Comments on: Forum ponderings

By: craig

craig — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 16:37:10 +0000

Root,
Thanks…I needed that! :D

By: Cyndy

Cyndy — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 15:57:33 +0000

I think one of the biggest problems with the forums really is that it’s outgrown itself. With so many people posting with various problems (whether new or old), the traffic that the forums get really tends to overwhelm a lot of people. I think it’s very intimidating for a newcomer, especially with the limited search that the forum itself provides – and I don’t think it’s clear that a Google search can be used. (Though frankly I haven’t had many great results from a Google search…)

Honestly, and I’ve said this before I think the Latest Posts needs to be ditched. I think far, far too many people rely on the front page and never crawl through the actual categories because why bother when right there are 30 posts. I think a better way would be something similar to vBulletin’s new posts since last visit search – something that forces people to actually READ rather then hop right into what’s there without even using a brain cell.

And after re-reading Craig’s post – one thing I’ll say about the new Sticky posts…they don’t really “stick out” to me. I’m sure it’s a vision thing…but to me if you’re going to stick a post that is important at the top of a forum, it should jump out at you (and slightly bigger and bolder text doesn’t say that to me, especially when it’s basically the same as a post without replies).

Wow…this got wordy, sorry….

By: Root

Root — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 08:32:23 +0000

Have fun NM? You are not meant to have fun. We need you back on the trail, huffing and puffing, kicking butt, and keeping the thing on the rails. Get a grip:)

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 07:56:30 +0000

Craig – I want you back too dammit !

Stuart – It illustrates me.

Matt – tags ….. interesting…. shall play !

By: Matt

Matt — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 06:18:04 +0000

Craig, I’d actually somehow missed that post, I’ll read it carefully now.

By: Matt

Matt — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 06:17:13 +0000

Anyone up for some tagging? First steps here:

http://wordpress.org/support/topic/31778
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/31779

This will improve search, browsability, the front page, flagging things for developers and the Codex, and much more I’ll talk about later. About to fall over, more on this in the morning. If you don’t know any other way to help the community, tagging topics is a great way to start. :)

By: craig

craig — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 05:58:54 +0000

What about all the suggestions people sent me? Here's a link to my post. I want to not care about all this, but I can't. I want to forget all about the forums and Codex and themes but I can't. I want to feel like I have something to contribute, but I don't feel that way. I want to have fun again. :\

By: Matt

Matt — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 04:13:34 +0000

Root, I’ve actually been playing around with an idea where the mailing lists are completely eliminated and everyone just blogs the conversations back and forth. It would need a much better way to show threads across blogs, but I think it’s something we could do within a year or so.

By: Gordon

Gordon — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 00:40:45 +0000

I can relate, partly, to this as I’m a forum admin for HaloScan. The most common annoyance I have is answering the same questions over and over and over.

I think having a split of forums would be an idea, but you need to remember that, no matter how much information you provide (manual, wiki, homepage, whatever) when people have a problem they will hit the forum, then post first and question later. It’s the same in real life. You have a problem with something at work? Most times you’ll ask a co-worker when you KNOW the info is available. Forums work on the same basis.

So make it as easy as possible for the administrators, provide common links to the Wiki or a manual, and keep a pinned “posting guidelines” topic up top. Half of the work in a forum is educating people about helping themselves, not answering their question per se.

By: Root

Root — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 20:42:07 +0000

This might seem a bgo but WP does not have a home. It has a forum. Every time there is a spat in the forum for example the mods say its OT. Which it is. But where is WordPress discussed ? In a blogging format? Its not.
There is irc I know. There are hackers lists I know. But if I want to shout my 2 cents where do I go? And Matt consciously or not has meticulously kept all discussion about WP firmly out of the blogoshere. There is no dialogue. Now that maybe a good thing. It is certainly his call. No problem there. But I know that there are loads of guys champing at the bit to do stuff. NM and Mark to name but two. Now if this was a company (God forbid) there are certain types of activity that you would now expect to see going on. And that activity can not be carried out by one guy no matter how clever he is.