Improving the www.ads-software.com support forums

[Jen]

I think we all know that as helpful as the support forums are in some ways, in other ways there’s much to be desired. As we will be doing some work on improving www.ads-software.com this summer, let’s hear your suggestions for how we can improve the support experience here on www.ads-software.com. Thanks!

[lazarusstone]

How about updating the Codex so people don’t have to keep repeating questions in the Support Forums? Solve the source of the questions, not the symptoms of the problem.

A lot of the Codex is so completely out of date, much of it referencing 1.0 or 2.0 code that is no longer relevant. While its nice to keep old answers for 2.x.x software, give people an incentive to update to the newest code, thereby increasing site security, etc by removing out of date information. Its not like they can download the old 2.x.x code anyways!

Its extremely disheartening to see that the worlds most popular blogging software with one of the largest user bases anywhere, has hideously outdated documentation on its own site.

Empower users to be able to update the Codex.

[Chris_K]

Empower users to be able to update the Codex.

Anyone can login and update the codex. In fact, it should be the same user/pass that you use here in the forums.

[mrmist]

Anyone can login and update the codex. In fact, it should be the same user/pass that you use here in the forums.

Quite. There is also a drive to purge outdated content such as mentioned in the post, but it’s not always possible.

In addition to that, we have a sticky topic in every forum that links out to the Codex and to the FAQ page contained therein, and yet people still ask the same questions, so what are you gonna do, eh? It’s a simple fact that a lot of folk simply don’t want to or don’t feel that they have the time to research their issues. That’s really the same across support forums everywhere.

[lazarusstone]

Perhaps I should rephrase that to..

“Encourage” users to update the Codex.

(I admit upon review that empower was a poor choice of word for the intended meaning)

It’s a simple fact that a lot of folk simply don’t want to or don’t feel that they have the time to research their issues.

I personally feel that reading the Codex becomes futile because:
1) Its out of date
2) Its difficult to understand for the layman user, so they come here where they can say “I have no clue what youre talking about. Can you explain it in simpler terms?”

[thistlecat]

I recently posted my first post to the forum here. I’m not happy about not being able to edit and/or delete my posts.

Message to Moderator: please remove the link that I inserted into my first post.

[mrmist]

The link has been removed.

AFAIK the editing capability is present for a short while (though I could be wrong). I believe it’s common on most BBS that you can’t delete or edit posts after a certain time has passed. Otherwise this can cause as many issues as it solves.

[t31os adds]
Users can edit posts within the first hour of posting.

[saildude]

Yes you can edit your own post for “a few minutes” no idea what “a few” is, but I have went back and revised my posts several times.

Codex: I sometimes give links to WordPress.COM instructions as many have screen shots and are up to date.

[thistlecat]

Thank you for removing the link.