Could the site improve the current help FAQ to be specific on general problems. I know theres many resolutions to many problems but a kinda general guide, covering more then just Video Cards and suchlike would be a boon. I'm in two minds about it, you'd get less repetative questions but then, the members would'nt return so much. I also agree it's difficult to draw up guidelines as to where the help should end (i was kinda thinking of general problems). As there are many Guru's here i don't think it would take that long to compile. Or how about a new Section called Soulutions. Modding this would save vetting a FAQ. The section would only contain answers, not questions, obviously.
Stats Just for the hell of it I did a couple of searches. Using 'search all open forums' I got : 'driver installation' = 304 'Soft Quadro' = 38 'NVStrap' = 97 And those were just the things that interested me. Didn't dare try 'which driver....?' for obvious reasons. Besides, I doubt you'd ever be able to get two people to agree on the answer, even for exactly the same setup! Seems like there's definitely a need. I wonder if it would be worth while starting a poll and finding out if people would actually look at a section dedicated to just answers?
The idea itself is of course good. The problem however is maintaining such info/content. Content needs to be updated constantly and with every hardware problem there about 100 configuration related issues and solves that would need to be inserted into such a section. Now I know I don't have the time to do such a thing, neither do the moderators. Such a section would require a lot of dedication and thus time ..
I think you might be able to find enough people to get and keep something like that going. Perhaps if a couple intrested people got togther and made a small test version covering something like driver problems? All of the information is here, in various threads in the forums. If you decide to do something, I will volunteer my time.
I really don't want to come off like I'm bashing any ideas here, but isn't the forums just a dynamic set of "solutions" for problems, tied together with search capabilities, and admined and moderated? With a few perks like UD, clan, pub and in general a really good spirited group of people helping out everyday? Honestly, I think the search feature could find what most people are looking for, but it's easier to just ask, and let the answer be found in the same thread a short time later. What's that saying? Give a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man to fish, he eats for life. Not saying it applies, but any user good with search shouldn't need to ask. Perhaps like most of the people who hang out here, it wasn't the answer they wanted, it was the comunity they joined that they were looking for
thats a good point, but a lot of question just get asked all the time. Its not like this would kill the forums, it would just help the people who are having to deal with a common problem.
thats the thing, people just don't take the time to search, but it really isn't that big of a deal, they just want to be assured that we know the problem, and they aren't following the wrong directions.
it could become more than just an answer to commonly asked questions in the forums. If it really took off, it could become the first thing people refer to when they have a problem.
Don't want to sound as if I've got an agenda to push but..I really agree with Shagga and Bourbon. If there was a dedicated, read only section which was clearly labelled and contained the basic, static information that everybody agreed on then I think a lot of casual or very shy users would go there first because : a) they would be confident that the info they found there was accurate and b) we could make it really, really simple. Some newbies are incredibly knowledgeable but most of us know next to nothing so often the explanations in threads go right over our heads because we don't know the basics, or the jargon. When I was setting up my network I practically lived at a forum which had step-by-step instructions, with pictures, for each OS. I'm not suggesting that we try and become the information site for everything under the sun, but Guru3D has a reputation for graphics related issues. I actually first heard about the guru site in a Maya forum! I wouldn't mind being associated with the 'Graphics Bible' And I wouldn't mind turning screen grabs into captioned pictures either, so long as an expert did the actual explanations coz I just don't know enough. The instructions for driver installation in the download section are a perfect example of what can be done. So win98 is covered. Win2k is covered. Rumple has done a fantastic sticky on driver installations for XP. All it would take would be a few pictures and bingo, clear instructions for the 3 most common OS's. I honestly think we already have a hell of a lot covered, all we need is to put it all in one place and 'advertise'. Um, I think I just volunteered but, my life is really a mess at the moment so graphics is about all I could commit to.
If were going to do some kind of test, I could cover the win 2000 visuals, the rest is already there.
-lol- Sounds like another volunteer to me! Sorry Bourbon, just read back a few posts and realised you'd already volunteered I'll second that!
all I'd like to say is that theres something about the name of this site that really sticks to the mind... you know, guru.... and the first time I browsed these forums, I thought... "hey, this site lives up to its name... nice." and then I'm still here! Okay, my point is that there are people here that are really dedicated in helping people. People that are willing to sacrifice their time. People who have decided that if they were gonna spend their time on-line, they would spend it by helping others. People who have found a community amongst an electronic world proliferated by a myriad of really sleazy sites, and instead of going to the latter, have decided to browse the former instead. I hope everyone got my point. :cheers:
I know many of you get tired of answering the same questions over and over again. However, people who have a problem don't feel like fumbling through dozens of posts trying to get the solution. They want a direct answer to their specific problem. I think the very obvious newbie questions and issues should be in a FAQ or something, but I don't think it is worth your time to create a a detailed solutions list. People simply will not want to read it. I know that because once upon a time I was the same way. It just makes folks feel better to get a specific answer to their specific question or problem. Do what you wanna do, but I'm just warning you that even if you put all of that time into making that list, it will not change anything. We'll still get the same questions in the forums. And then you will be frustrated because you spent all of that precious time making your solutions list for basically nothing. I think it's a good thought, but in reality it just won't work. Get what I'm saying? Anyhow, I like the newbie questions because they're the only ones I can answer.
-holds sides and laughs- They're the only ones I know how to answer as well! And yes, of course people are lazy and want an easy fix! But no-one in their right mind is going to spend hours putting pictures in a post and, for my money it's the pictures that count. I'll bet you anything that the win98 driver install instructions have been viewed...and followed...by thousands of people. I know I did and I've come across posts where it's been mentioned. And when I was trying to work out how to NVStrap my video card I would have given my left arm for a picture to show me where the hell the NVStrap option was. I was too scared to post a question quite that stupid so I wasted hours going through old posts until I finally found the answer! Give me a picture any day.
i really like the search feature, it works...one of the first things i did when i came to this site is use the search feature to look for a solution for my problem and i found it i sorta agree with rebel that people look for a direct answer for their specific problem
Ugh. Yes and no. Trouble is we're comparing apples with oranges. All of the posts I read when I first came here assumed that once people were told what to do they would be able to do it. Unfortunately, just because this is a tech site doesn't mean that the people who come here are all techs. Think back guys, once upon a time you must have been new to computing...you know, a user, someone who has learnt how to do a job with an application but has to pay for a tech guy to come in when something goes wrong! Well, some of those users can't afford to pay for techs and try for a DIY solution. Half the time they don't even know what questions to ask, let alone what to do with the answers! Besides, if you think read-only knowledgebases don't work then you haven't been to sites like this http://www.homenethelp.com/
well taking the specific section approach will take an enourmous amount of time and a lot of ppl to make it happen....stuff that us mods and admins (as hilbert mentioned) do not really have. But reading how this thread was progressing gave me an idea... im not sure if I can squeeze it in, but if its up and running, i'll let y'all know......... something good may still come out of this...
