I see the review section below the various extensions have been removed / disabled. This is probably a good thing since the utilization thereof was largely for support queries and then a lot of bot spam traffic.
Would it be a good idea to introduce a button whereby one could lodge a support query that could be communicated to the extension author, for resolution? Or will this section of the SketchUp Community automatically generate a thread for each and every extension in the EW, possibly with a link button on the applicable extension page, so that one could visit it for possible troubleshooting and resolution?
I don’t think automatically generating a forum thread is a good idea as not all developers are necessarily active on the forum. Also it would break the principle of least astonishment; suddenly there would be threads that people don’t know what they came from (as in who started them and when).
However it would be great if the form for publishing extensions had a field for support website, where you could enter the URL to your forum thread.
That’s just the thing, not all extension authors have a website with a forum where threads could be generated for support. Plus you’ll then be redirected to a possibly unsecured website. To my knowledge, there is already a section / link facility available for referral to a website of the author’s choice, if the intent is to drive up traffic and content creation on the author’s website.
Support should, ideally, be hosted wherever the extension is available.
Identifying who created the automatically created thread should not really pose a problem, it could be a bot user (by SketchUp / Trimble) called “EW auto thread bot” or something similar that is easily identifiable and shouldn’t be mistaken for real user (I know some people have really strange handles, so you could still have some issues but it could be minimized). Having it this way may help extension authors as they would not have to repeatedly answer similar queries, it could be in a FAQ or pinned post at the top of the thread.
Due to Extension Warehouse being hammered so a large amount of spam these days, and most comments posted were not reviews, we have temporarily disabled that section until we’re able to come up with some better system.
We’re discussing how to approach this in the future, as users are clearly using it to get support instead of making reviews.
For now, add a link in your description to guide users to where to get support. You can also add links to your profile which should appear on all your extension pages.
I’ll forward this thread internally to the EW team.
so after one year you are still discussing how to come up with a better system? A review option is essential, as there are many extensions not worth any penny, but this you only realize after purchasing it. And there is no way of getting back the money.
We’ve been hard at work with a complete rewrite of the Extension Warehouse. Once that is released we are able to move forward with further improvements.