Scratch

Interesting idea! I was under the impression that the FAQ forum was being deleted (I guess I was still going by the draft), but it looks like there may be a few changes coming in that way soon...

ElectricSparx wrote:

FAQ is closed...

No, you can reply to posts, you just can't post new ones. Only the ST and mods can do that. 

And I support this idea, it makes it more visible for users to see. It just seems kind of buried right now.

Support, I'd imagine the forum to deserve a higher spot 

Hang on this seems familiar O_o Was it in the Community Portal at some point?

Anyway IMO it seems nice as long as it can be easily found and reached. Except for the fact that discussing a subject might be a bit more unusual on a the wiki, considering you have to apply for an account 

Last edited by Chrischb (2012-01-27 23:00:02)

Moving the FAQ to the wiki seems like a good idea to me. The catch is, there's quite a lot of threads in this forum. And a lot of answers/explanations. There should be some sort of intuitive way to search through the FAQ without just entering your question into a search box, that can find the answer you're looking for. We did this to a certain extent with the Table of Contents. Whatever topic you're looking for, it's generally categorized into a couple sections, which you can narrow down and find. If we could create a similar system, then I think we would be very successful. 

For example, it would first ask, "Which topic is your question related to?" and it would give the following categories: Scripting, Animating, Uploading, Scratch Website, Forums, and Langages (those are just some examples, they would probably be different). Once you select a category, it would give a list of questions for each one (some questions might go under more than one category). Then, when you click a question, it would go to a page with the answer (or perhaps the answers would be on the same page as the questions).

That's just my personal solution. There might better ways to do this. 

Last edited by Lucario621 (2012-01-28 11:46:29)

scimonster wrote:

Chrischb wrote:

Hang on this seems familiar O_o Was it in the Community Portal at some point?
Yep.    It's right here.

Anyway IMO it seems nice as long as it can be easily found and reached. Except for the fact that discussing a subject might be a bit more unusual on a the wiki, considering you have to apply for an account 
See Lucario's post down below...
And yeah, considering account approval is down... 

Jonathanpb wrote:

If I remember correctly, I think there are a few FAQ articles already... those FAQs in the forum could make a fine addition IMO 

Yes, we do have some. Category:FAQ

Lucario621 wrote:

Moving the FAQ to the wiki seems like a good idea to me. The catch is, there's quite a lot of threads in this forum. And a lot of answers/explanations. There should be some sort of intuitive way to search through the FAQ without just entering your question into a search box, that can find the answer you're looking for. We did this to a certain extent with the Table of Contents. Whatever topic you're looking for, it's generally categorized into a couple sections, which you can narrow down and find. If we could create a similar system, then I think we would be very successful. 

For example, it would first ask, "Which topic is your question related to?" and it would give the following categories: Scripting, Animating, Uploading, Scratch Website, Forums, and Langages (those are just some examples, they would probably be different). Once you select a category, it would give a list of questions for each one (some questions might go under more than one category). Then, when you click a question, it would go to a page with the answer (or perhaps the answers would be on the same page as the questions).

That's just my personal solution. There might better ways to do this. 

Yeah, I really like the TOC-type way to do it. 

I'll support it too ;D

Seems pretty ridiculous to have FAQ forums when we could just have that as a separate page on the site...

Liru wrote:

ElectricSparx wrote:

Seems pretty ridiculous to have FAQ forums when we could just have that as a separate page on the site...

Because it allows people to ask questions, and if they're frequently asked then they will be added to the OP.

^ The fact that you can discuss them adds tons more value IMO.


@wiki suggestion: veggieman001 is all for it.

I support.

Lightnin wrote:

Lucario621 wrote:

Moving the FAQ to the wiki seems like a good idea to me. The catch is, there's quite a lot of threads in this forum. And a lot of answers/explanations. There should be some sort of intuitive way to search through the FAQ without just entering your question into a search box, that can find the answer you're looking for. We did this to a certain extent with the Table of Contents. Whatever topic you're looking for, it's generally categorized into a couple sections, which you can narrow down and find. If we could create a similar system, then I think we would be very successful. 

For example, it would first ask, "Which topic is your question related to?" and it would give the following categories: Scripting, Animating, Uploading, Scratch Website, Forums, and Langages (those are just some examples, they would probably be different). Once you select a category, it would give a list of questions for each one (some questions might go under more than one category). Then, when you click a question, it would go to a page with the answer (or perhaps the answers would be on the same page as the questions).

That's just my personal solution. There might better ways to do this. 

Thanks for considering this!
In thinking about the Scratch 2.0 sprite library, I've been realizing that "Browse" is really different from "Search" - in some situations you want one, in others, you need the other. For example, the Scratch sprite library is only about 400 images or so, broken up into categories. It's pretty easy to drill down by category, and find what you want. But that kind of thing wouldn't really work as well for, say, google images, in which there are 9 gagillion items to look through in 5 gagillion categories. A search is usually much better.

I suspect it could be similar for a FAQ. If there are a limited number of entries, some may be happy browsing them. But if there are too many, or too many different types of entries, fewer fewer people will read through them. I kinda think our current FAQ is kinda not that fun to just read through - it's pretty long. Have any of you read through it?

The people who are searching for an answer because they got stuck may not have the patience to spend much time drilling down and answering questions about what they are looking for. I kinda think they'll want to just search and try to find their answer quickly. But I'm not against offering multiple views into the FAQ entries. The default one could be a simple search box, *maybe* with some tags? And an alternate one could be through an organized TOC that lets them narrow things down. But the TOC has to have few enough categories that it's easy to drill down. It's worth sketching out what those categories might be for the new Scratch FAQ. It'd have to cover the current FAQ entries and many more.

I'm not really sure if what I'm imagining is a giant FAQ or a knowledgebase yet... I need to sketch out some thoughts. Maybe I'll make a page on the wiki and start proposing stuff?

Sounds like a cool idea! Remember, keep the wiki page wiki-like, not to be used as a forum or anything. Or... if I recall correctly, you used to have a blog... do you still do that anymore? XD