11 replies to this topic

[engunneer]

new users have a hard time telling support from issues. I'm not sure on the best solution, but hopefully there can be some suggestions here. maybe better description text in each forum would help instead of different titles:

Current:

AutoHotkey
	Support - Ask questions and find answers
		Gaming
	Scripts - Share your work with AutoHotkey
		Gaming
	Tutorials - Guides, walkthroughs and tips
	Issues - Report errors and bugs
	Suggestions - Propose changes and new features
	Announcements - Info on new releases and updates
General
	Utilities - Discuss and recommend third-party software
	Programming - Talk about other programming languages
	Offtopic

Proposed:

AutoHotkey
	Support - Get help with your AHK scripts - Ask questions and search for answers
		Gaming
	Scripts - Share your AHK scripts for others to use
		Gaming
	Tutorials - Guides, walkthroughs and tips
	Issues - Report errors and bugs in AHK or the AHK website
	Suggestions - Propose changes for the language or documentation and request new features
	Announcements - Info on new releases and updates
General
	Utilities - Discuss and recommend third-party software
	Programming - Talk about other programming languages
	Offtopic

[rbrtryn]

I don't think most user even read the desciption text. They just see the Big Blue Link and think "I have an issue with my script, I guess I'll click that".

I think the description text should BE the link. So instead of

Support
Get help with your AHK scripts

we would have

Get help with your AHK scripts

[guest3456]

i was just gonna post about this.

why was "Ask for Help" renamed to "Support"?

that seems to be the issue, and easily rectified

also just rename "Scripts" to something like "Completed Scripts"

pretty much what he said:

I think the description text should BE the link.

[engunneer]

I thought of completed scripts. but most scripts are never complete

[G. Sperotto]

I think Issues should be made a sub-forum of suggestions.

IMHO, Users seeking advice on how to revert an unintended result in their own scripts should always be directed to the support session (for a fast solving/work-around). Only users that are trying to contribute to the improvement of AutoHotkey (by reporting bugs) and are not in the hurry of a script specific solution should be directed to "Issues".

Also most users have no idea whether their problem is a bug in the application or simply a case of bad-code. When that happens, they should be directed to seeking help (to both clarify causes and have a fast answer) so that we can have only bright clean reports in the bug report session and maintain a fast support service.

[sumon]

Although I think "Support" is clean and nice, and should say it all, I wouldn't be surprised if it's more difficult to find nowadays than it used to be. On the other hand, new users will always have troubles finding the right place to ask for help (I myself posted my first topic in "Wish list", for some reason...), and the most important thing is already achieved: The "Help" forum is on the top.

I would also generally like to disagree with rbrtryn on that

[...] the description text should BE the link.

No redundant ("with your AHK scripts") information in forum titles, thank you. Descriptions are good, and should provide more information but if possible without redundancy there too ("Get help [...]" shouldn't be repeated, for example).

Anyway, this is my suggestion:

AutoHotkey
   Ask for help - Get support and search for answers
      Gaming
   Scripts & functions - Share your work with AutoHotkey
      Custom [i](a section that I think should be removed long-term)[/i]
      Gaming
   Tutorials - Guides, walkthroughs and tips
   Suggestions - Propose changes and new features
      Bug reports - Report errors and bugs
   Announcements - Info on new releases and updates
General
   Utilities - Discuss and recommend third-party software
   Programming - Talk about other programming languages
   Offtopic - General discussion

So all in all pretty similar to what enguneer suggested. I'm not very picky, and I think the current naming is pretty fine, just wanted to toss in my 5c. I'm usually very easily annoyed by "confusing" forum structures, but AutoHotkey makes sense in my humble opinion.

PS. I also support G. Sperettos idea of moving issues (maybe renaming it to Bug reports or Bugs?), even if's not "crystal clear" it's not a bad idea. I would also support moving Tutorials to be a subforum to "ask for help"/Help/Support, but it's fine "as is" too.

[guest3456]

agree with sumon's naming suggestions

go back to "Ask for Help" and "Scripts & Functions" and gotta rename "issues" cause everyones got an 'issue' with their script

[polyethene]

I don't think we should rely on the description text as much since people tend not to read them. Moving Issues under Suggestions with a different name might be a good idea.

How about renaming Issues to Feedback?

[G. Sperotto]

How about renaming Issues to Feedback?

Perhaps for a new sub-section on compliments/rants?
As Guest3456 mentioned, the name issues alone could be missleading (Issues on a script? my own issues? issues on the application itself?). The unknown answering times should also be better clarified and longer names should be okay in sub-forums (since they are bound to be more specific).

- Technical Issues Requiring an Update.
- Technical Issues Requiring a Future Update.
- Bug-correcting suggestions for future updates.
- Future Corrections on the General Application Behaviour.
- Report a Missleading Application Behaviour.
- Corrections to be put on a schedule.
- Corrections to be scheduled.
- Technical Reviews on existing content.
- Development review on existing content.
- Technical corrections to be scheduled.

etc.

[guest3456]

go back to "Ask for Help" and "Scripts & Functions"

we gonna do this or what?

posts are mistakenly made in the Scripts forum daily

i dont know why all these changes were even made. what happened to "if it aint broke, dont fix it"?

[polyethene]

I want to keep forum titles short with only one or two words so casual browsers can be directed to the right place very quickly without having to read a description and have a thought process. Of course the downside is that some people may misunderstand, particularly non-English speakers; but people have been posting in the wrong sections since the beginning of time and will continue to do so regardless.