Abuse of the "New Topic" Button Vs Search Field (Repeat Posts)

Thereeeeeee we go :wink:

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Not really. There is a developer section, but it’s not strictly a developer community. I and others have actually lobbied for there to be a separate developer community. I answer questions that I know have been answered multiple times. I guess I am an enabler.

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Yup… and include all the relevant hyperlinks.

I wonder how many people will actually follow the suggestion. I hate to make folks feel unwelcome, but … well, that’s SmartThings job, not mine.

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I agree that there is nothing wrong with been a nice guy and helping out . . . I love to do so myself wherever i can.

Buttttt if you have to tell 101 new users how to reconnect a bulb that isnt working correctly because they couldn’t be bothered to do a few minutes research . . . Over time you wont be " mr nice", you will be " mr i cant be arsed going on the community tonight " and that day would be a real shame . . .

I think everyone here agrees that SmartThings needs to clean up the way that everyday users can find solutions and support as a pose to clogging up the only area of the platform that all the creative hardcore wizards use to discuss and materialise there wisdom into Magical automation solutions, which is overall the real reason the majority of us are all here and logging in every night . . .

That team morale and posativity isnt worth loosing when a simple solution could be created to clean it up, be it a better search option or entry level limitations or a clear guidance on best practise… :slight_smile:

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People are desperate these days because support is unable to handle the overwhelming number of tickets. My take is that if no one is helping them, then this community will continue to be flooded with threads related to app 2.0.x functionality. I hope that the hype will die down in few weeks and we will see more of development type threads. @tgauchat tell me why I am wrong to think this way…

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Very true, I was looking for something yesterday I knew I read a month ago and couldn’t find it…

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A wiki is more efficient for both readers and writers than any set of welcome guidelines.

Just sayin’… :wink:

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Granted . . . But this is all from an influx of a few new V2 users . . . (A few extra thousand max)

If there isnt a solution created asap to keep this place tidy and organised, we all know it will be put to the back of a long todo list that will be permanently “a few weeks” away from completition . . .

Then V3 will launch and 10,000+ users may join and use this as a quick support pit stop, then it is a majorrrrrr issue

Then V4 will launch and 30,000+ users may join and do the same as before… then boom all the legendery users we once looked upto wont be here because it will have frustrated them to breaking point.

Its better to address and fix these things early than when its to late.

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Love this idea, i think it was @tgauchat who mentioned you wanted to do this earlier, it would be a great solution to be fair - power to you on this one

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A forum is a place for questions. A wiki is a place for answers. The repetitive questions are a lot easier to deal with when the answers are easy to find. :wink:

A forum is also a place for opinions, and differences of opinions. That’s also valuable. Also jokes, rumors, chatter, wish lists, brainstorming, and celebrity interviews. All good.

I really like the forum, and the community. I just think it serves a different purpose then a wiki.

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I have searched for several issues and come across similar sounding problems ( sunny skies that I called sunrise ). You can imagine what posts I came up with for that. Not one thing about the sunny feild screen. I am not a tech person. In fact, the only thing I know well is surgery. That’s what I do for a living and nothing else. I’d be happy to answer a question from someone despite the fact that you can easily search for it on the Internet. Maybe my explanation will make more sense. Just be thankful there are a lot of people interested in the product we are using. Last time I checked the Staples Connect forum I heard crickets.

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Forums are also good for speculation.

For example, am I the only one who suspects that the reason for @Ben 's new profile picture is that he hasn’t been allowed to go home since the V2 hub launched?

LOL! :sunglasses:

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I thought it may be because he was trying to impress alexa :wink:

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If only someone would suggest it… /end sarcasm

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If any of you have been frequent users of any other forum, you should be well used to the new/lazy user syndrome. Every community has this issue, and pretty much, no matter which forum it is that I have seen, the issue is never solved, but rather, managed. If there are suggestions or guides for using the search before posting, etc, that could potentially be included in a Welcome User direct message. Placing restrictions based on post counts, etc won’t necessarily solve much, as it is fairly easy to rack up 10 or so posts to get around such limitations… does the phrase “20 Characters” ring a bell? ;). As for how to have forum regulars manage the influx of repeat questions, etc, the important thing, I think is to remember that they, too were new once, and the more SmartThings units that are sold, the more non-forum etiquette savvy users there will be, and hopefully so. But hopefully there are enough regular users/contributors that not one person has to help all of the new people. It’s a community, and everybody can help out, and hopefully those new people will start to also help out those that come after them. I’ve just seen too many people on many other forums to just be mean and short and have the menality like “are you dumb? I am not going to answer your question until you use search and give me 5 page references of the search results you read” - that is going to turn off just about any new user that would dare ask a question. There’s certainly a way to help someone with their question and suggest the search option for additional or future help. And, unfortunately, as others said, sometimes the search is not foolproof either. I’m guilty of that one, too recently. (honestly why can someone actually still post in the archives, rather than force them to split to new topic?) The most basic point of my post is that no matter what’s posted here, there, or anywhere about best posting practices, or forum etiquette is that you’re not going to stop the stream of simple question posts, only at best will they be controlled a bit more. But the more users that learn the ropes and can actually start helping to answer future questions , the easier it will be on the forum regulars, as there will be more community support to go around. I’ve not been here long, but I can tell you that in my years of many different internet forums, this SmartThings community is AWESOME and I hope to help to keep it AWESOME, so bring on the dumb and repetitive questions, I am used to them, I work in Tech Support. :laughing:

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SmartThings had 9 months to staff and train their Tech Support Team in response to growth and major upgrades (and they could have chosen to stagger the Hub upgrade apart from the App upgrade).

If we provide free “basic” support, SmartThings will not sufficiently staff up for the 2 million Customers they need to get to within 2 years in order to survive.

Meanwhile, Tech Support’s management insists that response times are actually within a few hours now.

There are plenty of areas where we know Support cannot provide the solution, and these we enjoy pitching in… And even writing the FAQ, etc., at no charge to Samsung. It’s simply not appropriate.

Turning away users here simply will expedite their contact with Support who us equipped to best assist the Customer — or will become equipped by recognizing trends and needs and by hiring from the Community and elsewhere.

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I agree.

How do I search?

You have the little magnifying glass up next to your profile image. You can search all topics or within the existing one (check box for search this topic)

There are also some advanced options - which you can see by clicking options

What even I didn’t know is hidden in the options is the ability to use google to search the site I’ve used the site option directly on google, but didn’t know there was the option hidden there on the forums.

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It might be helpful if there was a top level FAQ category where those FAQ posts several have posted could be kept.

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At least we’re not bickering about Apple vs. Samsung. :wink:

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