Sticky threads, FAQs, etc.
John R.
Posts: 1,376
A recent thread discussing a request for a "Wireless" forum brough up a couple thoughts I thought I would brandish about. These are thoughts that have lots of holes, and by no means concrete enough to foster any action, but might (or might not) generate some discussion.
First, while sticky threads are great, if you look at the Propeller forum, where there are 10 stickies, you end up "loosing" half your first screen or more to stickies. Worse, they stay there when you scroll to the second (and subsequent) pages. Now in mind, if you are going to page two, you obviously don't need to see the stickies. Possibly there could be a way to "collapse" them?
The stickies are great threads, and deserve to be stickies. I'm not arguing that. I'm just saying that they can become instrusive.
There are also a number of topics (e.g. wireless, digital vs. analog servos, how do I connect XXX, etc.) that seem to keep coming up, and in some cases, garner little or no attention because the topic has been discussed to death. In worse case, a new user gets told "use the @$^& search page, it's been answered before!" (nice welcome). Often times there will be a link to one or more past discussions.
Perhaps a common solution to both the every growing list of Stickies, and less important, but frequent questions, could be some type of FAQ page or pages. This could be (I am wincing as I type this) a separate forum with all the sticky and FAQ pages, or a Sticky on each forum with a link to one or more FAQ pages or discussion, kind of like the Good Thread Index in the Propeller forum. The FAQ could give a summary of discussions, contain entire threads, or just references to other discussions.
Besides how to present this, at least one other obvious problem is who is going to maintain this, and how. Heck, I said there were lots of holes...
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John R.
Click here to see my Nomad Build Log
First, while sticky threads are great, if you look at the Propeller forum, where there are 10 stickies, you end up "loosing" half your first screen or more to stickies. Worse, they stay there when you scroll to the second (and subsequent) pages. Now in mind, if you are going to page two, you obviously don't need to see the stickies. Possibly there could be a way to "collapse" them?
The stickies are great threads, and deserve to be stickies. I'm not arguing that. I'm just saying that they can become instrusive.
There are also a number of topics (e.g. wireless, digital vs. analog servos, how do I connect XXX, etc.) that seem to keep coming up, and in some cases, garner little or no attention because the topic has been discussed to death. In worse case, a new user gets told "use the @$^& search page, it's been answered before!" (nice welcome). Often times there will be a link to one or more past discussions.
Perhaps a common solution to both the every growing list of Stickies, and less important, but frequent questions, could be some type of FAQ page or pages. This could be (I am wincing as I type this) a separate forum with all the sticky and FAQ pages, or a Sticky on each forum with a link to one or more FAQ pages or discussion, kind of like the Good Thread Index in the Propeller forum. The FAQ could give a summary of discussions, contain entire threads, or just references to other discussions.
Besides how to present this, at least one other obvious problem is who is going to maintain this, and how. Heck, I said there were lots of holes...
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
John R.
Click here to see my Nomad Build Log