Forum topic order

[m0nkey_]

I'm not sure what the forum admins are trying to achieve, but what the heck is with the order of the forum topics? You have to scroll down to the middle of the front page to actually find "Help & Support". Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't "Help & Support" this the whole point of the forum? Now we have the following order:

Community Forum
Introductions
Will it FreeNAS
Resources
Off-Topic
Pre-RELEASE testing
10-Testing
10.x Documentation
FreeNAS Forum
Forum Suggestions
Help & Support <--------
Development
Performance
How-To Guides

Why is the important part of the forum at the bottom and off-topic near the top?

Maybe if you have a 2K or 4K screen, or perhaps one of them new fangled Retina displays it's fine, but a lot of us still run 1080p.

 

[Ericloewe]

Even on my 2560x1440 screen I barely see Help and Support (though I have some additional mod stuff taking up space).

FWIW, I agree that the current order is sub-optimal and expressed this in the staff area of the forum. I guess I'll take this opportunity to suggest a better order:

• Announcements stays in place
• Community forum (though I still think most of this would be better in a lower position)
  • Introductions
  • Will it FreeNAS? - FreeNAS build discussion (renamed to something more descriptive)
  • Off-topic (Ideally in a lower position)
  • (Resources, which is rarely used for what the title suggests, moved elsewhere)
• FreeNAS Forum (swapped with Pre-RELEASE testing)
  • Help and Support
  • Development
  • Performance
  • (How-To Guides would be archived away somewhere, replaced by the Resources section)
• Pre-RELEASE testing
  • etc.

For a more involved reorganization, I'd recommend:

• Announcements
• FreeNAS Forum
  • Will it FreeNAS? - FreeNAS build discussion
  • Help and Support
  • Development
  • Performance
  • Resources Discussion (for discussing Resources, highlighting useful ones, etc.)
• Pre-RELEASE Testing
  • FreeNAS 9.10 nightlies
  • FreeNAS 10
  • FreeNAS 10 documentation (?)
• Community Forum
  • Introductions
  • Off-Topic (Does much of what "Resources - Blog posts..." was supposed to do)
• Archived sections (All locked)
  • FreeNAS 9.3 testing
  • How-To Guides
  • Resources - Blogs, reviews, Information

 

[Dice]

FreeNAS Forum

• Will it FreeNAS? - FreeNAS build discussion
• Help and Support
• Development
• Performance
• Resources Discussion (for discussing Resources, highlighting useful ones, etc.)

I agree this would make sense.
I've two additional suggestions:

1. I'd consider including "Performance" in Help & Support. The majority of threads are of the 'help and support' character but related to performance. I think a move would make sense.

2. "New to FreeNAS?" and "General Questions and Help" seem to be somewhat redundant. I'd consider merging these.
Then creating a 'Newbie area' where the following would be present:
- Will it FreeNAS (hardware related)
- General Questions (software related)


Cheers, Dice

 

[m0nkey_]

For a more involved reorganization, I'd recommend:

• Announcements
• FreeNAS Forum
  • Will it FreeNAS? - FreeNAS build discussion
  • Help and Support
  • Development
  • Performance
  • Resources Discussion (for discussing Resources, highlighting useful ones, etc.)
• Pre-RELEASE Testing
  • FreeNAS 9.10 nightlies
  • FreeNAS 10
  • FreeNAS 10 documentation (?)
• Community Forum
  • Introductions
  • Off-Topic (Does much of what "Resources - Blog posts..." was supposed to do)
• Archived sections (All locked)
  • FreeNAS 9.3 testing
  • How-To Guides
  • Resouerces - Blogs, reviews, Information

This is good. I like this order. What will it take to convince the forum admins to make this modification?

 

[Ericloewe]

What will it take to convince the forum admins to make this modification?

I don't know. Paging @JoshDW19 for comments.

1. I'd consider including "Performance" in Help & Support. The majority of threads are of the 'help and support' character but related to performance. I think a move would make sense.

2. "New to FreeNAS?" and "General Questions and Help" seem to be somewhat redundant. I'd consider merging these.

I can agree with these.

Then creating a 'Newbie area' where the following would be present:
- Will it FreeNAS (hardware related)
- General Questions (software related)

I've been thinking of your kiddie pool concept, but I'm not sure what my opinion is. I fear that segregating basic questions might lead to a sort of parallel community, more in line with your generic, almost-useless blog. (In case you have a blog, I'm sure it's anything generic and almost-useless. I'm addressing the crowd :p). But it might reduce burnout due to an excess of basic questions.

 

[JoshDW19]

Answering the @JoshDW19 signal.

Let me think on these things. I like the ideas presented here. Thanks for the input!

 

[Dice]

I fear that segregating basic questions might lead to a sort of parallel community. [..] But it might reduce burnout due to an excess of basic questions.

I think this is already starting to happen in the new addition "Will it FreeNAS". The canned standard answer to a non-compliant build is already established at "read the hardware guide". The area I think, will serve shallow light weight direction in what to do, rather than the why. Boolean feed back, at best including a pointer on where to <read on your own>. The few first threads have shown very limited content that builds knowledge among readers, compared to /hardware.
It seems like there is already a subclass forum developing, distinct from the more developed answers.
The risk of forum burn-out I'd expect to increase with the number of subforums which focus on similar helpdesk style questions.

