Make first posts in support boards a form?

Started by kat, March 24, 2012, 11:30:44 AM

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Deaks

actually it is, you would need to pester sleepy though
~~~~
Former SMF Project Manager
Former SMF Customizer

"For as lang as hunner o us is in life, in nae wey
will we thole the Soothron tae owergang us. In truth it isna for glory, or wealth, or
honours that we fecht, but for freedom alane, that nae honest cheil gies up but wi life
itsel."


Angelina Belle

I wonder how difficult a mod that would be to write?
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. -- Hanlon's Razor

NanoSector

Quote from: AngelinaBelle on March 26, 2012, 11:09:31 AM
I wonder how difficult a mod that would be to write?
For which side? The SMF side or the Simple Machines Community side?
My Mods / Mod Builder - A tool to easily create mods / Blog
"I've heard from a reliable source that the Answer is 42. But, still no word on what the question is."

emanuele

I wonder what kind of information you would request to fill in. :P

Would it be mandatory? (i.e. no filled field no post?)
In that case what if the user has the forum unavailable due tu a php error? (just an example)
Would it be optional?
In that case, how many people do you think would fill it? :P

* emanuele likes devil's advocate role. :P


Take a peek at what I'm doing! ;D




Hai bisogno di supporto in Italiano?

Aiutateci ad aiutarvi: spiegate bene il vostro problema: no, "non funziona" non è una spiegazione!!
1) Cosa fai,
2) cosa ti aspetti,
3) cosa ottieni.

NanoSector

Quote from: emanuele on March 26, 2012, 11:32:56 AM
I wonder what kind of information you would request to fill in. :P

Would it be mandatory? (i.e. no filled field no post?)
In that case what if the user has the forum unavailable due tu a php error? (just an example)
Would it be optional?
In that case, how many people do you think would fill it? :P

* emanuele likes devil's advocate role. :P
Case 1: Maybe a "Type of error" drop down, which activates the field when an option is selected where the file can be gathered.
Case 2: Almost none, I guess :P
My Mods / Mod Builder - A tool to easily create mods / Blog
"I've heard from a reliable source that the Answer is 42. But, still no word on what the question is."

Kindred

We've tried things like this before....   and 99.9% of the users either ignore it or post nonsensical choices which usually means they just randomly selected the mandatory fields.

don't know know that you have to give them support and know what they want by osmosis...
Слaва
Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

Angelina Belle

We get a real variety of users.

What type of information have we tried to require users to supply?
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. -- Hanlon's Razor

Douglas

Maybe what we could do is create a form that's sort of integrated on the Admin side (yet can still operate independently) that would essentially precompile detailed statistics where all they have to do is copy from their site and paste over here.

Something along the lines of "Generate Detailed Report for SMF Troubleshooting" and it'd include SMF version, list of mods installed, basic forum statistics, the last 10 error log entries (sorted newest to oldest), etc.

This would need to be set up in such a way that it could operate regardless of a forum's operability, except for active connection errors.
Doug Hazard
* Full Stack (Web) Developer for The Catholic Diocese of Richmond
(20+ Diocesan sites, 130+ Church sites & 24 School sites)
* Sports Photographer and Media Personality
* CFB Historian
* Tech Admin for one 1M+ post, one 2M+ post and one 10M+ post sites (last two are powered by multiple servers)
* WordPress Developer (Junkie / Guru / Maven / whatever)

kat

Forum version.
Mods.
Themes. (Perhaps)
URL to forum.

That ought to do it.

emanuele

Quote from: Douglas on March 26, 2012, 02:05:25 PM
Maybe what we could do is create a form that's sort of integrated on the Admin side (yet can still operate independently) that would essentially precompile detailed statistics where all they have to do is copy from their site and paste over here.
That's what I had in mind. But in the form of a mod... :P

Quote from: Douglas on March 26, 2012, 02:05:25 PM
This would need to be set up in such a way that it could operate regardless of a forum's operability, except for active connection errors.
Then it would be a separated file like repair_settings.


Take a peek at what I'm doing! ;D




Hai bisogno di supporto in Italiano?

Aiutateci ad aiutarvi: spiegate bene il vostro problema: no, "non funziona" non è una spiegazione!!
1) Cosa fai,
2) cosa ti aspetti,
3) cosa ottieni.

Angelina Belle

The user can already get SMF version at the admin panel.
But improving that to give a simple little "for support" box seems like a very good idea.
And making it easy to find on the admin panel -- ideal.  It will help users and support helpers.
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. -- Hanlon's Razor

Douglas

Angelina, an Admin Panel driven info resource would kind of be a moot point if their forum is down.  emanuele nailed down exactly what I was trying to... a separate script, much like repair_settings.php that relies on Settings.php ONLY for DB user/pass/name and path statements. The rest of this is handled via direct query to the DB itself.
Doug Hazard
* Full Stack (Web) Developer for The Catholic Diocese of Richmond
(20+ Diocesan sites, 130+ Church sites & 24 School sites)
* Sports Photographer and Media Personality
* CFB Historian
* Tech Admin for one 1M+ post, one 2M+ post and one 10M+ post sites (last two are powered by multiple servers)
* WordPress Developer (Junkie / Guru / Maven / whatever)

Angelina Belle

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. -- Hanlon's Razor

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