What Happened to SMF Forums?

[Bigguy]

Regarding the whole search thing. In almost every one of the support boards, there is a post entitled "READ ME FIRST: How to help us help you" which details lots of things people can do to get help.

Most importantly it details things people should provide. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to support someone who doesn't tell you nearly enough to be able to help. Have a read through the support topics and see how often "what version are you using" comes up, yet it's presumably an absolutely basic requirement.

There's an online manual chock full of things, yet the majority of people who request support haven't looked through it at all. That's why you get people who are fed up of trying to help because after they do it day in, day out, for months on end with the perception that no-one wants to try and help themselves, it becomes so frustrating (and I'm speaking here as a former member of the Support team)

Understandable and you are right. It does get pretty frustrating asking the same questions over and over again to people who don't know how to ask for support. But being a support Specialist (Like I was for a couple years) New members should be treated with kid gloves, shown the way of the community and helped along...maybe even supported a bit, I don't know. That's just my idea of support. Not trying to start anything with anyone just trying to voice my opinion. Telling a new member to "Use the search" is like telling them to close the door on the way out.

[bullbreedluverz]

firstly smf search function really does suck, even if you put in the exact search term, lets say for example in the Theme Site Themes board search for Black Silk (1 my themes) and 2 other of my themes are listed in the search results before the Black Silk theme even tho Black Silk is in the title of the topic - so if the name contained in a topic title isnt good enough to find the topic before a theme that just happens to have the word "black" in the post text then what hope have most people got of finding something with search feature when they are trying to use keywords - people can defend the search system and say... "you should search"... "oh you did"... "well ya should of searched better" but we all know its rubbish

secondly the support round here has dwindled away - partly because theyres hardley any staff about these days so they arent providing as much support as before  - well to be honest there doesnt seem to be much staff doing anything really (because a skeleton crew seem to be trying to hold the ship together), i saw a theme earlier get listed in the Theme Site Themes that was

First Created: February 11, 2010, 12:10:37 PM
Last Modified: March 29, 2010, 10:57:06 AM

now either this theme was riddled with problems and took a long time to sort out the problems to make it pass theme guidelines or it really did take 46 days to approve a theme, which i think is the case, as if you look on the theme sites latest themes and check the dates on them it looks like 2 theme approvals have been done in over 2 months..... so how many other themes are just sitting there and how many mods too whilst where at it

the posting on here seems to be keeping consistent but most that just looks like bollox, excuse my language

something needs to change here kind of soonish as most people can see theyres a lot staff gone, theyre seems to be quite a few members gone too, the support is very strained, theme/mod approvals seem to have been forgotten, dread to think whats going on with the development

something has to change and the odd non-specific, uninformative, non-committive spoonfed bull****** really just isnt gunna make everything go away, SMF is in the crap and sinking lower n lower

where will smf be in another 6 months.....

will those that have stuck around still be around
will those still contributing keep clinging to a horse that at the moment looks like its off to the glue factory

dont take a genius to work out the answers to those questions are "possibly not"

if you ent got the staff, then stop pizzin about and get some, the longer its left the worse it will get and if its not done sooner rather than later it may b too late as SMF's reputation will be in the gutter

most users of smf dont care about who did what, who broke whose toys, who took whos lunch money we just care that the software weve chosen to use, love and support (some financially) is being driven into the ground and at the end the day, when the dust settles, when all the dummies that have been spat out have been picked up its our sites that will be dead as far as having a future using the software goes

[RagingHippieHost]

Sure. I respect people who can say things to my face.

By posting that, I can only assume that you're referring to me as one of those people. Am I right?

If so, then you are being a hypocrite.

[Arantor]

Sure. I respect people who can say things to my face.

By posting that, I can only assume that you're referring to me as one of those people. Am I right?

If so, then you are being a hypocrite.

No, I was saying that to S-Ace, though it's generally true; I do have respect for people who say things to my face instead of behind my back, not sure how that makes my hypocritical.

[Bigguy]

@ stikkki: I agree with all you have said. Past staff will not come back until certain things are cleared up. (That's all I will say on that) If new team members are to be gotten then I hope they do support like it should be done.

[Nick Whetstone]

I figured one of the Support crew should post on this thread, so I might as well.
As the newbie member of the team, I do apologize that you haven't had a great experience with support. If I've ever been rude, I apologize. I do try to be respectful and helpful when giving support, so I apologize if I've failed to be either when giving support to you. I do share the thought that it is frustrating to have to ask the same version/theme questions before giving support, but I do try to put the frustration behind in order to ensure it doesn't get in the way.

[Bigguy]

If SMF would make a new profile field and make it mandatory to be filled in at registration then SMF versions could be put into users profiles and that would solve having to ask what version of SMF they are using all the time.

