Pin the posting guide?

[Snow 7,015]

There is a Reporting Guide Pinned in the Castle Throne Room, extremely useful might I add, while digging around some much older threads I stumbled upon the Posting Guide located in the Castle Throne Room, it struck me as odd that this thread is not pinned like the Reporting guide, as such a useful recourse for new or just unsure members I believe it should be.
Not only that but having a posting guide pinned in the Welcoming Plaza or at least a link to it would be a godsend for new ponies who don't visit the Caste throne Room for whatever reason and are eager to begin posting. 

[Vulcan 3,254]

How is that not yet a thing o_o

[Rikifive 24,171]

Considering, that these actually are frequently asked questions, I agree with tank pone.  

That thread would also require some updates to be made.  
 

Speaking of useful threads/info - it also hurts to see FAQ's kinda messed up. By that I mean some extremely outdated articles, that aren't relevant after upgrade to IPB4.
Also they're clogged with tons of articles - It would be nice to see them organized, where the most important things would be covered, such as badges and community contribution requirements to post in specific areas, that require few posts to be made first. 

 

Also according to this article:

Quote

"(...) Posting ranks do not carry any weight, and exist solely as a fun visual representation of how active you are on the forum. (...)"

Ranks are purely cosmetic, yet here:

Quote

"(...) guests and newly registered users are unable to access or view it until they have made five posts elsewhere on the forum, changing their member title from Blank Flank to Muffin."

is mentioned, that they actually do something.

By the way, the two articles above could be merged, as they mention the same thing "Why can't I post in ...". That's true the one with ranks doesn't do that at the moment, but it should, as it's one of the most legit FAQ's ever - now this is a FAQ, not just a potential question.
That kind of things are mostly aimed towards new users, so it should be user-friendly, thus fairly easy to navigate, with the most important details highlighted, instead of having a wall of walls of text, that sometimes are more than obvious.  

There also are too many categories. For example, I'll mention the one with ranks again. It is posted in Site Problems & Questions category, but honestly, it's also related to Navigating and Using MLP Forums, because these ranks somehow affect how you can navigate&use these forums. These two categories are almost the same, thus it sometimes makes it difficult to find the FAQ we want to find, because it matches both of categories and that doesn't help at all, but the opposite. What's more, being unable to post somewhere is also somewhat related to moderation -> approval and basically how rules are set (need x posts to be able to post in ...), so it kinda could do fine even in Moderation and Rules.

You also have Octavia's Hall Questions. That's like posting Global Guidelines in FAQ's. In this category you have specified what to do and not to do in Octavia's Hall. In my opinion, all of these questions could be covered in pinned thread(s) or announcement(s) etc..
For example, in Visual Fan Art there's a thread titled "Do not make requests in Fan Art", why can't be there rules and guidelines as well? That way it would be easier to spot and would make these more general and important FAQ's more visible. Or why that thread isn't in FAQ's then? An article like "Why can't I make requests in Fan Art?" wouldn't be good this time?  Just kidding!  

 

Since posting requirements are asked frequently, I think these FAQ's are simply overlooked by many members. And honestly, no wonder why, because there are tons of articles hidden under specific categories and the long titles doesn't make it easier to find the one we're looking for.

Oh princesses, I'm whining more than Rarity.  Sorry for that!

Edited June 16, 2017 by Rikifive

[Jeric 46,851]

Lunaris and Klopp's posts do contain great bits of information -- but also outdated information as well (one even refers to a time when the site allowed < 13 members to join). Since those posts have been made we've updated the forum structure about a dozen times, including renaming the old MLPF section Canterlot, and naming Canterlot the Throne Room). Also we've added entire Sections. Creative Resource was split up into separate forums (thanks to two admins and a mod who worked tirelessly on that). 

Broken links abound. Basically, a deep dive needs to be done to insure all the information is accurate and updated. 

Does Mailmare still work? When I joined this was the welcome messages posted to my PM. 

Quote

Hi Jeric!

 

Thanks for joining MLP Forums and the Poniverse network! I'm happy to welcome you to our community. You'll find many kind members here eagerly waiting to welcome you! 

 

Before posting, I strongly recommend you take a moment to acquaint yourself with our Official Resource Map. It's a centralized hub of resources that should help you from feeling lost.

 

Below is a small list of helpful things to know, to assist in establishing yourself in our community:

• Looking for a way to keep up with the community? Subscribe to the Poniverse Newsletter!
• Are you an artist? A musician? A programmer? A video editor? Or maybe a fan fic writer? We have a section dedicated to all forms of art, Octavia's Hall!
• If you enjoy roleplaying, we have a dedicated section for just that! Be sure to read the Roleplay World rules (and guide if you're new to roleplaying) before diving in though!
• To keep up with up-to-date information about the site, click the 'Follow' button found in Canterlot Castle!
• If you have any questions about the site, just open up a topic in the forum question section and a staff member will personally follow up with you.
• Want a signature? Avatar? Picture of your OC? Take a look into one of the numerous request threads available in Creative Resources!
• Once you're ready to dive into the magical land of Equestria, start off by introducing yourself. 

