Finding support

[jmztaylor]

So one of my biggest issues with the forum is developers that have a huge amount of CAs and single threads for all of them.  Finding any specific information is nearly impossible.  For the developer this is easier to maintain support, but for end users its a nightmare.  Why not break these developers into their own subforum and have a thread for each app?  Most people can agree repeating questions is an annoyance and the current setup encourages this without meaning to.

 

In all reality how is any information supposed to be found for example in @ich777 support thread at 140 pages long. (Even though he is very active and quick to reply to posts) Search is average at best and for specific issues the wording might be different so impossible to find.  And if searching fails users might start from the first page but that information might be out of date by the time they get to it.

 

Just my .02.  And it wouldn't be that hard to implement.

Edited November 28, 2023 by jmztaylor

[ich777]

1 hour ago, jmztaylor said:

Why not break these developers into their own subforum and have a thread for each app?

Because I've never intended to have that many containers/plugins... I got more and more containers over time and now I'm at the point where I have almost 200 apps in the CA App.

 

TBH I also can't imagine creating almost 200 dedicated threads, this would be too much for me...

[jmztaylor]

3 minutes ago, ich777 said:

Because I've never intended to have that many containers/plugins... I got more and more containers over time and now I'm at the point where I have almost 200 apps in the CA App.

 

TBH I also can't imagine creating almost 200 dedicated threads, this would be too much for me...

 

I didnt mean anything negative towards you at all.  I use a lot of yours so was the first that came across my mind.

 

You are on top of your support thread like a hawk.  But for someone that isn't on that thread all the time, its a lot of info to try and get through for things that might have already been asked or issues ran into.

TBF, yes that would be a lot but admins could do a lot too more easily than you.

[ich777]

2 minutes ago, jmztaylor said:

I didnt mean anything negative towards you at all.  I use a lot of yours so was the first that came across my mind.

No worries, just wanted to create a quick response...

[rbojanssen]

I fully agree with this. From an end user standpoint it IS a nightmare to find info. I have problems with the S3 Sleep plugin so I went looking for info on it. In this case the Dynamix thread has 159 pages. 159! Impossible (even with search) to find adequate info.

 

But also I understand ich777 that maintaining 200 threads is a bit too much😉. Having said that, as a developer myself, if my customers would have to go through finding info the way it happens here......I wouldn't have any customers left..... 😛

 

If only the end user had the possibility to filter the pages with some kind of keyword / tag (the plugin names?) so only posts that have that keyword / tag show up. Shouldn't be that hard to implement, make users that create (not quote, they inherit) a new post select one of the keywords/tags......

 

I love UNRAID but finding info on these forums has always been..... well......not nice....

[ich777]

6 hours ago, rbojanssen said:

But also I understand ich777 that maintaining 200 threads is a bit too much😉.

That grow over time and I never expected to have that many container/plugins.

 

6 hours ago, rbojanssen said:

I love UNRAID but finding info on these forums has always been..... well......not nice....

But better than on Discord, that's why I avoid Discord.

 

6 hours ago, rbojanssen said:

I wouldn't have any customers left..... 😛

Most of the times the questions that I get are something that could have been figured out if the description from the container or the variables in my templates would have been read...

So to speak the basic documentation is there so that everyone can set up for example a game server.

 

Also don't forget that we are community developers and are strictly speaking not related to Unraid.

[rbojanssen]

19 hours ago, ich777 said:

 

Most of the times the questions that I get are something that could have been figured out if the description from the container or the variables in my templates would have been read...

So to speak the basic documentation is there so that everyone can set up for example a game server.

 

Also don't forget that we are community developers and are strictly speaking not related to Unraid.

 

Hope I didn't give you the impression that any of my remarks were targeted towards you, nothing but respect for the things you do here (as for any developer)! My remarks are targeted towards UNRAID (or the ones who are responsible for this forum). In the example I gave (with the sleep plugin) I noticed it wasn't working anymore, did a lot of reading and testing myself but I could get it to work.

 

So forum to the rescue! Page 1 of 159..... yeah right. Used the search......didn't find anything useful. So I did what I hate most, made a post with the question without knowing if anybody asked this before. I have my own business and this stuff isn't my hobby (allright a bit it is...) so when I run into trouble I try to find a solution as quick as possible, time is money, I know it sounds like a cliche but it is true. 

 

As jmztaylor states "Finding any specific information is nearly impossible." is in my experience very true. I dread using the forum. 

 

[jchaven]

Perhaps developers could enlist the aid of their own moderators?

They could seek out users to manage each forum for a developer creating and managing sub-forums that supports a specific application the developer created.