Help Mods...visibility...

[TheVaristy]

I can certainly understand the need to keep support issues separate, but I am afraid most of these get little to no visibility with the majority of Phandroid users.

It would seem to me that the vast majority of users who go into the support forum are users who have problems, and are looking for answers. There may be people out there who have answers to these questions that never visit the support threads because they are not currently experiencing any problems.

Is there any way we can increase the visibility of these threads to help with these issues?

 

[shaggymatt]

If people find the search button (which many people don't) they can find any keyword that they are looking for. I've been through many a new phone releases on all different platforms, and you always get a huge influx of first time users, in some cases, it is their first foray into a smartphone and first time on a forum. Thankfully most forums are relatively similar so they'll quickly become adept at using them.

You'll see lots of threads all related to the same topic. That is the reason the management staff here put out a request for help. Merging threads, and trying to keep threads on topic. We don't need the pointless banter in threads, just meaningful input. It wastes lots of time reading through a thread looking for a solution when there are pages of people complaining and providing little additional benefit.

 

[TheVaristy]

Like I said, I understand why it is done. I just dont think it is very effective at getting people help. Would you have gone into support and troubleshooting if you didnt have any problems? I dont think most people would.

 

[Caddyman]

Am i in the minority? When surfing any forum, i dont go to specific sections, i click new posts, almost always, so any new posts/threads i see. that said, if i see a topic that is a question and i can help or answer, i will.

 

[shaggymatt]

Yes. I like helping people, as do many others. So even though I'm not having any problems, if I can solve a problem for someone else and have it documented, I've done someone a favor.

 

[CRPercodani]

The problem is threads that should be in the general Droid forum are getting pushed back because of new threads that shouldn't be there. We are doing this because the Admin's asked us, and while I totally understand what you are saying if we leave all the threads in the general section this forum is going to be a bigger mess then it already is.

 

[TheVaristy]

That is awesome. I hope more users do that as well. I will be honest and say that I dont think I would have looked in the support threads if I didnt have trouble. Now that I have, I will try my best to be helpful.

 

[Phases]

I see what you're saying and it does make sense. However with them all lumped into the one forum they get just as little visibility - because in 5 minutes their pushed to page three.

We needed to come up with a way to fix that. This seemed an alright solution. Many people that troll the forums are either:

a) in need of help, as you mentioned, therefore will be in the support subforum,
b) looking to help, therefore will look in the subforum (or new posts or unanswered threads section)

or

c) just hangin' out lookin' for general Droid chat to partake in.

So this would only be a problem for "c". Some of "c" will periodically pop into support anyway. Some won't. The some that won't will be all we lose as far as visibility per member.

It's a fair enough trade considering all the general talk wants to be seen too, also not pushed to page 3 in five minutes. This is a structure often used, it's effective enough and almost a must in busy-enough forums. It will take time but once everyone is used to it and threads get moved enough for everyone to realize what is going on - it will get easier.

That said. We're always open to suggestion. It was suggestion that got the sub-forums put into place, after all.

Also, as said above, many people click "new posts" (also hint: set droid as a favorite then click new favorites in stead to drastically cut back on what is displayed there), and also the "unanswered threads" is available.

Hope this helps.. again, we're open to suggestion.

 

[Caddyman]

how does unanswered threads work? just a filter from the vB databse to show all threads with 0 replies? im sure most are question thread but im sure many are off-topic and/or intro threads that clutter up those results.

i would suggest putting vBulletins thread tags into use here, have tags for unresolved and resolved, etc. make unresolved red or something, that would bring more attention to it.

just thinking out loud, there are mods for Q&A type forums too...

 

[Caddyman]

another thing is, for the unanswered thread search we have now. it shows all threads with 0 replies so something like this i see happen lots would mess that system up easily.

thread starter
"hi i need to setup another gmail acct on my phone and can't"

first reply
"yeah i am having this issue too"

if that happens, that thread would be kicked out of the unanswered search although it is still unanswered.

using thread prefixes you can search by prefix, etc. so you could have a search similar to the unanswered you have now, but it will seach for all with the "unanswered" prefix.

that said, you can give your staff/mods/guides permissions to change prefixes and once a question is actually answered they can change the prefix to answered.