Furthermore, there is a dilution of topics happening.
The same kind of questions that we'd like to see in /hardware tends to end up in anything between "General Questions" and "New to FreeNAS" and now also in a specific kinder-garten area for hardware "Will it FreeNAS?".

I guess the idea/thought behind the initiative is to lower the threshold for newbies to dare asking questions. The way it is setup right now calls for some awareness of challenges ahead.
The underlying problem is that if a lot of contributions/answers are served as canned beans, the likely hood to develop high cuisine chef skills from reading about canned beans is rather slim.
That is somewhat a troublesome path to walk.

 

[JoshDW19]

I guess the idea/thought behind the initiative is to lower the threshold for newbies to dare asking questions. The way it is setup right now calls for some awareness of challenges ahead.
The underlying problem is that if a lot of contributions/answers are served as canned beans, the likely hood to develop high cuisine chef skills from reading about canned beans is rather slim.
That is somewhat a troublesome path to walk.

That's a really great perspective. In my opinion this board is full of elite users that have tons of experience. It's important to the longevity of any forum that new users can participate and become involved before they gain an incredible amount of knowledge. I'll explain my thinking a bit here. Our community has had some serious growth over the last few months with new users. One thing I noticed though was that our "conversion rate" of people that register and stay active on the forums was seriously low in comparison with other forums. I'm hoping by providing a couple of areas of the forum that newbies can get involved in, that it will help us get people that will stick around longer.

Canned beans is right in a way. Answers don't always have to be long and drawn out. Sometimes the best thing we can do is refer someone to the manual and let them know what section to look at. It's incredibly important though if we want people to be a part of our community that we get them involved. I realize this isn't for everyone and we're all different. Personally I like answering the easier questions because it gives me a way to participate because I'm not as knowledgable as many of you. I'd encourage anyone that feels this is a burden to let me or some others that don't mind to step up and help in the more "newbie" areas.

I'm going to work on sorting our forum order back out today. @Ericloewe's plan looks pretty solid.

Best,

Josh

Edit: Duplicate words.

 

[JoshDW19]

OK everyone have a look at the new order and see if that seems sane. @Ericloewe (and this question is really for anyone) do you think we should move "Forum Suggestions" under community forum? I'm kind of thinking about it since it's a bit off topic from general support of FreeNAS.

 

[Ericloewe]

Yeah, I'd probably put it under Community Forum.

 

[Ericloewe]

I feel that "Will it FreeNAS?" needs a more visible indication of its purpose.
I'd recommend the following:

• Appending "FreeNAS build discussion" to the title, as in "Will it FreeNAS? - FreeNAS build discussion"
• Adding a descriptive subtitle like most sections have, say "Discuss your FreeNAS build here and share the results with the community"

 

[JoshDW19]

I feel that "Will it FreeNAS?" needs a more visible indication of its purpose.
I'd recommend the following:

• Appending "FreeNAS build discussion" to the title, as in "Will it FreeNAS? - FreeNAS build discussion"
• Adding a descriptive subtitle like most sections have, say "Discuss your FreeNAS build here and share the results with the community"

Yup I agree. Let's do it.

 

[Dice]

I'd further add to that "will it freenas?" primer - "have you read the hardware instructions? - here, here, and here?. Please do before posting".
Sort of putting the canned beans in the header.

 

[JoshDW19]

I'd further add to that "will it freenas?" primer - "have you read the hardware instructions? - here, here, and here?. Please do before posting".
Sort of putting the canned beans in the header.

Good idea.

 

[m0nkey_]

Thank you for re-ordering the forum. Seems to make far more sense now.

 

[JoshDW19]

You're welcome.

 

[Stux]

Sooo much bettererness.

 

[JoshDW19]

I'd further add to that "will it freenas?" primer - "have you read the hardware instructions? - here, here, and here?. Please do before posting".
Sort of putting the canned beans in the header.

OK I put in a little blurb about reading the hardware instructions in "Will it FreeNAS?". Are there any other links that you all think we should have?

 

[Dice]

OK I put in a little blurb about reading the hardware instructions in "Will it FreeNAS?". Are there any other links that you all think we should have?

Three links that I find most useful, very informative and helpful to the introduction of FreeNAS hardware.
The first covers cost aspects which translates to solving the forum question of "does this junk run freenas?" at its worst. Occasionally "What is the cheap, done right FreeNAS cost?". It for sure gives newcomers a fairly upfront indication the seriousness of a FreeNAS box in terms of budgeting.
The second obviously includes a lot of goodies on the low level software side, but most importantly to newbies - it provides key clues on the structure of the concepts vdev and pool. Which assists greatly in the newbie's ability to select somewhat appropriate first suggestion on drive setups, including avoiding "SSD cache" terminology.
The third gives actual real world product recommendations, pointing the user to specific models.

1. https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ll-a-proper-home-freenas-setup-cost-me.28936/
2. https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ning-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/
3. https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/

I suggest these to be put very visible in the Will it FreeNAS? section.

Or hell, edit this post for beauty and put it as a sticky.