Hi everyone,
One of our Expert Elites, Alfred Neswadba, proposed an idea that I thought would be good to run by all of you.
You've probably noticed at the top of many of our boards we have a "New KB Content for [insert month here]" thread that we populate with any knowledge base content that's been added for that product during that month. Alfred proposed that we do something similar to highlight top threads each month.
Essentially, we'd create (and post to the top) a "Top 10 Threads from Last Month" thread that would contain an automated list of, well, the top 10 threads on that board from the previous month. The thought behind this is that a lot of that good content gets pushed down the list and overlooked because of all the new questions that come along.
Would this be useful to you? If so, what about the idea works? If not, what doesn't? Do you think there's a better way to collect and highlight that content?
I think the tops of the forums are starting to get quite cluttered already with static posts: what would be the criteria for the "top thread" exactly?
I believe that this topic was touched upon in the massive "User Engagement Ideas?" thread that Jillian started a while back. If you're willing to dig through it, there should already be a few opinions and suggestions about this very thing.
Agreed - Especially the EE Forum.
Thin Column to the left with the same look as the Forum thread column perhaps?
Regards, Charles Shade
CSHADEDESIGN | AUTOCAD LT | LT-KB | DYNAMIC BLOCKS
Please mark Accept as Solution if your question is answered. Kudos gladly accepted. ⇘
Hi,
>> what would be the criteria for the "top thread" exactly?
Most kudos or most views or other ideas are also welcome.
I know that threads with just one kudo might be the most one currently, maybe we can make "kudo" then more worth so a thread gets honoured by more users/readers.
>> think the tops of the forums are starting to get quite cluttered
I thought that to be just one thread as it is also currently the one thread with "New KB Content for January" and within this there is a list of the top threads listed as links.
It's not my intention to have then 10 posts listed on top of each forum.
- alfred -
Not sure "most kudos" or "most views" is truly helpful to the majority of visitors to these forums: the alternate proposed FAQ topic (from Jillian as well) at the top of each forum may be the better approach I think anyway.
Let's not add to the visual 'clutter' that may confuse a visitor to the forums: "more" is not always better, expecially when it comes to dark gray threads at the top. A less hidden SEARCH box more prominenetly displayed would do more to help a visitor than a clutter of Kudos-based posts.
Might be a bit convoluted, but since posts can contain links to other posts, the list of top threads could be maintained in a single (locked) thread per-sub forum with a single sticky at the top. Each month has a new post, with appropriate links.
I like that idea, if any.
I think a better search engine should be a priority.
Mark Green
Working on Civil 3D in Canada
Bully on the search engine response; especially in AutoCAD Online Help
Tried searching the word surveyor but Help would only pick up on surveyor's since that was in the text of the Help file.
Even Ctrl-F will find parts of words.
Regards, Charles Shade
CSHADEDESIGN | AUTOCAD LT | LT-KB | DYNAMIC BLOCKS
Please mark Accept as Solution if your question is answered. Kudos gladly accepted. ⇘
I have to agree: a better and more prominenetly displayed SEARCH with better SEARCH abilities and better more concise "suggestions" would do more for this site than text-based clutter on a text-cluttered screen that these forums present to a visitor.
We agree with you guys that search functionality is sub-par, and are looking into ways to improve. I'll note these thoughts and make sure to get them back to our team for consideration.
So, for the "Top 10 Threads" post -- if search were fixed, would this concept be something you'd still be interested in? Or is it more of an in-the-interim fix for not being able to easily track down good content?
"Top 10" thread makes no sense if there is a FAQ thread as also discussed. Pick one or the other, no one is reading your always on sidebar about Windows 8 right now so I doubt they'll read a "top ten" or FAQ either.
They'll just become lazy pointers for us frequent contributors: maybe that's what we contributors need instead 🙂
pendean wrote:"Top 10" thread makes no sense if there is a FAQ thread as also discussed. Pick one or the other, no one is reading your always on sidebar about Windows 8 right now so I doubt they'll read a "top ten" or FAQ either.
They'll just become lazy pointers for us frequent contributors: maybe that's what we contributors need instead 🙂
My original FAQ idea was pretty much intended to be a tool for the contributors, since I don't expect it be be frequented otherwise. I don't think many will really even notice it, regardless of how sticky it may be...
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