Suggestion: Make more visible the "Support - General" category

Feedback Forum
1

In the old forums, I used to frequent the Newbie Corner subforum. While I understand why it was removed (as explained here, for example https://forum.manjaro.org/t/missing-newbies/3861/9), I miss how visible it was as a separate support forum.

Today I came for the first time to the new forums because of an issue with the display of emojis, but it took me quite a while to actually find the appropriate place to ask the question. I believe the reason was the difference in visibility of both subforums:

Newbie Corner used to be the first support subforum (4th, subforum total: https://archived.forum.manjaro.org/), and by name and purpose to me it was like a beacon. I had a question that I couldn’t solve on my own, and I quickly had a place where to ask it.

Contrast with Support - General. It is very hidden. So much, that it doesn’t appear on my screen by default, I had to scroll to see the Support subforums. Furthermore, Support is filled with several subcategories in apparent random order, currently:

  1. Installation, Boot & UEFI
  2. Kernel
  3. Graphic Cards & HDPI
  4. Tablets
  5. General
  6. 3rd party applications
  7. Laptop
  8. Sound
  9. Network & WIFI
  10. Printers
  11. AUR
  12. Programming
  13. Manjaro Hardware
  14. Virtualization
  15. Software & Applications
  16. Gaming
  17. Snap/Flatpak
  18. Server
  19. Browsers

It personally took me quite a while to find it. At the beginning I even considered that there was no “General” category, or that I should be asking at the Desktop forums (as they appear earlier). I also quickly checked some of the “New to the forum” posts, but I couldn’t find that information either.

I believe the flow for a new user looking for help should be the following:

  1. Easily find the “Support” category
  2. See first the General subforum, so they know there is a place where they can ask.
  3. Notice that there are more specific subforums that could be more helpful.

I don’t know what tools are available to make it more visible, but I have some ideas that maybe could help:

  1. Move the General category to the first Support category
    1. It could also be interesting to sort the rest alphabetically
  2. Move the “Support” category over the “Desktops & Windows Managers” category. Three reasons:
    1. “Desktops & Windows Managers” is also for support. It appearing first gave me the impression that it’s the first place to ask questions.
    2. It hides the “Support” category, making users have to scroll to even see it.
    3. Inexperienced users usually don’t make a distinction between system and desktop environment, so it may be more natural to ask questions in the Desktop forums because, well, they are using a desktop environment.
  3. Perhaps go back to the older format of listing the categories, instead of showing also the latest posts. That way more categories fit on the screen at the same time, as in the old forums.

I guess the forums are still quite new because of the forced remodeling, and I’m unsure if this is just a “me” problem or something that more people are and will experience, but I wanted to make my voice heard.

EDIT: This is offtopic, but seriously it is not allowed to link even these own forums?

2

Yeah, it would be great if it was possible to make General the first subcategory.

2 Likes
3

@codesardine Maybe put a link to it under the search box?

If your issue doesn’t fit our wonderfully thought-out categories, then please post in #support:general

:laughing:

2 Likes
4

Forum rules and notices is the first thing you see on the top, in the description clearly says that you can start in support general, if you missed that, that only means you don’t read and skip ahead.

1 Like
5

Yes, I totally did. My flow throw the Forum was more laser focused. I had a general sense of how the forum worked from previous experiences both here and in other forums.

I don’t see why that’s important.

I admit I don’t remember bothering to read the description, as I found the title descriptive enough. I probably would never read the full description unless you mentioned it. And even then I would probably also miss that those bold words were actually links to different forums: it’s not obvious and my first instinct was to go find them manually. Finally, “Desktop Environments” is still first, still suggesting that it’s the first place to go to.

I completely understand your interest in people R’ingTFM, but I don’t think that should come at the cost of usability and subverting expertise and expectations.

6

Having the option to post in both Support and Support: General is confusing imo.

Either Support or any other “Head Category” should just contain the sub-forums (no new topics in Main), or there should be no Support: General, as you can post in both now.
Support IS general and contains specific sub-forums that’s my point of view.

2 Likes
7

I would go further and say that having “Desktops and Window Managers” in a separate category is also confusing. The organization hierarchy is opposite of the other “Support” section.

The former is organized as subject matter >>> support, whereas the latter is organized in a support >>> subject matter hierarchy.

It would make more sense to move all the “Desktop and Window Managers” subcategories under as subcategories of “Support”.

1 Like
8

This topic was automatically closed after 6 days. New replies are no longer allowed.