Support and Help category

[meetdilip]

I would suggest to remove " support and help " category or rename it to something else. Also deleting the existing support requests. Google will take this as a support forum ( because of the existing content and category name ) and will bring more support requests here.

[stephen-d-allen]

Removing “Community” from the name would help too - IMO Most users acquaint Ubuntu’s Community as a general help forum. Naming it something else might help remove any confusion.

[frederik-f]

Yes indeed! Maybe something like “Developer Community” or… “Technical Community” I am not good with names

[ian-weisser]

Well, there are other valid non-technical communities and subjects that are valid here: LoCos, Documentation, etc.

Since there’s already a giant banner that specifically refers support querants to appropriate help venues, I suspect changing the name won’t have a big effect redirecting them. Indeed, names like “Technical Community” and the like may attract more of them.

Quick Google Test of “Ubuntu help” and “Ubuntu support” using an Incognito Window: discourse.ubuntu.com is not on the first page of english-language results for either term.

I’m NOT rejecting the idea of changing category name, deleting closed threads, renaming the entire discourse site, etc. I’m simply saying that we need to clearly identify the problem(s) that we’re trying to solve before generating solutions.

We want new folks to drop by and poke around, and share ideas. The occasional foolish question or drive-by feature request is one of the prices we pay for our openness. One answer: Feel free to be more generous with your flagging…and with your ‘like’ button. A friendly community attracts more collaborators and contributors.

[meetdilip]

We don’t want to make people go disappointed from this site. When someone has an issue with their OS, they will be desperate. They won’t notice anything when they see Ubuntu colours all around. No matter how politely we say that this is not the place, we will end up hurting them.

I mentioned about removing closed threads and renaming category because those are established SEO tricks with Google.

[stephen-d-allen]

We want new folks to drop by and poke around, and share ideas.

What good is that if they’re turned away? They won’t revisit! It’s a very confusing message marketing wise.
Community across the entire Ubuntu brand screams GET HELP HERE as your support forums are all marked “Community”, to the best of my knowledge. If I’m wrong, I don’t mind being corrected.

[chanath]

What good is that if they’re turned away? They won’t revisit! It’s a very confusing message marketing wise.

I have a feeling that there is no more wise marketing in Ubuntu.

Old users would tinker around, or ask, and they know where to ask, and that some times a solution won’t come through. The new triers would be quite unhappy, if their question is not answered and the post is closed. Allright, we say ask somewhere else and give them the links, but the question that arises on the new trier’s mind is why can’t I get an answer from those, who create the distro.

We are telling them to go to other fora to ask the users. How can we be sure that other users can give a right solution? Anyway, support and help category doesn’t either support, nor help. So, why keep one?

[frederik-f]

I have another one…

What about “Contributor Community” ?

[chanath]

Nearly all posts last few days (weeks) are only asking for help, and which get closed eventually. Shouldn’t this category be closed permanently?

[flocculant]

Shouldn’t this category be closed permanently?

People rarely post in this category.

What happens is that when we close something, because people apparently can’t read, this is where we put them - other options are 1 - delete them (don’t like that idea) 2 - leave them where they are cluttering up usable categories.

As far as I’m concerned - no it shouldn’t be closed permanently.

[Eskander]

Under which section should we flag support posts? They are not spam nor inappropriate. And they are not irrelevant to the title and first post…
Shouldn’t we add another option in the flag dialogue for support posts?
And maybe someone could create a discourse bot to automatically close and move them…

[ian-weisser]

Flag it as off-topic.
Don’t expend effort flagging obvious new threads that we will immediately discover anyway.

I’m not sure a bot is appropriate. We try to send querants gently toward a useful resolution, and sometimes that means personalizing the message so they know a real human listened to them and gave them specific advice for their problem…