Quote:
Originally Posted by Pinecone
I do a number of forums on various topics. The reality is, the common user will get on and ask a question. They will NOT search, they will NOT read FAQs, they will NOT read online manuals, they will NOT read subforums. They will not even post in a subforum, they will just post in the main section.
You can go three ways:
1) Just be a friendly place and answer the questions every time they come up. Some people keep files of common answer and copy/paste in the proper answer.
2) Be a nasty place and have about 20 posts telling the person to SEARCH to find their own answer.
3) In between, give a short answer and point them to a link of more in depth answers.
People will NOT look for the answer on their own.
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Yup, very true for a lot of people. I think our goal is to reduce the amount of work required by chunking information into smaller bits.
Subforums, FAQs, and stickies aren't foolproof, but they do make it easier to find answers, and of course, the easier something is, the more likely people are to use it.
Anyway, this way, people can go directly to the relevant section and find the threads and stickies related to their query without having to filter through a lot of other stuff.
It's ok if some people still post threads in the main section, because they're simple for us to move into the appropriate section. It can even be better if they do when it's not clear which section they should go into until the answers and more info have come forth.