The “hamburger menu” (sometimes called a “sandwich menu”) is on the menu bar, top right between the search menu (magnifying glass) and your avatar menu. It appears as 3 horizontal bars, which are meant to represent menu items.
It has links to various filtered listings, the Categories page, many of the category listings, and and 3 of the system info pages at the bottom (one of which is “FAQ”.)
Oh no! I feel my inner nitpicker struggling to take over my motor control functions! I’m trying to fight it, but …
There are only 2 info pages at the bottom. The third is either “Mobile View” or “Desktop View” and clicking either toggles your screen to the indicated view.
Huh? What happened? Oh bleep. My nitpicker took over. Apologies.
It helps to be correct when you nitpick.
Strange. Here’s what I see in Chrome:
or
Now I’m wondering why we’re seeing different things?
I’m running Chrome as well. I do not see those, but I’m running on a desktop OS (Win 7).
If you are on a tablet you may see different things (apparently.)
It seems that I’ve discovered that the bottom of the hamburger menu in the forum isn’t the same for all users. See my post just above yours - we were likely composing simultaneously.
… as I surmised above.
Okay. Adapt then … I’m done wasting time on this.
Taking Dan’s advice and other comments here, I have come up with a solution that leaves the structure of the forum just the way it is.
I have created a keyboard shortcut which I will use when the need arises. It will say:
Thanks for your post. We can best help you if you upload your actual file.
If your file is more than 3MB, send it by file sending service (Dropbox, say).
If your file contains sensitive information, send it by PM to a specific person.
If all else fails, upload a screenshot.
A written explanation of your issue is necessary but it saves time if others can experience it for themselves.
It also helps if your profile is correct and complete.
I agree with this, at the end of the day there is a balancing act.
On one end you don’t want to annoy new users and potentially lose new users cause you are annoying them too much.
On the other end you don’t want to burn out your regulars by forcing them to reply with the same canned reply 1000 times
On the software side there are things that can be done to help guide, though anything we add would add to (1) here which has an element of risk.
We could look at forcing every new topic in a particular category ALWAYS to have an upload… no upload… no dice
We could force a certain “initiation” task on new users a draconian step would be making sure they did the whole discobot thing prior to posting on the forum proper (I do not recommend going down this path, but a super light weigh complete task X to get permission may make sense)
We could force the first topic of every new user through the moderation queue
We could not allow people to post until they fill out profile info
But … it all really depends on how far you want to take it. On a fundamental level some users see a blank white box and can not help filling it with letters, rules be damned.
I personally see no problem with the current setup.
These two could be combined but does this mean a lot of work for moderators or could it be automated? If it were automated, you could simply respond to every new post with some basic rules, which would include filling out their profile and posting actual files where possible.
Another idea (but which may not be possible with the Discourse system) is to have a pinned post at the top (under the Welcome one, say), that includes the basic rules/recommendations but that is closed to other posters. In effect, it would be another kind of FAQ but in an easier place to find.
This would be a disaster to users with bad short time memory or attention difficulties.
Then the moderators alone would have to give the same instructions that now everyone in the community can give, i.e. upload a model (if relevant) and search for existing threads (if relevant).
Why put more roadblock in the way for people that just want to ask questions.
It’s bad enough that they can only post one image and can’t use the message system among other limitations I can’t think of right now.
It’s not that hard to ask for model and images etc when necessary.
This is probably to avoid spammers.
Agree 140%. It’s not even needed in every thread so forcing users to upload it wouldn’t make any sense.
Yep, the spam catchers need to be there, so I wasn’t suggesting removing them, just noting that for the average honest new user they are already enough to annoy you without having to jump through even more hoops.
IMO, the #1 thing new members do wrong most often is post to the wrong category.
The #2 is likely a tie between …
I’d be nice if there was a 2-click item (on a tips menu) that would post the canned request for a SKP file or image from the system.
(Ie, this would be similar to the wiki notices you see from the system on Wikipedia, prompting members to add references, reorganize articles, and the like.)
How about not increasing their number of allowed daily posts until they fill out the profile’s IT questions ?
The discobot tutorial is a bit much.
What I’d rather happen is that …
a) the new user landing page is the forum rules page, and their member level
does not increase until they earn the “Read Guidelines” badge.
b) the default landing page is the Categories listing rather than Latest listing (but users could change this later at some member level via user settings.) So that whilst they are new they can see the categories and are more likely to pick the correct one to post in.
c) the landing page for all users after having been flagged is the forum rules page (ie, subtle reminder.)
Hello everyone, I am trying to become more active on the forums, but I am still a very new user to these forums (2 months?) so I might be able to give a different perspective on my thought process when I first joined. I think a big issue with new users is they join the forums in order to answer a quick question they have and don’t bother searching for an answer first. This is addressed partially by showing similar threads when creating a title for their post.
Another major issue that I’ve noticed (and am guilty of myself…) is new users not reading the rules and posting tips when they post. The rules/guidelines are very easily accessible as long as you look for them, but when someone just wants a quick answer they aren’t going to read these and that’s a problem because then another user must take the time to tell them to fix their post/code.
Adding an attachment (image or code) is extremely easy for new users, but I think that when users don’t attach files it’s either because they haven’t done the work and are waiting for someone from the forum to answer (a problem because it doesn’t promote proper learning), or they think that they can be descriptive enough with their words (which they usually can’t because they are new).
Honestly I think all of the resources are available for new users, it’s more of an issue of new users looking for a quick answer before getting familiar with the site. Again this is only my opinion as a new user who committed some of the faults that you guys are talking about above.