[Arantor]

If SMF would make a new profile field and make it mandatory to be filled in at registration then SMF versions could be put into users profiles and that would solve having to ask what version of SMF they are using all the time.

Except that users wouldn't keep it updated - from what I saw in team discussions previously, it was experimented with here a while back and subsequently abandoned.

[bullbreedluverz]

well a message got added to pm's so why not to post box to say something like please try search first if you have already then please add smf version, theme name, enough information so we know what you want and not have to mind read to try to find out from the 4 words you wrote exactly what you wanted, thankyou for helping us to help you



p.s.
you may want to edit the part in italics

[dbleeg]

I am NOT addressing anyone directly here but rather the whole SMF support community:

There is a definite pickle-up-the-arse attitude on this forum with regard to what gets posted where and when and by who and in what style and in what tone and what terminology and did you get your mother to proofread that? It's goddamn ridiculous.

A forum is about discussion and productive communication, not some kind of strange exercise in conformity.

I have been administering forums going on ten years now. When someone makes a dumb question post, inevitably they will search the boards when they see they get no replies. (I've had my own issues with the smf search function in the past)

I have a posting style where I will start a thread, and then treat it as a development log, making notes for my own reference and the reference of others as I go. That was interpreted as spamming here and I was harshly admonished for it.

I basically self banned myself from these forums for the last oh 3 - 4 years because of the attitudes I encountered here. A very unpleasant place to be.

I made this account only for the purposes of downloading post attachments. I do not intend to post, or share my thoughts or experiences at all here. The reception is far to cold and mean. It is true. I had to post when I saw this though.

I think you all need to think about that a little.

edit: ah I see the "offense" is now in one of the board descriptions:

English user help for SMF versions 1.1 and 1.0. Bumping topics less than 24 hours old is frowned upon.

WTF? Come on... you dont want users to reply to their own threads within 24 hours even if they have resolved their own issue and it might help others?

Must everybody's posting style be so strictly controlled? Really?

I think the distinction between spam and an eager user should be clear, if you don't see the difference you should not be on support staff or be a moderator here.

[Bigguy]

Support should be the thread that binds the community and the team as far as I am concerned. It is one of the most important if not the most important to any site that gives support for anything. The member is the life blood and should be treated as such. Members should not have to treat team members like they are gods......they aren't.

[Adish - (F.L.A.M.E.R)]

I just checked OP's topics since September 2009. All except one is not resolved and none of them have said, "Search the forum". I now wonder whats wrong with the OP?

[Bigguy]

Ok so that is a bit weird. Wonder what's up with that. Still does not invalidate what I have said about support though.

[Adish - (F.L.A.M.E.R)]

Ok so that is a bit weird. Wonder what's up with that. Still does not invalidate what I have said about support though.

Well yep, but I don't get what happened to the OP that he bought me on the topic. Feels a bit odd to me. Getting into trouble without any reason.

Also the point started that everyone is asking them to use search which isn't the case since sept 2009. Nor there hasn't been any rude behavior with the OP since then.

It was a matchstick with a spark which burnt the whole forest!

[Nick Whetstone]

That is an interesting observation, (F.L.A.M.E.R), though bigguy is right in that it doesn't mean support doesn't need to be respectful.

[RagingHippieHost]

Ok so that is a bit weird. Wonder what's up with that. Still does not invalidate what I have said about support though.

Well yep, but I don't get what happened to the OP that he bought me on the topic. Feels a bit odd to me. Getting into trouble without any reason.

Also the point started that everyone is asking them to use search which isn't the case since sept 2009. Nor there hasn't been any rude behavior with the OP since then.

It was a matchstick with a spark which burnt the whole forest!

That might be weird, but it doesn't matter. Obviously that means that the OP has noticed it happening with other people and decided to take a stand against it and let other members know how they feel about it.

[Adish - (F.L.A.M.E.R)]

Maybe apparently, but why me! I haven't done any bad around so far.

Look around in my posts, then you may decide.

[RagingHippieHost]

Maybe apparently, but why me! I haven't done any bad around so far.

Look around in my posts, then you may decide.

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=375049.msg2574113#msg2574113
http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=374762.msg2573940#msg2573940
http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=374347.msg2572655#msg2572655

Although, I have to admit, most of your posts are rather helpful.

[Adish - (F.L.A.M.E.R)]

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=375049.msg2574113#msg2574113 --> Fact!

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=374762.msg2573940#msg2573940 --> Person giving a sub domain to be ran for himself with a .info extension. Honest criticize as written there. I don't see a hope of it surviving.

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=374347.msg2572655#msg2572655 --> I suppose you don't read the whole thread do you?

[flapjack]

alright, if we are pointing fingers try to find something on me