topic Re: Addition of an FAQ section. in Community Site Feedback

Addition of an FAQ section.

Anonymous — Sat, 27 Jul 2019 11:27:34 GMT

This forum is screaming out for an FAQ section, surely the ability to support this must exist within the platform already?

The number of posts on the same subject is a bit tedious, a prime example is the separation of the 2.4 and 5Ghz bands on the Plusnet provided router.

Can the superusers get any traction on this?

Re: Addition of an FAQ section.

DaveyH — Sat, 27 Jul 2019 17:44:25 GMT

It would be an utter waste of time as no one bothers to read them.

Re: Addition of an FAQ section.

Anonymous — Sun, 28 Jul 2019 07:42:26 GMT

It think you may well be right @DaveyH!

Re: Addition of an FAQ section.

Baldrick1 — Sun, 28 Jul 2019 12:19:00 GMT

@DaveyH wrote:

It would be an utter waste of time as no one bothers to read them.

True, else people would have found the previous posts relating to the issue anyway. Pinning useful topics to the top of the board does the same thing but we could do with one relating to separating the bands pinning there. At least it's then easy to point people to the solution.

Re: Addition of an FAQ section.

Alex — Sun, 28 Jul 2019 12:53:17 GMT

Hmm, I can see the points from both sides.

While I think it is a good idea, I suspect newish forum users will just post their problem without reading it anyway.

Regular forum users will probably know the answers for themselves.

Re: Addition of an FAQ section.

DaveyH — Sun, 28 Jul 2019 17:48:30 GMT

@Baldrick1 wrote:

@DaveyH wrote:

It would be an utter waste of time as no one bothers to read them.

Pinning useful topics to the top of the board does the same thing...

Which nobody reads either...

Re: Addition of an FAQ section.

Baldrick1 — Sun, 28 Jul 2019 20:32:37 GMT

If you had read to the end of my post:

@Baldrick1 wrote

At least it's then easy to point people to the solution.

Re: Addition of an FAQ section.

Townman — Mon, 29 Jul 2019 07:15:12 GMT

Typing in a title to a new post offers suggestions and links to posts having similarities ... one wonders to what extent new posters take any notice of such hints and read the topics before posting? There is though the issue that whilst descriptions might be found to be similar, the placing of answers in tickets defeats the reusability if previous events.

I fully support the tenants of this idea and have sought to gain official support for the same. Publishing FAQs does require official support so that any answer is deemed to be an approved position. I suspect that this has not come to fruition because having accepted FAQs would be a clear admission of there being unresolved issues which the media might jump on and therefore maybe not acceptable to the PR department.

It’s otherwise a great idea ... @JonoH ... is there anything you can add please?

Re: Addition of an FAQ section.

Baldrick1 — Mon, 29 Jul 2019 15:27:10 GMT

@Townman wrote:
Publishing FAQs does require official support so that any answer is deemed to be an approved position. I suspect that this has not come to fruition because having accepted FAQs would be a clear admission of there being unresolved issues which the media might jump on and therefore maybe not acceptable to the PR department.

I can see now why this could be an issue. Some questions that keep recurring relate to subjects such as, for example, the wireless performance of a Hub Zero router, where the popular advice is to ditch it and buy a far better Plusnet competitor's device from Ebay.

I can quite see that Plusnet would be unable to underwrite helpful advice such as this.

There are some help pages produced by Plusnet already that get referenced, many of which are out of date. I suspect that as Plusnet would have to review and approve FAQs the whole thing would fall into disrepute.

On balance I suspect that we're probably better off as we are!

Re: Addition of an FAQ section.

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Jul 2019 15:35:58 GMT

There's nothing to say that this has to be sanctioned by Plusnet it could be a Community FAQ with a Plusnet disclaimer if needed, after all this is a Community site.

Re: Addition of an FAQ section.

