Need help? Check out our Support site, then


WordPress.com Forums » Ideas

12

change the appearance of wp.com forum so it doesn't look like wp.org forum

  1. timethief
    Member

    The fact is that the "biggest" tag on this wordpress.com support forum is wordpress.org !

    And, as such it represents how much volunteer time is expended on directing self hosted wordpress.org bloggers to the correct forum.

    IMO the two forums look too much alike and the fact that they have such a similar visual appearance leads to unnecessary confusion.

    The appearance can be changed easily changed so why this hasn't been done yet by TPTB is beyond me.

    Fellow bloggers do you think this would be a good idea or not?

  2. timethief
    Member

    @Trent
    Oh dear ... it appears that the edit function does not work on the original posts in threads and so it looks like I deliberately spammed the forum when I did not intend to. Will you please delete the other threads?

  3. raincoaster
    Member

    I think you only need to post it once.

    But yes, it would be a good idea, and the login should be different as well.

  4. raincoaster
    Member

    yes, but now you're bumping all of the other threads.

  5. timethief
    Member

    I thought I'd best state this in theother threads or else we will have bloggers posting to them and that would make it even harder for Trent:
    @Trent
    unintentional duplication - please delete

  6. timethief
    Member

    The thing that tricked me is that the "edit" appeared so I used it ...agggrrhhh!

  7. universalgeni
    Member

    Yes, I support this idea. It is a very fine suggestion. A little graphic make-up should do the trick. Excellent thinking timetheif.

    Never mind the extra threads. These things happens...

  8. timethief
    Member

    @raincoaster
    Good idea. I would welcome a visually different sign-in as well.

  9. universalgeni
    Member

    What edit function is that, timetheif? I don't see any?

  10. timethief
    Member

    Thank your lucky stars that you don't see the little edit to the right of the date on these posts. I clicked it and went about correcting things without looking up at the screen. And, when I did look up it was an OMG! moment.

  11. mark
    Staff

    1 big tag removed.

    I happen to find the forums markedly different.

  12. raincoaster
    Member

    Yes, but you know what you're doing. We're talking about the point of view of the users, who are easily confused by the similarities. You and we waste a lot of time dealing with people who could be prevented from wasting ours and their time by a simple visual clue.

  13. timethief
    Member

    @Mark
    Correct me if I'm wrong but you are the Support Maven for wordpress, right? That being the case I would really be worried about you if you could not discern the differences between the two forums ...lol. But, as raincoaster points out this idea was aimed at assisting new bloggers and, not old hands who know their way around.

    I know that this can be easily done so my ears are perked to hear the what the reasons are for for not making the two forums dramatically visually different. So far I haven't heard any "reasons".

  14. mark
    Staff

    I disagree.

    The goal is for wordpress users who self-host to not post here but to instead post to .org
    So a self-hosted user has a problem. They do not click the links in their blog and instead go to the .com site. It's like me going to playstation.com, apple.com, microsoft.com, most-sites.com
    They make no connection between the software they use and the forum they arrive in.

    If they have not come here before then how will they know it's the wrong place?
    You are asking them to make the connection between their blog and 2 sites they have never been to before. And given the nature of sites it's natural to look for a .com

    On the Support form it says they must have a .com blog - some miss that. (Some even get a blog here then insist on support for their blog elsewhere).

    I think the only answer is to accept these posts will always happen.
    Make a polite post pointing them to the .org forums. If you see such a post, copy your reply - and then no-one at all reply. They don't need telling 4 times and we don't need that thread being bumped constantly. Just one reply and it doesn't matter who writes it.

    And to get some sort of scale, someone count the posts (not the replies) that are mistakenly placed here and are directly related to .org - I doubt there are that many.

  15. raincoaster
    Member

    There are. Do you think we would make this up?

  16. raincoaster
    Member

    What benefit does it give to the WordPress.com community OR the WordPress.org community, OR the staff and volunteers, if this simple change is NOT made? I'm not seeing where the value lies in that decision.

  17. mark
    Staff

    What is this simple change?

    I don't think a design would work given the differences already.
    I don't see how we can tell people that this is the wrong place.
    And if we used questions that they needed to answer, or boxes to tick then when someone did post wrongly it would attract even more ire.

    I genuinely do not think there is an answer.

  18. mark
    Staff

    "The appearance can be changed easily changed"

    to what though is what I mean.

  19. raincoaster
    Member

    To a different colour scheme (not blue and white!), with a tagline across the top of the page:

    Welcome to the support forums for blogs hosted at WordPress.com. Have a WordPress blog hosted elsewhere? Click HERE.

  20. katm
    Member

    I totally see Mark's point. I deal with this with some other software. Not so much the free/self hosted issue but rather software vs project using the software issue. The only thing you can do is point those folks in the right direction.

    So many web hosts now offer wordpress as a one click install. So many people don't go to wp.org and download the software. Then those people run into issues. Some think, "Oh, I have wordpress" and automatically type in wordpress.com. Some Google their problem and end up with the .com support forums because there's a similar issue on .com and these folks wouldn't know that .com is different than .org or even that .org exists at all. So having the forums visually distinct doesn't serve any purpose.

    Now a big welcome banner with a link to the .org forums like rain suggested is a good idea.

  21. universalgeni
    Member

    It could be an intro-page where it says "I have a wordPress .com blog" on one button and "I have a WordPress.org blog" on the other button.

  22. raincoaster
    Member

    Yes, that was suggested awhile back and I still think it's a good idea. "I am hosted at WordPress.com/I have a blog with WordPress software, hosted elsewhere" or something like that.

  23. raincoaster
    Member

    Also: this week we've had what seems to me to be a rash of "oh, I already asked that at WordPress.org but I thought I'd ask over here too. Maybe you can help me?" Those people need to know that we can't, right up front.

  24. trent
    Member

    I think the funniest part of all this was arriving back at the forums to see this thread posted 6 times by tt! I had to laugh as that is way too funny! :)

    Trent

  25. thesacredpath
    Member

    You also see those that asked at .org but never got an answer so in desperation, then head over here hoping someone can fix their problem.

    Here's my dilemma: I have some (limited) experience with the .org software and installation, and I can answer some of those .org questions we get here, but don't feel I should here at the .com forum. In some cases, the answer is actually the same as it would be here.

    I'm not likely to volunteer in the .org forum since one is quite enough.

  26. trent
    Member

    I do spend quite a bit of time in the .org forum and think that some answers are slow at times, but since there are "so many posts", there is not often an answer that can't be found by a series of searches. That being said, I don't think .org answers should be given in these forums either since they are rather confusing since they are most often not relevant to the users of this hosting service. Politely asking them to ask in the the wordpress.org forums seems to be the way I think.

    Trent

  27. thesacredpath
    Member

    And that is what I do.

  28. timethief
    Member

    There's no doubt that thesacredpath, ellaella, raincoaster, myself and other volunteers direct folks to the wordpress.org forums every day. And there's no doubt that we are polite when we do so.

    My goal was wordpress users who self-host to not post here but to instead post to the wp.org forum. And, as I'm an artist I thought that a visual colour scheme differentiation or even a big GREEN button might serve the purpose of at least, reducing the confusion for some. Perhaps I was wrong.

  29. timethief
    Member

    P.S. Trent
    I'm glad you laughed :D
    ~ I cringed. :(

  30. rosclarke
    Member

    I think you're right, TT. It seems to me to be the single biggest timewaster on the forum. And although the information is there, it would save a lot of trouble if it were in some very obvious visible way. A colour change and a banner might well help.

Topic Closed

This topic has been closed to new replies.

About this Topic

Tags