The part of the forum seems to attract questions unrelated to the functioning of the website which the moderators have to move to a more appropriate place.
Would changing the name help make it more obvious?
Is there some search that newcomers are making that brings them right here? If they hit the top level of the forum, it seems like it would be more effort to choose this subforum than to get to a more sensible place for their posts.
Maybe this area should be off limits for web crawling programs to prevent that.
Are the Mods resigned to moving multiple posts a day away from here?
Changing the name is a simple process but as Robin so rightly says it is already indicative of its use and function.
That some noobs seem to still ignore the new sign on readme given to them on thier very first POST and still insist in posting in some odd places is nothing that can easily be dealt with.
Take a look at the tutorial section where "DO NOT POST HERE" is so often ignored.
Or the COVID section where random help requests nothing to do with covid still turn up.
There is a saying that " You cannot fix stu##d " and I am inclined to agree with that sentiment.
write one sticky what this section is about with a meaningful topic
don't put any effort in moving posts - just delete them without any further notice. These people want to learn it the hard way - so this will support their intention at best. Just check some of these "moved" posts, most of them are dead without any further notice of the TO anyway.
regarding renaming, I don't know if it will help much, but maybe something like
The sticky posts serve a valuable purpose some more than others but some sections could do with trimming down a little.
We often see how even a single sticky is totally ignored so my own view is that sometimes the multiple ones can serve a purpose in drawing the eye to them.
Simply deleting non relevant posts for a section with no interaction eg MOVE or MERGE etc. may simply put noobs off using the forum especially if they have taken the time to register and work up a question.
That would be an action I would be against unless the post was a clear duplicate with almost zero answers.
Personally I often just MOVE the Q. to a relevant section with an added "stock" answer to read specific stickies which has been seen to often work.
There is more to the smooth flow of the forum than simply deleting posts that are just in a wrong section.
Nor is it a single issue for one section.
Totally against "learn it the hard way" as we get such a variety of noobs and the forum is here to help them learn not punish them (except in the case of repeat offenders).
I just did a Google search for 'Arduino forum website' and this particular section is the second result, with the first one being the archived version of the pre 2010 forum which they cannot post to. So no wonder so many first time posters come here. Perhaps renaming this section would help or as wildbill suggests, can it be 'no index, no follow'?
Yet changing that to simply "arduino website" or "arduino forum" or "arduino help" or "arduino" (no quotes) has different results altogether as the primary hit.
I would however prefer to see the indexing options tuned up slightly but I doubt at this point it would be worth the effort as major changes are on the arduino roadmap.
I suggested in Reply #1 that the present name seems fine. However ...
The banner at the top of the section says
Website and Forum - Improvements for the web system, applications to moderator, spam, etc. Use GITHUB for official reports.
Maybe it would be better like the following (so that someone who arrives first at this section is aware that there are other sections)
Comments about Website and Forum - For help with your project please use one of the other Forum sections
Per dannable, I think that the issue is that a search brings new users right here and without reading a single word of what's presented, they immediately press 'New Topic'.
I don't see Robin's proposed new title helping with that core problem.
wildbill:
Per dannable, I think that the issue is that a search brings new users right here and without reading a single word of what's presented, they immediately press 'New Topic'.
I don't see Robin's proposed new title helping with that core problem.
The search does not bring you directly to this section.
I tried a few variations of Dannable's approach and got different results each time.
Using more common search terms you can see the results yourself in that you almost have to be super specific to get to this section.
And from a moderator perspective I think more posts end up being MOVED from "Installation & Troubleshooting" than this section.
There is no single cure for each and every section.
Maybe the "new topic" page can be extended with a dropdown box to select a forum section where to post, regardless in which section one currently is. When submitting, it will automatically be posted in the selected section.
Default for users with less than 100 (or other arbitrary number) posts would be "select a forum section" so if users don't select, it will not go through. Default for other users would be the current section.
Another improvement could be a selection of the used board from a dropdown box; the selected board would automatically be added to the title. An option "other" could be useful for non-arduino boards like ESP.
Just some thoughts. And yes, a number of us nowadays probably spend more time on "report to moderator" than on actual help
noiasca:
Analyze why people are posting here wrongly so often. Don't guess.
You can ask them before moving the post. See what comes back. Find the root cause.
Good in theory.
I suspect it would be less so in practice and very time consuming.
And if the Post is not moved ASAP then others will respond to it which legitimises its placement.
sterretje:
Maybe the "new topic" page can be extended with a dropdown box to select a forum section where to post, regardless in which section one currently is. When submitting, it will automatically be posted in the selected section.
Default for users with less than 100 (or other arbitrary number) posts would be "select a forum section" so if users don't select, it will not go through. Default for other users would be the current section.
Another improvement could be a selection of the used board from a dropdown box; the selected board would automatically be added to the title. An option "other" could be useful for non-arduino boards like ESP.
Just some thoughts. And yes, a number of us nowadays probably spend more time on "report to moderator" than on actual help
Alas further development has now CEASED on this particular forum software.
Have no idea when a new platform will actually be rolled out and no current involvement in that work.
noiasca:
Analyze why people are posting here wrongly so often. Don't guess.
You can ask them before moving the post. See what comes back. Find the root cause.
As Robin so rightly points out that would be a very time consuming task.
And as also stated this is not the worst offending section by any means .
Arduino has gone as far as it can with the current forum software so much of this issue is a moot point.
For the moment we must work with what we have and that includes the bugs and other foibles.