Baldrick1 — Mon, 29 Jul 2019 22:07:15 GMT

@Anonymous

I do understand and can see the logic of your argument but I can also see that of @Townman. If can use an example. There is a big difference between an individual contributor posting something along the lines: 'Independant reviews show that Plusnet's router have very poor WiFi performance, go out and buy so and so" and such a message becoming the answer to a FAQ published on a Plusnet sponsored forum. Unless such advice can be included, or if it has to be watered down, then in my opinion the exercise becomes a waste of time.

Re: Addition of an FAQ section.

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 07:19:14 GMT

An FAQ, is as we know a, Frequently Asked Question, the key word here is question, to me that does not imply anything about it being or containing the definitive answer.

I can understand the perception of that if the FAQ is the product of and maintained by Plusnet but with a disclaimer and pre publication moderation I don’t see what the issue is and I see no reason why a Community FAQ published in this manner needs to be sanctioned. It is a simple matter of automatically adding either a header or footer to the post to show this is the opinion of the poster and all advice must be taken accordingly. The same is true of any other post here, regardless of the section title.

I think we both know that this idea won’t get the traction it needs to become a reality and if this is down to the argument forwarded by @Townman regarding Plusnet's PR then what does that say about Plusnet.

Re: Addition of an FAQ section.

Townman — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 07:28:05 GMT

To be clear I still think this is a great idea. I can see logistical considerations requiring the engagement of the mods to make things sticky, have them locked and the means to up date them. I’ll go sponsor this in the SU arena.

Re: Addition of an FAQ section.

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 08:02:06 GMT

Thanks for your support on this @Townman, it is appreciated, and I hope you get the support and backing that's needed to move this forward.

Re: Addition of an FAQ section.

Baldrick1 — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 09:06:30 GMT

@Anonymous

Question asked more than once on this forum: What can I do about the poor wireless performance of my Hub Zero?

Often this is responded to with the answer: Go onto EBay and buy a Smarthub 6.

Why doesn’t this fit within the definition of a Q&A?

Re: Addition of an FAQ section.

Baldrick1 — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 09:19:42 GMT

@Townman wrote:
To be clear I still think this is a great idea. I can see logistical considerations requiring the engagement of the mods to make things sticky, have them locked and the means to up date them. I’ll go sponsor this in the SU arena.

I have a couple of topics that have been made sticky. As comments and clarification questions come in I have realised how the original post could be improved. However I no longer have the capability to edit the original post. This option, be it needed to be submitted through a mod with a reason would be good. This would enable the first post to give the definitive answer without having to trawl through subsequent posts. If the original is locked then the feedback becomes lost or contained in a new topic.

Re: Addition of an FAQ section.

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 09:22:35 GMT

I don't think I said it didn't as it evidently is a Q and A. But going to eBay it is not the definitive answer, as you know there are many factors that could be causing this. But with a properly written FAQ some, if not all, of the possibilities could be address. As a very, very bad example:

Hub Zero FAQ.

Install Info

Blah, blah

IP Config

Blah, blah

Wireless Settings

How to split blah, blah

Poor Signal?

Blah, blah.

Ensure there is nothing within range that could be causing interference.

Jump up and down, waving a stick.

If after trying the above and you still have poor signal then another option is to replace your device it's not a scary or even as expensive as it sounds. See the Alternative Routers FAQ for more details.

Re: Addition of an FAQ section.

Baldrick1 — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 10:13:37 GMT

I can now see that we're coming at this from totally different directions. All your setting up suggestions already exist on Plusnet help pages and are there to enable the customer to get the best out of a device. Presumably you just want these easier to find.

In this example I was coming to it from the viewpoint of a customer who has experience of one of these devices who simply wanted to get the message across that the Plusnet offering is not very good so not to bother tinkering with it as a far better alternative is available cheaply.

I'm sure that your approach would be far more acceptable to Plusnet but mine possibly more useful to customers who were fed up with their WiFi performance.