WordPress.org

1. Clicknathan
   Member
   Posted 3 months ago #
   

   Just looking at this thread: http://wordpress.org/support/topic/insert-image-not-working?replies=12

   The "Diva and Moderator" there seems to be clogging up the forums by:

   # Ignoring the OP's statements
   # Spending more time copy / pasting rules than doing anything to help the situation

   What's up with that, ESMI? Just curious as to how that will help the community. That is currently the most popular thread according to Google for this very common problem and there was no additional help given, the thread was closed even though the original poster never marked it resolved, which in the long run seems like it hurts more than helps.

2. Samuel Wood (Otto)
   Tech Ninja
   Posted 3 months ago #
   

   Esmi acted correctly in that thread.

   Here's the thing, "insert image not working" is not a problem, it's a symptom. Specifically, it's a symptom that can be caused by any number of possible underlying problems.

   As such, somebody posting an extremely vague description of the problem like that is going to tend to get many other people piling on and saying "me too!". While me-too posts may be reassuring, they are decidedly not helpful to the original poster, especially in cases where the symptom has many problems, and the me-tooers likely are having totally different issues.

   We use a make-your-own-thread rule here for a very simple reason: It's necessary. This is a support forum. People post here because they want assistance or help. Posting in somebody's thread to assist them is fine, but hijacking somebody's thread with your own problems is not. So if there is a post and people start me-tooing it, then telling them to post their own thread is the correct thing to do, because they are interfering with people trying to help the original poster, as well as not-helping in general.

   Furthermore, posting that copy-pasta stuff about deactivating plugins and such is something that has to be repeated because people ignore it. The *vast* majority of problems people are having with the new media system is simple: they're using old plugins which break it. That's like 90% of the problem right there. I cannot count the number of times people have said "I deactivated all the plugins" and then it turns out that they a) lied and b) finally solved the problem by deactivating a plugin. If it takes posting the basic debugging steps in every single thread to get people to bloody well pay attention, then that's just what it takes. Those steps exist because, for the vast majority of problems, they will solve it or direct you to the source of the problem.

   So yes, when a me-too pile on fest starts, then closing it and telling people to start their own threads is absolutely the correct thing to do.

   On StackExchange sites, me-too posts and other non-helpful posts get summarily deleted, period. Here, we try to be a bit friendlier about it, but the same principle applies.

3. Chip Bennett
   Theme Review Admin
   Posted 3 months ago #
   

   Of 12 posts in that thread, 6 were "me too" posts, or replies to "me too" posts, and another 3 were the moderator trying to instruct people to start their own threads, for their own problems.

   One post was the OP, one was the moderator's original reply,and one was the OP's response.

   When 75% of the posts in the topic are unrelated to the OP, how can the OP reasonably expect to resolve his issue? Closing that thread was absolutely the right thing to do.

   And as long as people continue not to read the Forum instructions regarding how to post quality topics to help ensure the most efficient possible resolution, forum volunteers do the right thing by posting copy-pasted replies, designed to cut to the chase.

   A quality OP, that helps volunteers resolve an issue, will state what the problem is (what the OP expected to happen), what the OP tried, and what didn't happen as expected and/or what happened unexpectedly. Additionally, a quality OP will indicate that basic troubleshooting efforts have been exhausted, including (where applicable) changing the active Theme to the current core-default Theme (i.e. Twenty Twelve), disabling all Plugins, re-enabling Plugins one-by-one to identify a potential culprit, hard-resetting the Plugins folder, or even re-installing WordPress.

   This is especially true when, as Otto indicated, forum volunteers know that, 90% of the time, a given problem is Plugin-related (as with media uploader/jQuery issues).

   And I should point out: forum moderators here generally become moderators because they are the most-active volunteers, who have contributed the most to the forums. So to refer to a particular moderator as being "of no obvious significance" is a fairly ignorant statement, and one that is inflammatory and of dubious efficacy in effecting any sort of change.

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