I've been at this Arduino "thing" for a dozen years and active, non-active, and active in the forums. Early on, I was very concerned over clone hardware and vocal about always having "one genuine Arduino" as a testbed and software sanity safety net.
But, fast-forward many years and my concern is that Arduino is being presented by 3rd parties as the magic solution to every electronic integration need; apparantly, even instructors in schools are sending students to the Arduino forum to seek assistance. This creates numerous "... I need a code ..." forum post which numerically has increased every year and does create a lot of ping-pong responses to extract info from the Op to define the context and specifics of vague inquiries.
Many 3rd party vendors sell Arduino clones and while Adafruit, Sparkfun, and a few others do have useful libraries that support Arduino corporate hardware and useful sensors, 3rd parties often over-sell the capabilities of their products. Numerous posts in forum.arduino.cc are for devices sold by companies that have their own support forums. Apparently, purchasers are ignorant that there are other forums for resolutions.
On the surface, Arduino.cc is likely pleased that their forum is getting so much traffic. However, I do not think it is sustainable. Ops are beginning to move into territories that are not well matched for Arduino low-end products and the high-end products are expensive and not well represented in the more experienced forum population; translated: not many members are familiar with these hardware products. High-end products are likely going to be utilized by more educated users, so maybe support will not reach a critical level; but these users are likely expecting support when requested.
As I stand on my soapbox, I have another concern: some of our more knowledgeable members are openingly arrogant and demanding in the forum when engaging Ops: specifically in posting schematics and stuff like code formatting. Yes, each sub-forum lists expectations, but new users never read this tripe... users in trouble just want answers. The forum software needs to "guide" new users into providing structured thoughts... a new user template is desperately needed which works automatically. Badgering new users is unfortunate and will be a turn-off for many and leave a negative impression on some.
Finally, there is desperately a need to have a document that puts Arduino products into a "best-used-for" guide. I see more and more posts that propose the use of Arduino far beyond the product capability. Sadly, Ops are asking after they purchase, not before. Yes, some of this activity is driven by clone hardware being positioned beyond their capability. Telling an Op that their UNO really needs to be a Mega is crushing and often not well received.
... some of our more knowledgeable members are openingly arrogant and demanding in the forum when engaging Ops: specifically in posting schematics and stuff like code formatting.
And doing so without a single WORD of help or a clarification Q. Just a lecture.
If you can't offer HELP, STFU!
I think you make some good and interesting points, but I'm not sure Bar Sport is the right place. If you agree I can move this to General Discussion.
As for reading my 'tripe', this must reflect my dad's love of eating tripe
Yes, some kind of automated prompt to provide the correct information would be an improvement. Have you seen @sterretje's proposed new forum layout? Is includes a template to complete when posting a new question.
You're right. It's getting worse. I think it's almost time for me to bow out. The bar has been set too low. chatGPT is the final straw. Think it'll just be a few days now...
For the record, I don't believe I've very often bashed anyone that was demonstratively responding to requests from the helpers, and not engaging in sarcasm, pathological stubbornness or obviously devious or apathetic behaviour. From my point of view, I'm letting out a lot of slack.
Considering same. My wife has been undergoing dual knee surgeries for about 18 months and I have been unabled to venture to my lab which is in the basement. So, to be upstairs to assist her, I been spending way too much time on this forum. Wife has been released from surgical protocols and I'm looking forward to more hobby time.
I raised the same point about user sensitivity to helper requests, in another thread. Anything that can be done in the forum onboarding process to guide or condition new posts, would seem less personal and judgemental than the current regimen of ad hoc replies.
Yep.
Templating can be strict for novices and relaxed over time; eventually going freeform if Admins desire. The old SharePoint server prior to 2010 had templating tied to directory services. Trust me, some of the old farts needed templates just to do vacation and off-days planning!
The human helpers or maintainers here could attempt to enforce the use of the templates. The helpers could refuse to provide assistance until the topic was compliant with the template. The maintainers could prevent replies until such a thing was done. However, I am skeptical whether the helpers could coordinate such a campaign (some would choose to just go ahead and provide immediate assistance regardless) and putting the responsibility for enforcement on the maintainers would increase their workload significantly.
It is possible to enforce filling of fields using the form-based alternative system mentioned at Standard text for new topics (template) - #22 by pert, but that plugin only provides an alternative method of creating topics in addition to the standard way so we would still have the problem of finding a way to funnel the target users through that topic creation interface.
In theory, a plugin could be created to add automated enforcement of filling topic templates, but I don't find an existing one and wouldn't count on someone stepping up to make it.
Your explanation is appreciated; my thoughts that Discourse was a bit more sophisticated... alas.
The Admins have enough on their workload, I do not expect that increasing that would benefit the forum positively.
