>> Google site: searches work. e.g. here's a search for NextGen in the Media
>> Tags forum<
>> http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&newwindow=1&safe=active&source=hp&q=nextgen+site:wordpress.org%2Ftags%2Fmedia-tags&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=db6309889c429145&biw=1024&bih=647
>>> 
>> .
>> 
>> Chip
>> 
>> On Fri, Jul 15, 2011 at 10:04 AM, Paul <paul at codehooligans.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> Chip,
>>> 
>>> Yes yes, I'm aware of the wp.org support forums. All my public plugins
>> are
>>> hosted at wordpress.org. But all that does is give the user a listing of
>>> topics related to that plugin. There is still no way to allow the user to
>>> run a secondary search for a topic within that plugin listing. Only the
>>> title/subject is display.
>>> 
>>> For example one of my plugin, Media-Tags, have the forum listing
>>> http://wordpress.org/tags/media-tags?forum_id=10 I know of at least 3
>>> different topics related to using my plugin with the eShop plugin. But
>> how
>>> can a user looking for support of the plugin related specifically to
>> eShop
>>> filter the listing? The global search in the top right of the page is for
>>> all of wordpress.org.
>>> 
>>> P-
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Jul 15, 2011, at 10:24 AM, Chip Bennett wrote:
>>> 
>>>> The WPORG support forums are a great solution, especially if the Plugin
>>> is
>>>> hosted by WPORG. Each hosted Plugin (and Theme, for that matter) has
>> its
>>> own
>>>> dedicated forum, with its own RSS feed, which makes monitoring quite
>>>> simple.
>>>> 
>>>> Also, if you can direct users to submit their support queries directly
>> to
>>>> the Plugin's dedicated forum, the topic will be auto-tagged, and the
>>> subject
>>>> auto-appended, with the Plugin slug and name, respectively, which makes
>>>> searching considerably easier.
>>>> 
>>>> FYI: to find your Plugin's dedicated forum, go to the Plugin's Extend
>>>> listing page, and look in the lower right-hand corner for the "Write a
>>> new
>>>> topic" link. If the forum already has topics posted, you will see them
>>>> listed under "See what others are saying".
>>>> 
>>>> Chip
>>>> 
>>>> On Fri, Jul 15, 2011 at 9:07 AM, Paul <paul at codehooligans.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> Callum,
>>>>> 
>>>>> Yeah, I'm in the same situation with my plugins. I host respective
>> pages
>>>>> for each plugin where people can post questions. And I monitor the
>>>>> wordpress.org forums for items posted related to the plugin. For each
>>>>> release I update the page content with notes on new features and new
>>>>> functionality. But you know what? I found people/users really don't
>> like
>>> to
>>>>> read. When a user comes to my site it is generally because they are
>>> stuck
>>>>> and possibly under a deadline. So they are scanning for answers.
>>>>> 
>>>>> I thought about doing away with the comments and force users to post
>> to
>>>>> wordpress.org forums. At least that way the information is housed
>>> within a
>>>>> single system. But as you mentioned it is harder to search. Another
>>> thought
>>>>> for my own site was to hack the comment form so that I can provide a
>>>>> dropdown where the user can select the version of the plugin. Then
>> users
>>>>> would be able to filter the comments for things related to a specific
>>>>> version of the plugin. But my worry with this approach is the user
>>>>> submitting the comment will not bother to properly set the version. If
>>> you
>>>>> are like me you may get plenty of comments from users like 'I
>> installed
>>> you
>>>>> plugin and not my site is broken. Help!!!' no other information is
>>> provided
>>>>> about which WP version, theme, other plugins, etc.
>>>>> 
>>>>> I know there are some paid services out there how will help manage
>>> comments
>>>>> and provide some hand-holding. I've not investigated this because I
>>> don't
>>>>> make any real money off my plugins. So can't see adding out of pocket
>>>>> expenses to provide support. When I have time I triage the comments.
>>> When I
>>>>> have tons or client work I let then sit. Sometimes other users provide
>>>>> how-to replies that seem to solve the original commenters questions.
>>>>> 
>>>>> I'd be interested in seeing other's comments.
>>>>> 
>>>>> P-
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> On Jul 15, 2011, at 9:44 AM, Callum Macdonald wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>> Holamigos,
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I provide support for a plugin I wrote. Currently I funnel the
>> support
>>>>>> requests into a WordPress post on my blog, and ask people to post
>>>>>> comments with their requests.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I'm now up to about 1000 comments between a few posts. It works ok,
>> but
>>>>>> there's no way to search the archive. So, I get the same questions
>> over
>>>>>> and over. I'm working on expanding the FAQ, but people seem to miss
>> it.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I also follow posts on the WordPress.org forum which are tagged with
>>> the
>>>>>> plugin. However, this suffers from the same problem, there's no way
>> to
>>>>>> search the history.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Ideally, I'd like to force users to search before posting a new
>>>>>> question. When they type their question, I'd like that to be used to
>>>>>> auto search the history, and hopefully, present useful answers before
>>>>>> they submit. A little like GetSatisfaction for example.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Are you a plugin author? How do you provide support? Do you have any
>>>>>> recommendations? Does GetSatisfaction or another tool work for you?
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Thank you in advance for any advice offered.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Love & joy - Callum.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> ==
>>>>>> Callum Macdonald
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> UK mobile: +44 7968 378 810
>>>>>> Desk: +44 845 126 0875
>>>>>> www.callum-macdonald.com
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
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