*brohoof*

 

~ Mailmare

Anyway, there is something to say about the over-reliance on these topics. I remember I actually did two things as a Team Leader. I created a app/spreadsheet that had every 'resource' topic and FAQ so that I could keep track of things for an eventual audit. That and my Feedback deep dive still sits unused. I actually have statistics on how many times people suggested x,y,z. And how many times a,b,c broke. 

When doing these projects I realized keeping tabs on everything is actually more effort than it has a right to be. My suggestion is that the staff take a page out of software development, and create version control for all of these and delegate authority to a Canterlot Team Member as a 'Document Control Specialist'. 

They could also coordinate with Administration on pinned topic organization. 

3 hours ago, Rikifive said:

There also are too many categories. For example, I'll mention the one with ranks again. It is posted in Site Problems & Questions category, but honestly, it's also related to Navigating and Using MLP Forums,

That Nav link ... I haven't gone there in a while but I suspect it needs to be updated drastically. If not, disregard. The reason there are so many categories has to do with the sheer number of topics in them. That is because members were constantly mounting the 'but it doesn't say that in the rules!' defense when they were messaged, warned, or banned. 

Those could easily be cleaned up with modern web design so that it doesn't look as cumbersome. Pages is ... well I wouldn't take that job. 

[Snow 7,015]

23 minutes ago, Jeric said:

insure all the information is accurate and updated.

Naturally, editing or perhaps creating one from scratch is in order.
regardless of that it is the "Ultimate MLP Forums Posting Guide" posted by a staff member for the users to reference, as a simple user my business is to follow the rules and guidelines established by the staff team of this forum, if that is our reference than that is our reference, making sure the regulations set buy the staff are up to date is not my responsibility but the responsibility of the staff who make and enforce them, an excellent point to be raised, If the standard has changed the people must know and the guide should be updated. 
I said what I wanted to say, I believe having an accessible posting guide will greatly benefit the users and may make things easier for the staff, anything further is back seat moderating out of my control.
 

25 minutes ago, Jeric said:

Does Mailmare still work? When I joined this was the welcome messages posted to my PM. 

Not that I am aware, I received no such message. 

[Jeric 46,851]

1 hour ago, Snow said:

Naturally, editing or perhaps creating one from scratch is in order.
regardless of that it is the "Ultimate MLP Forums Posting Guide" posted by a staff member for the users to reference, as a simple user my business is to follow the rules and guidelines established by the staff team of this forum, if that is our reference than that is our reference, making sure the regulations set buy the staff are up to date is not my responsibility but the responsibility of the staff who make and enforce them, an excellent point to be raised, If the standard has changed the people must know and the guide should be updated. 
I said what I wanted to say, I believe having an accessible posting guide will greatly benefit the users and may make things easier for the staff, anything further is back seat moderating out of my control.

Agreed, though I tend to take a more diplomatic stance on the language since I'm familiar with the effort involved and the volunteer nature of staff -- plus psychology. People are complicated creatures, and when obligation and entitlement gets lobbed at individuals in phraseology that is less than inspirational, things tend to get done ... much more slowly. 

And a salient counter argument to this whole thread could be that the combined information found in all those posts + plus the FAQ + plus the Global Rules ... can be an ineffective way to achieve the desired result. Understand every possible view you can, and dismiss few out of hand. 

The best solutions are usually not going to be done. You know what may be a good idea for navigation and rule based FAQ's? Videos or even an interactive tour. I doubt anyone on staff has the bandwidth to do that, and it would be inappropriate to be that presumptuous. 

1 hour ago, Snow said:

said what I wanted to say, I believe having an accessible posting guide will greatly benefit the users and may make things easier for the staff, anything further is back seat moderating out of my control.

Oh Boy. This was a great platform for discussion, however I hope that statement is not indicative of what generated this topic -- a staff communication. These suggestions always work better when the initiative is not derived from getting told you did something wrong. If that's the case then I feel as if I may have wasted my time even posting this. If not, disregard. 

[Snow 7,015]

6 hours ago, Jeric said:

Oh Boy. This was a great platform for discussion, however I hope that statement is not indicative of what generated this topic -- a staff communication. These suggestions always work better when the initiative is not derived from getting told you did something wrong. If that's the case then I feel as if I may have wasted my time even posting this. If not, disregard. 

I know videos and tutorials would have a greater impact and prove more sucsessfull, considering the lesser amount of effort that would be involved I decided to pitch this idea.

