Hi

I thought I would add a few comments.

I have only been using XOOPS for a relatively short time and found on first use of this site that:-

1. Yes I did panic
2. There seemed to be too much info

Maybe you could have two levels of site management? A sort of newbie site. i.e. For folks like myself who have posted less than 50/100 comments we log in and go straight to a cut down version of the forum.

At this site newbies could just ask any questions they wanted and we could direct them to the correct answer using urls.

Come to think of it, that probably is just adding too much work. However, I am starting to get more confident in the use of XOOPS and have started to read quite a few of the posts on the forums and will try to answer as many as I can!

I am now finding that I have the confidence to look for the answers and not get blatted by the amount of info available.

I don't think this probably helps much but I will gladly chat further about the experiences of being a newbie!!!

Enjoy Christmas and have a hangover free new year!

With love

Rich

Rich

We have set up a category in XOOPS FAQ as follows

Quote:

And we also have "beginners corner" on the forum

Is this not clear enough? No, it's a serious question, not a sarcastic comment . You see it's all too easy for people to FORGET what it's like to be a newbie! Although we have ALL been there once. So it's up to people like yourself to erm... remind us now and again.

Thanks for your comment, maybe we could reword this FAQ category description?

Richard

Hi Carnuke

No I do think it is clear enough. I think the problem for me was information overload. That is why I was suggesting a two level approach.

Maybe you could set a 'Just Joined' level. They could be taken to those two sections and have a few moderators to those list.

You could then offer an upgrade to the full forums with a suggestion on how to use.

I would like to ponder why I now use the search facility with confidence. I am now starting to pick out the answers I need!

I think it might just be confidence with XOOPS and an understanding of how the whole XOOPS thing works.

Maybe you won't be able to get rid of those panic questions!

Rich

I agree the main page is a bit overloaded with information and may be confusing for the new user.

My suggestion, for what its worth , would be to make changes to the 'Latest Version' and 'Search' blocks, rather than adding information to the new topic page.

Suggestion for 'Latest Version' block:



Suggestion for 'Search' block:


Rowd

Good idea for an attention grabber rowdie.!
These ideas are flowing well.

yeah! you come with the better solution rowdie... good idea!

Quote:

Could you rig the actual new topic form to have the 'please search first...' text inserted in the (what do you call it...text area ? The bit of the form you type your post in).

Madfish - I was in another forum that tried that. What happened was, a large number of users left that text in their post, so many posts began with...

Quote:

I'd like to give my opinion about this.

First of all I think XOOPS is great, so don't misunderstand me.

I think the amount of newbie questions isn't because new users are too lazy to search in the available information on this site. If I have a question I want a answer as fast as possible. I don't want to post my question and wait an hour to see if someone replied. You want you answer fast and correct. So you use documentation, manuals, faq, etc.

But all pages on xoops.org are so overwhelming. I think we don't realise that. They contain too much information. As a newbie I can imagine you don't have the time to take a look at every corner on the XOOPS site. When I visit the XOOPS site I check for the news, latest comments, latest posts. For me the XOOPS site is good. But for newbies not. They want an answer as fast as possible, not latest posts, top posters, powered by, development, etc.

Xoops is finally getting some good documentation, but newbies probably don't use it. You have to scroll down to see the link. The search function is put on the bottom of the forums page. That is just asking for not using it.
But what can you find on top?
- The time now is 2004/12/22 16:34
- You last visited: 2004/12/22 16:05:29
- Total Topics: 16377 | Total Posts: 77651
- Main Options
very interesting for newbies. XOOPS has a lot of options but they don't make it more userfriendly. Who is useing the pdf function under this post? The print function? Top button? I think very few people use it. Those are nice functions but unnecessary.

So my advice: get rid of things we don't need and make the newbie information accessable as fast as possible. I don't want to scroll using the FAQ. Get rid of the category descriptions on the FAQ 'start-page. I can read the description if I'm viewing a category. What is the use of Last Q&A published? Where is the search field for FAQ? That list on the bottom of FAQ: Do I have to browse all these questions. What is the purpose?
I think if we review the entire xoops.org website like this, we might eventually get rid of the newbie questions. Putting more information on the main site 'please search forums first' isn't going to work. The message wil drown in all the other information.

By the way, take all this as positive criticisms. Everybody is doing a great job over here. Especially FAQ and documentation are much more improved then for a year ago. I wander how xoops.org will look in december 2005

I tend to agree. If you launched a new Windows application and it had as much stuff as the xoops.org page, it would be very intimidating.

I'm not sure of a good solution, though.

Maybe new users could be placed into a special group, with only a limited number of (simple) blocks displayed. After the user has made a certain number of posts, or perhaps by clicking an "advanced" link, he would get automatically "promoted" to the normal users group, with all the information displayed.

Or maybe this could be done with themes, one for newbies and one for experienced users.