The New v8 Sub-Forums

[RuralWeb]

turned of the new posts facility for today and tomorrow then respond back I think you will see my point

I agree with you chris - I use nothing else but the new post. If there are no questions I want to answer then they get dropped the next time I look.

2 days is nothing to wait for an answer if you are getting it for free - if people want something quicker then they should have a support contract or call a designer IMO

[pinbrook]

Agreed mike but two days is a long time for some questions

if you require an immediate response you have the option to pay for it ie actinic cover or your designer - if its that critical you'll have no problem coughing up the dosh

if you want it free - you must wait

this attitude is the crux of the recent discussions - ie people EXPECTING free and urgent responses from volunteers

[RuralWeb]

people EXPECTING free and urgent responses from volunteers

Exactly the reason I dont post as much as I used to - certain people were taking the p*** IMO

[chris ashdown]

if you require an immediate response you have the option to pay for it ie actinic cover or your designer - if its that critical you'll have no problem coughing up the dosh

if you want it free - you must wait

this attitude is the crux of the recent discussions - ie people EXPECTING free and urgent responses from volunteers

This is the type of bullshit that we need to remove from the forum, If you feel you have nothing to contribute then don't bother to answer the questions, if someone talks to the forum they used to get assistance from a large selection of people who probably new Actinic better than the official support teams. Why do you assume that they are not cover customers who are looking at both options

Two years ago all was frendly on the forum then a minority who could not be bothered to answer the question started the "Search the Forum" as an answer. simply put why did they bother to reply with such a stupid response, why not give them the answer and remind them they could have found the results buy searching the forum or simply left it to someone who felt they had the time to respond properly

We all agree that the search facility is the least effective part of the forum and hopefully it will change soon

[pinbrook]

My point is simply you can not demand instant answers from this forum.

Volunteers choose which posts to reply to, if something goes unanswered it gets picked up by Bruce or ChrisD - sometimes after a few days.

By re-organising the forums we hope it will be easier to find answers - the vbullettin search feature is not going to improve perse,

By replying to question by saying search the community leads to several things

1 less forum bloat with duplicate questions
2 next time that person might search before asking
3 resultant searches do not constantly bring up posts where the person is asked to search - mods need to delete these posts.

You can't compare to 2 years ago as things have move on dramiatically since v8- which is really to blame for the dramatic increase in visitors to the community

[AndrewPK]

why not give them the answer and remind them they could have found the results buy searching the forum or simply left it to someone who felt they had the time to respond properly

We all agree that the search facility is the least effective part of the forum and hopefully it will change soon

If you do that, where is the incentive for them to use the search, any new user is going to look at that and think "well I could search but feckit if i post someone will answer anyway!"
Its these repeated posts on the same question over and over again that is causing such a problem with the search function,

If you give the user no incentive to search (by answering the question anyway, only tagging on 'you should have searched btw' as a afterthought) you will never get anywhere!

[chris ashdown]

Its these repeated posts on the same question over and over again that is causing such a problem with the search function,

This shows the failure of actinic to write full and clear help on these subjects in the help pages of the software where most people go as first choice

Pre-hapse if the agreved members listed the items that are poorly represented in the help pages of the software it may get actinic to pull their finger out (please dont open a new sub forum use the wish list)

You dont need to change the forum to solve this problem as the help files are ment to list all known major functions and if this was solved then the problems of the forum disapear

as to demand a answer, why do you respond to this type of question if you dont like there attitude, live life ignore the ignorant bastards

I have said my 2p worth, guess you know how i feel

[RuralWeb]

minority who could not be bothered to answer the question started the "Search the Forum" as an answer. simply put why did they bother to reply with such a stupid response

I include me in that "minority" and IMO its not a stupid responce - if I knew something is in the forum its letting the poster know that its there and if they look they should find it. If the post remains unaswered then you get the BUMP and the 2 day delay for Actinic to answer.

If you have the time to sit and search for lazy posters then feel free Chris - I dont have the time and I dont post anymore if I know the answer is in the forum. By posting the answer time and time again people will never search as they know Chris is there to do it for them.

[chris ashdown]

Read my reply Malcolm

If a problem keeps comming up on the forum then the reason is crap actinic help files on the software

Most especially new users will either first look at the manual, then the help files to solve their problems after that they will explore the forum

If you get the help files right you solve the problem

with your great knowledge of the forum you know what phrases to use to find most things ( many well hidden (help newby etc)) a search often means you have to open many links to find what you need or die in frustration

[pinbrook]

a search often means you have to open many links to find what you need or die in frustration

otherwise known as a learning curve

[RuralWeb]

Read my reply Malcolm

I did and I was replying to the bit about the stupid posts by a minority ie me.

As for the help info produced by actinic - The getting started guide is pants but the inbuilt help is good and the KB/AUG is getting better all the time so the is IMO enough help out there. The problem is people dont read it - I have lost count of the number of times I have posted:

its on p 34 of the getting started guide, its in the AUG, its in the KB etc etc etc - the problem is and always will be people dont read the manual or dig about for an answer before posting. As previously stated V8 has produced (as I predicted) a huge increase in posts due to the design panel and playing with things that were hidden in V7. No there is nothing wrong with that BUT people need to understand that they are taking things to the next level and that thier IT skills may not be up to it.

IMO V8 does exactly what it was designed to do ie its a cheap shop in a box with a custom design capability that does need a little html knowledge to use - if people caccept that then there is no problem. Trying to reorganise the forum to cater for every possible question is a tricky thing to do. Google has no structure and yet produces reasonable results so over structuring will not IMO help - things I used to be able to do in the forum I can no longer seem to do so its not helping me.