i proposed this for Gimptalk but i think will be nice also for GC

Point is improve the quality of both question and replies, and provide a easier and more satisfying reasults to who may browse the help boards in search of solution

As now is needed to fill the title field to post a new topic,
for help board user should be also prompted to fill a very simple template as
that below

JUST ASKED: fill the template doesn't need to be compulsive
Only if the form was not filled reply may well be
"please fill the template if you need a better reply...best regard"
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###########################################
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few seconds should be needed to fill such form, but that may give to many
questions more sense and allow better replies and easier the search

I so often i found some telegraphic messages as "why my gimp do not works?"

explain every time what kind of info are needed is a pain a template as that may help

Do you mean have users who need help fill out a form on a static page?
Like a trouble ticket?

Well, if you don't get the info the person is on Windows, and if the question doesn't make sense he is on AOL :-)

Now, the programmer in me says the ideal solution would be:

1) detect if the new topic is a question: question mark in subject/text. Heuristics with the "wh" words (who, what, which, when, where) in the subject may also work, especially if the first word, or coupled with a question mark.
2) detect presence of Gimp version in subject or text (=~ "2\.\d\.\d{1,2})
3) detect presence of OS in subject or text: =~ "Win|OSX|XP|Vista|Seven|Fedora|ubuntu|Linux|..."

If question and missing Gimp or OS version, output a question similar to the one we get when somebody answers a topic just before we post an answer, recommending to state OS version, and Gimp version.

ROD in my vision

Form will become visible when clicking "New topic" in help board

A bit as in Gimp bugzilla when reporting a bug BUT in much more friendly way

And again fill that will be not compulsive only suggested
(here i may imagine many cases where would be superfluos, still i think in many other quite useful, more will make search easier )

@Ofnuts

your idea sound cool !

PS: A good idea for future browsers is an indicator that the question has been answered satisfactorily.

OH YES !!! Briiliant !

Wow, my only fear is the spam bots using it to spam the help topics part of the forum.
I could probably design one that has a recaptcha - once the form is filled out ENTIRELY with correct (ofnuts) answers it could then be submitted to the help topics forum AFTER the captcha is entered correctly.

Hrmmmmmm.... Interesting thought though. I am gonna whip out WB7 and work on a prototype.
I can actually test it on my PHPbb 3.0.8 board too.Don't know how i will link the form to the new topic button though.
Thanks for the idea PC.

A form like this would help to clarify much more a users needs.


Should probably add WILL, HOW, SHALL, SHOULD, CAN , and COULD in there too?

This all sounds good. It would help take the mind-reading out of trying to help someone.

I spot one problem, what if someone doesn't speak Clear English? Would there be an option to skip this message? And just write it yourself?

Make it pop up only in the Gimp Help forum and only on the first post. If it showed up in every forum it would become annoying.

Well yeah, but what if someone who doesn't speak English well tries to request help, but can't use good enough Grammar or just doesn't use Why How and all the other words. Would there be an option to skip?

I would hope so. If the user knew enough English to ask a question, I'd think the template would be clear enough to understand.

Yeah I guess so. I would like to see this in use on a few GIMP sites

"How" maybe, but I doubt the other ones make a difference. If you want to do it really properly, you take a sample of 300 initial posts or more, manually sort them between those that are help requests and those that aren't, and find some magic formula that obtains the same result, usually by computing some ranking and comparing it with a trigger value. A Bayesian filter will come up with the right magical formula. This is actually the same problem as detecting spam:)

Great idea.
I've answered help questions only to find out that they were using Windows.
And I use Linux exclusively for years.
All Gimp forums should do this.
Gerard.

Personally, if I have doubts about what is being requested, I just question the poster in my response.

A better solution would be to create a wizard interface that a person can click to narrow a search of their GIMP issue. If they then can't find a solution, then they know it's never been posted before so they then can freely request a solution to their problem. Most search engine at sites like GIMPChat (and it's definitely not just GIMPChat) sucks (op can remove this word if it's considered inappropriate and replace it with something more appropriate).

The help wizard and the "fill in the template" both sound like great ideas. It would surely help people to get their answers faster and more specifically to their needs.
O, did you go out partying last night? Looks like you have a lampshade on your head!

I am totally surprised of your remark, maybe you didn't get the picture :
should be exactly the opposite will help a lot not native English

maybe "Form" lead you to a misunderstanding:
Think to something looking as a POOL with 4 questions


first question is about "Operative System"

Even if my english is insufficent to understand that word, the possible answers make it crystal clear "Windows XP"," Windows Vista" , " Windows 7"," Linux" "Mac"
are international
In this context even without know any English would be no need to be a genius to guess that if i am a Windows 7 user i must check the box with label "Windows 7"


Next is question 2 "what version of gimp you use"
supposing who post unable to understand such complex english
we may hope he would give a look to the box with the possible answers

gimp 2.2
gimp 2.4
gimp 2.6
gimp 2.7
Other

Then question will become clear if not would be a hopeless case

Oh sorry, I did misunderstand you, I thought it was just gonna be blanks for them to fill in

That makes this even better

I hope this can happen