Time to clean up around here

Doh!

My mistake.

I just checked my "Ignore Boards" preferences <blush>

Thanks
Mike

LOL … it happens. Honestly though it could have resulted from moving some posts around to new parents, too.

Is it really necessary to streamline the MODX forum to make it easier to get help ? Do you know how easy it is to find everything about anything with google ? In google just type modx plus a keyword and on 1 or 2 pages you will find what you were looking for. Both inside the modx forum AND also outside the modx forum such as github, wiki, rtfm.modx, etc. etc. Please don't remove old posts because they hold a goldmine of information for beginners. My idea would be to expand on the pioneering spirit of modx and open up modx video channels where people can upload screenrecordings to show solutions, tutorials, findings, news, whatever. (http://camstudio.org/) [ed. note: sitecms last edited this post 11 years, 3 months ago.]

We're definitely not looking to remove old posts, but we will likely archive old topics/categories and do much more cleaning up. A more integrated search across all properties is a great suggestion, but will take a bit more effort to get going.

Did you see the last 3 lines of my post #53 ? Unluckily I posted them after your post #54. My Bad timing.

No but that's also a great idea and something we've discussed a bit in the past. A potential challenge may be keeping quality and accuracy high. Do you have experience on that front, regardless?

Yes I do have experience on that. Besides making websites I help people with video tutorials to help them with their computers. Usually how to configure their emailprogram, setup skype mic and cam settings, install a printer, connect to a router, etc. etc. The thing here is that a screenrecording video make things much easier and faster to understand, compared with written text. Just look the thousands of video tutorials on youtube and how quickly you learn something if you see it happen with your own eyes. Now imagine modx video channels to help out people. Besides camstudio there are more screenrecording programs but camstudio is opensource and does the job. [ed. note: sitecms last edited this post 11 years, 3 months ago.]

Modx video channels/tutorials would also be a great way to promote modx.

Quote from: sitecms at Jan 03, 2013, 11:30 PM

Is it really necessary to streamline the MODX forum to make it easier to get help ? Do you know how easy it is to find everything about anything with google ? In google just type modx plus a keyword and on 1 or 2 pages you will find what you were looking for. Both inside the modx forum AND also outside the modx forum such as github, wiki, rtfm.modx, etc. etc.

Ryan has commented on this but I'll add a personal note. I'm a newcomer to the platform and have an eagerness to learn and accomplish as much as possible. I'm also a long-time veteran with any number of technologies, all-in-one solutions, fan sites, and whatnot.

I'm here to tell you that this environment is NOT easy to learn given the disparate sources of information, and the old data that clutters search results. When someone comes to the forum they use the forum resources. They don't look at the forum in one window and google with a complex query like this. And a search here won't reveal data in RTFM or anywhere else. If a newcomer can't find what they need, they'll get frustrated and walk away. For this reason I call poor searching tools anti-marketing because they convince people of why they Don't want to use the software. And for what it's worth, there have been many discussions over at drupal.org describing the pain of finding information over there. It's the same as what we have here - you look for help on something in Drupal and you get advice that hasn't been valid for 3 releases, like here you get Lots of hits from 2005-2009 that also no longer apply. You might find those gems that do help, but these need to be identified as such by people who know.

I've made various suggestions here based on my experiences over the last couple weeks. One of these (that thread or elsewhere...) is a suggestion that this environment make use of a Google Custom Search Engine (CSE) to aggregate information from a multitude of sources including the forum, RTFM, wiki, and blogs from the many respected community members here. I can help with that if the idea is accepted.

Appreciate the offer and feedback very much; the search definitely needs improvement on how it weighs results.

We have stayed away from Google Custom Search because there are private resources that also need to be searched. That's why we use Solr (for now). Would love to have some help working through solutions to the challenges whether it's Google CSE, Solr or otherwise.