2 kinds of support forums

[MrLemonyFresh]

I've started to get kind of hesitant about posting my problems with some programs in the support thread while others are having vital problems with their hardware and ordering. It feels like my posts are out of place compared to the posts of a much more serious nature that are usually handled by the more knowledgable users or pandora team. I think it'd be better to have a place just for non fatal problems like trying to understand how WOLD4sdl works (yes that's me, i have the files there but it doesn't load correctly.. ^^) A bit like how hospitals are split up into emergancy and non emergency sections =]


Anyone else here feel the same?

 

[moz]

I agree, 2 sections would be much easier for everyone.

 

[freamon]

Yeah. There's been a request for a separate Hardware support section before, but I think that was before we had the mods to set up that kind of thing.

 

[RobFord]

Yep, I think separate hardware and software support sections would work well.

 

[ManlyStump]

How about a third for bugs/suggestions about the website/forum/repo, etc?

 

[dreamer]

^ if you really want to address bugs we need a bug-tracker with ticketing-system.


Tracking bugs on a forum is absolutely ridiculous.


With a bug-tracker you can also do feature-requests.

 

[RobFord]

Sorry, me being dense again.


Bug tracker


That is the bug tracker, there is a drop down menu depending on what you want to report.

 

[MarioPandio]

i think there is an official bug tracker linked off the the official OPT website isn't there?


I do think separate hardware/software forums is a good idea though but I don't think anyone should feel put of from posting issues with any software in the relevant, either 'Beta Testing' or 'Software News' thread that goes with the program. If a thread doesn't exist for it (better to google search the forum than use the forums own search function, often) then making a new thread should be fine too. Mods could perhaps merge it with another related thread if one does turn up afterall, that's recent enough to make that a valid option that makes coherent sense still.

 

[Prometheus]

Yeah. There's been a request for a separate Hardware support section before, but I think that was before we had the mods to set up that kind of thing.

I'm sorry to disappoint you, but moderators cannot set up that kind of thing - making new sections is a task for administrators.


Anyway, personally, I think it's fine as it is. Further fragmenting it makes more work for us, as far as I can see - I mean, what about cases when something appears to be a hardware problem but is really a software one, and vice-versa? Cases like this, where it's been *REALLY* difficult to tell for quite a long time, have already occurred (for example, the issues with certain types of SD Cards, which was a bit of a mystery for the better part of the Pandora's first year of delivery) - what do you propose we do with such things?


The way I see it is this: We have a support section - just use it!

 

[Nintendo]

I agree...so...


[ x ] No, it's fine how it is.

 

[MrLemonyFresh]

Massive & Dreamer: I'm not talking about bug tracking I'm talking about general assistance, besides what good is a bug tracker when you're not sure whether your problem can be solved with non comprimising adjustment?


Prometheus: I don't figure it to be much of a problem now but there are some things to consider.. there are many people who own a pandora and want to get the software working and many who don't have one yet or have been having hardware problems, and these 2 clash like i've mentioned. You'll notice that most of the time when people want help with an app the'll go to the commenting section where it's released people who just want the program will ignore it and not come back since they've couldn't help prior to getting the program and afterwards forget/don't care. and on the forum, a thread will continuously be bumped because it'll have some big number of people asking their questions: a few problems with that, They are bound to ask the same question over and over because people don't like to find out whether it's been asked by going thread each page each time they run into a problem. In addition to that, it's less likely their question will be answered because mainly people looking for their own answer to question, passing it and will likely ignore it in favour of their own new question. This seems to happen quite a lot in these kind of situations. It's not too much of a problem now but when everyone has a pandora it'd be good to make some changes.

 

[RobFord]

Sorry, my second post was more to Dreamer than in reply to your original post.


I do think two sub forums with in the support forum could work.

 

[MarioPandio]

Better find some rare megaman trinkets and some pr0n for Prometheus and SONY respectively then

 

[Fworg64]

The way i see it there are advantages and disadvantages to both (of course )


Using the hospital analogy:


Split subsections:


PROS: experts in certain fields (emulators, drivers, hardware, etc.) can just check one or two forums that they know they will be able to help people with.


CONS: people who are brain surgeons but also toe surgeons at the same time will opt to perform a brain suguery (keyboard doesnt work!) rather than a toe surgurey leaving people with less vital problems (wer do t3h r0mz goez?!?!) in the dust.


ONE MEGA SECTION!:


PROS: most people's problems get solved fairly quickly by people who know a lot about a lot.


CONS: more posts, more problems, some may get intimidated to hop in.