Help topic.

[Dark_Meta_Knight]

I think we need a help topic for new users.
And people who need help just in case the mods can"t answer all the questions right away.

[MICrophone]

Moved to Site Discussion. The Suggestions forums is for suggestions about Runouw's games; suggestions regarding the forums go here.

Anyway, I guess this can be a help topic of sorts…I think PMing the mods is generally effective…you're bound to get a response reasonably quickly between the four of us (Suyo included), plus User Reps and Level Mods are also reasonably reliable and should be able to help out with most questions. But I suppose this topic can stay…if it proves popular, then there you have it, and if not, then this topic dies and that is that.

[Aelita_333]

For one thing the MODs never reply to me when I PM them.

[Blablob]

For one thing the MODs never reply to me when I PM them.

Specifically, which mods do you PM? What do you PM them about?

[Kimonio]

For one thing the MODs never reply to me when I PM them.

This is probably because your question can be answered by a topic in the forums, your question makes us have a major WUT thought, or it's so easy to answer that it looks spammy. o_O

[Chaukai]

can be answered by a topic in the forums

Mods should still answer them. They might be buried under topics.

Also, PMing doesn't always work, since that means they'd have to PM each and every one of us, and what if they don't even know how to do that? I mean, I understand that most of this looks simple, but always think of the what ifs. Instead of a help topic, I would suggest a sort of system where there is a "questions" link, where a person can submit questions that can be read by all mods at any time, then they can answer it.

[Doram]

can be answered by a topic in the forums

Mods should still answer them. They might be buried under topics.

Also, PMing doesn't always work, since that means they'd have to PM each and every one of us, and what if they don't even know how to do that? I mean, I understand that most of this looks simple, but always think of the what ifs. Instead of a help topic, I would suggest a sort of system where there is a "questions" link, where a person can submit questions that can be read by all mods at any time, then they can answer it.

I think RA has a good point and suggestion here. The reason we might be having problems is the fact that the process might be too complicated/not clearly described/unorganized. We could certainly make a thread here in Site Discussion where people can post general questions about the site and stuff, and the good ones can be collected in a FAQ thread in the Rules forum. It would make the Rules forum even more of a "Go HERE for help!" thing, allow for some community interaction, and generally solve issues as they come up on an ongoing basis. Having the primary thread here in Site Discussion, publicly available, also means that veterans who know the answer can respond, taking some pressure off the Mods having to do it. No pressure/punishment for repeating questions, just respond with a "That's been answered. Link to FAQ thread here." Keep it friendly, keep it functional, keep it active.

I like it... Now I need to make a Stamp of Approval gif..............

[Chaukai]

Actually, if we were to have Site Discussions be a place for questions, I would actually think it would be better to have a completely separate forum, a Help forum, just for general helping. Because discussing about the site and needing help are two different things, it would be better if we just split that up. This way, there would be a big HELP forum smack in the Index page for anyone to see, making it easier to ask for help.

[Blablob]

Just so you know RA, people have come into Site Discussion before and asked questions on things on the site. What it seems we're doing now is just expanding upon that. The purpose of Site Discussion is for us to try and improve the forums, and I think users that have questions about things kind of correlates with that because we help the users with whatever they're wondering about, and users are certainly a part of our forums.

Overall, I like the idea of having a better-managed help desk (if that's what you want to call it) and can restrain us from making anymore topics where users have questions about the site.

Now, to make it clear, while Site Discussion and a help desk are similar, don't get the two mixed up. Don't post ideas on how to improve the site in a place where you're supposed to ask questions, and don't ask questions in a place where you're supposed to post ideas for the site.

Last but not least, if this goes through then no more [Something] Suggestion topics!