As welcoming and supportive as it is, I do believe that shyness or uncertainty how best to use the forum sometimes inhibits new users
Good point. I would be interested in knowing a better way to change that. On one hand, having a separate area may decrease anxiety, but some can take it as condescending and not know where to post. The main problem lies in the fact that a) new user posts in new user area, b) Travis answers them correctly, c) Bert seeing an interesting thread, adds his two cents (as always), d) Leslie chimes in with something helpful. Now you have an "expert" thread in a new user area.
But, maybe there are other ways.
If I interpret your #3 above appropriately, a discussion of the logistics of making a "list" are just what I have been suggesting. If you want to discuss this or get some help from the group, feel free to say so.
It would be easy to make an Excel sheet (I did) with areas for names, phone numbers, emails, etc. Remember, before anyone gets all excited about entering his or her phone number, your office phone number is everywhere including one click away on Google. Having said that it is probably the worst way for initial contact, and some may not want to encourage being contacted that way. If I uploaded the document and it wasn't read only, that would be problematic. I would almost have to enter the data myself. Basically, name and email would be enough.
At your suggestion, I will add my email address to my profile. All spam I receive as a result will be forwarded to you. :-)..
I know you are joking, but just want to make sure that everyone knows how to put emails on message boards. First, you should be aware that you have to enter your email anyway, and it is already in your profile. I am not sure how "botable" it is. But, when you put an email anywhere online that is not in a form, you should always put it in a format such as user AT amazingcharts DOT com or user@amazingcharts.com_removespam. The bots cannot harvest these, and generally leaving out the @ sign is a good idea.
"Sticky's" at the top of each forum for the most common issues may be good. Maybe just 3 or so from each forum.
I'll have to think about that. This goes back a year or so ago, but Jon changed the board by adding "The Most Recent Posts," bar on the left. Before that, one had to go through each forum and search for discussions they wanted to read or comment on. It was easy as it is now to forget to select the option to be notified. Now, if you forget, you will probably see it again on the left. Since that left hand column has been added, I look only at it. I put up a sticky once three months ago, and it got to replies and very few views. But, I can look at that again.
Agree with Jon that the search function is irritating because it pulls up every single post instead of the thread. So if one topic had 100 posts, that's the only thread you would get out of your search and it may not have what you need.
I can't agree more with the two of you on this one. I will ask Jon about it. When I think of Experts-Exchange, when you search, you get an entire question/thread, not just the one comment. Now, it may be that the comment was what brought up the thread. Contrary to what everyone may believe, I don't have full admin powers on the board, so if it is possible to change the search features, I haven't found a way. Jon would probably have to do that.
I do the same as Travis. I never tell someone to search for it. Actually, even in Experts-Exchange, which is an award-winning site for IT information and help thousands of experts, I have never gotten that either. Of course, they all want the points. I do search there first (their search is incredibly good), but there is nothing like an answer that is completely tailored to your specific situation.
Still, a user guide is most important to answer all the basic stuff. Forums for the little odd quirks and work-arounds are great.
Agreed, that an admin guides, an quick user guide, FAQ, Knowledgebase, etc. complimented by the board would ideal.
Thanks, Travis, for the compliment.
