A couple of thoughts that I've been meaning to post for a while include:
A link on each discussion forum page that goes to a Posting Guidelines page. This page would have a few basic rules for posting to the bulletin boards not too overbearing and not just a RTFM first page. However it should also maybe include on that guideline page a few links to the basic manuals/faqs that come into existence and a link to the faq/manual index in case people actually do want to do research before posting a question.
On this page should be a few basic rules
- If you going to ask a question about X .... make sure you include platform/version/and offending code.
- Make sure you are posting to the correct forum
- Advise to try to at least search for an answer before posting
- etc.
This should prevent those posts that have to have 5 or 6 messages posted before any real diagnosis can be made. The current community is pretty good about these things but as it grows and more newbies arrive, this sort of page should help reduce signal to noise factor. Also whenever a post violates the basic ruleset it would be easy for an active community member to respond by posting a
Please See Guidelines before Posting Link :)I also think that we need a more stuctured ASJ type page that would host articles that might be written up by community for documentation on surrounding technologies and be kept kinda separate from the core OpenACS documentation. This prevents obfuscating the different tools docs and openacs docs into one huge it's too much arghhh reaction.
Also there are certain parts of the site that are not accessable by links anywhere but should be ... for instance file-storage, poll, etc. People should be able to get there not only by bboard message links.
All for now ... Farscape coming on one of my few TV shows I watch. ... may JH rest in peace. Catch you frelling later ...
