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Monthly Post of Top Threads: Useful or Not?

13 REPLIES 13
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Message 1 of 14
TBasich
1026 Views, 13 Replies

Monthly Post of Top Threads: Useful or Not?

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?



Teresa Basich
Community Manager
Autodesk, Inc.
13 REPLIES 13
Message 2 of 14
pendean
in reply to: TBasich

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?

Message 3 of 14
CoreyDaun
in reply to: TBasich

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.

Corey D.                                                                                                                  ADSK_Logo_EE_2013.png    AutoCAD 2014 User  Revit 2014 User
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
⁞|⁞ Please use Mark Solutions!.Accept as Solution and Give Kudos!Give Kudos as appropriate to further enhance these forums. Thank you!
Message 4 of 14
Charles_Shade
in reply to: pendean

Agreed - Especially the EE Forum.

Thin Column to the left with the same look as the Forum thread column perhaps?

Message 5 of 14
Alfred.NESWADBA
in reply to: pendean

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 -

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred NESWADBA
Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS ... www.hollaus.at ... blog.hollaus.at ... CDay 2024
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(not an Autodesk consultant)
Message 6 of 14
pendean
in reply to: Alfred.NESWADBA

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.

Message 7 of 14
pendean
in reply to: CoreyDaun

I gave my 2cents worth there already 🙂

Message 8 of 14
dgorsman
in reply to: pendean

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.

----------------------------------
If you are going to fly by the seat of your pants, expect friction burns.
"I don't know" is the beginning of knowledge, not the end.


Message 9 of 14
troma
in reply to: dgorsman

I like that idea, if any.

 

I think a better search engine should be a priority.


Mark Green

Working on Civil 3D in Canada

Message 10 of 14
Charles_Shade
in reply to: troma

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.

Message 11 of 14
pendean
in reply to: dgorsman

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.

Message 12 of 14
TBasich
in reply to: pendean

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?



Teresa Basich
Community Manager
Autodesk, Inc.
Message 13 of 14
pendean
in reply to: TBasich

"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 🙂

Message 14 of 14
CoreyDaun
in reply to: pendean


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...

Corey D.                                                                                                                  ADSK_Logo_EE_2013.png    AutoCAD 2014 User  Revit 2014 User
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
⁞|⁞ Please use Mark Solutions!.Accept as Solution and Give Kudos!Give Kudos as appropriate to further enhance these forums. Thank you!

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