This is more relevant to convenience for other users, lots of people are unsure on where to post and would benifit from a complete rundown on how things work and what they are expected to do, I know, not everyone will read it and it won't prove 100% effective but it should be relatively easy to do compared to a video or tutorial

Maybe one day we will have videos, but until then having at least written guides that goes into detail for those who are interested could indeed prove themselves.

[Rikifive 24,171]

19 hours ago, Jeric said:

Does Mailmare still work? When I joined this was the welcome messages posted to my PM. 

18 hours ago, Snow said:

Not that I am aware, I received no such message. 

On June 9, 2016 it still worked. I've received that lovely message from @Buffy. By the way - the one and only - brohoof from her.  
It also apparently still worked on February 28, 2017, as that's when an user reported an issue with that message.

That's all I know.  

 

19 hours ago, Jeric said:

The reason there are so many categories has to do with the sheer number of topics in them. That is because members were constantly mounting the 'but it doesn't say that in the rules!' defense when they were messaged, warned, or banned. 

Moderation and Rules are fine ~ though for example there are three articles about reporting:

I have reason to believe that a member on the forum is a troll. What should I do?

Somebody is being rude and/or harassing me on the forums. What should I do?

How do I bring something to the attention of the moderators? (btw some info and images are outdated)

 

These kinda could be merged. For example giving a general title like "Somebody is breaking the rules. What should I do?", introducing the report function - giving instructions and then answering the question "What should I report?" in one article, instead of viewing one article and reading something about reporting, then going to another to check what do they mean by 'report' and how to do that.  
At the moment, if I'd have to nitpick - what should I do when somebody posts NSFW content? It's not answered in FAQ's.  I'll make a thread in tech support!  Just kidding!  

Another example:
What is the character minimum for each forum?
Why does this site have a character minimum?

Two articles, where each barely has few lines in them. That's kinda a waste of space. A "What is the character minimum?" article, that would cover both questions would be more than enough.

The less articles there will be, the higher the chance, that they'll not be overlooked. For detailed FAQ's with tiny questions and answers - a thread with spoilers would perform better, because we'd not have to go all over the place opening all of this in many tabs.

 

17 hours ago, Jeric said:

And a salient counter argument to this whole thread could be that the combined information found in all those posts + plus the FAQ + plus the Global Rules ... can be an ineffective way to achieve the desired result. Understand every possible view you can, and dismiss few out of hand. 

As for me- If the information is located all over the place and/or there's simply too much of it, then it will be ineffective for me indeed.
The most common reason is, that if there's too much to read - the reader will most likely not read that at all or get confused in the middle and decide to ask somebody anyway, just to be sure. I ... I kinda do the same.

 

11 hours ago, Snow said:

I know videos and tutorials would have a greater impact and prove more sucsessfull, considering the lesser amount of effort that would be involved I decided to pitch this idea.

Aaaaaactually videos require more effort.  Recording - editing - rendering - uploading... And again editing - rendering - uploading when wanting to update the video with new information.

And a video about how to use forums and rules seems funny.  Don't get me wrong, but what the video could show? Forum Rules?  How to post? These are tiny things, so it can be covered with up to 5 images, that would show the process step by step. A good text-image presentation can do as good as video.

"Where to post" is better to have in text, due to ability to link to the areas.

 

---

 

*sigh* I definitely talk to much, don't mind me. I whine more than I should. Not like anything I said was really relevant. I just realized it's kinda none of my business.  

[Snow 7,015]

6 minutes ago, Rikifive said:

Aaaaaactually videos require more effort.

That... is what I implied  I believe we have a misunderstanding afoot, allow me to rectify.

11 hours ago, Snow said:

I know videos and tutorials would have a greater impact and prove more sucsessfull, considering the lesser amount of effort that would be involved I decided to pitch this idea.

"This idea" meaning a written guide being pinned.

[Rikifive 24,171]

29 minutes ago, Snow said:

That... is what I implied  I believe we have a misunderstanding afoot, allow me to rectify.

(...)

Oh, I see - I derp'd then.  

[Jeric 46,851]

2 hours ago, Rikifive said:

And a video about how to use forums and rules seems funny.  Don't get me wrong, but what the video could show? Forum Rules?  How to post?

Yep. A member did it at one point. Not necessarily to go over the rules, but she gave a tour of where everything is while talking up the place. 

Theoretically, it would add a personal touch, and appeal to people  in different ways than a text - but that's a whole other story. Function and feature based gifs are also possible. I was going to start using the method myself in SQ/TS (and did it once) to answer site based questions. 

But you are right in that there is increased time and production overhead. I would do it personally, but I'm recently decided to invest some free time into designing and applying more robust gamification strategies into forums in general, which is why such videos even popped into my head.