Posted 2 years ago #
Hey,
I have quiet some experience on several discussion fora, but I always find that this forum is so especially slow… It can take ages for people to react on a discission, let alone come up with an answer…
Here is a screenshot of my profile
Isn't it just sad to see how many times there are just "No replies since."?
Why is this? Is it becasue the 'Newbie user' - 'Pro WordPress user'-ratio is so poor? Or is there just another forum about wordpress that is way better and more active?
So you're complaining about how quickly you get free support about your free software from unpaid volunteers?
Please try to be patient. Heck, please try to search these forums for others with the same questions as yours.
Posted 2 years ago #
I started to answer two of your questions today;
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/361555?replies=1
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/361525?replies=1
...but the answers are so readily available simply be searching, I thought surely that you had not even tried.
Posted 1 year ago #
Hey Chris_K,
No, I am not complaining, I just noticed that the WordPress forum is slow in comparison to many other fora; which also provide free support for free products by volunteers: just hit the Ubuntu forum and you will see what I mean.
There was no complain in that, there was a sincere question in that. I think it would help WordPress on a whole a lot if the forum would be more active. If newbies, like me, are able to get quick answers to problems we are happy users of the software and will promote it to others.
Please don't take my curiosity and questions as critique or blasphemy in the holy church of WordPress. ;-)
---------
Hey ClaytonJames,
All answers to everything in the entire universe are readily available to anyone who cares to search the net; just hit google and click around a bit... So basically we can shut down the forum, or keep only the part open in which people can react to bleeding edge new functions of WordPress which will for maybe a few second not be covered somewhere else on the net.
If you find questions in the forum that are answered in the codex, the people who asked the questions will be much more helped if you give them the link to the article then if you ignore them.
But thanks for answering my questions nonetheless.
Posted 1 year ago #
There was no complain in that, there was a sincere question in that. I think it would help WordPress on a whole a lot if the forum would be more active. If newbies, like me, are able to get quick answers to problems we are happy users of the software and will promote it to others.
Well, there are really only a handful of people on here, relatively speaking, that are really active. How do we get more? It's strictly up to whoever has time to logon. I answer at least 20-30 questions a day, and many one here do more than that. But the questions come in way faster than that.
If you find questions in the forum that are answered in the codex, the people who asked the questions will be much more helped if you give them the link to the article then if you ignore them.
That almost always happens
Posted 1 year ago #
thnx for answering! It really got me wondering why there are so few people (a handfull, as you call it) who have time to logon, especially with the rapid growth rate of WordPress these days. Somehow I just got the feeling that the adoptation rate of WordPress, the amount of developers of plugins and themes are not reflected in forum-participation.
And my question was basically if others share this observation.
And one of my assumptions was that there might be another forum which is more active on WordPress issues; just as that there are also some fora on OSX and Apple which are more active then the one at apple.com, for example.
It really got me wondering why there are so few people (a handfull, as you call it) who have time to logon, especially with the rapid growth rate of WordPress these days.
Because we aren't paid, and only a few of us care to spend our free time supporting hundreds of users each day in exchange for nothing more than personal gratification.
If you'd like to get involved here, please do so. We could always use a few more volunteers.
And my question was basically if others share this observation.
Believe me, we definitely share the observation. We wouldn't be answering so many questions each day if there were more active volunteers.
And one of my assumptions was that there might be another forum which is more active on WordPress issues.
There's always WordPress Tavern. I wouldn't say that it's more active overall, but the support response might be quicker.
Posted 1 year ago #
Just to clarify the context of my original reply to you (as long ago as it was);
...but the answers are so readily available simply be searching, I thought surely that you had not even tried.
The implication of my reply when taken in context with your topic, was that they (the answers ) were readily available here in the forum threads and codex simply by searching.
All answers to everything in the entire universe are readily available to anyone who cares to search the net; just hit google and click around a bit... So basically we can shut down the forum,
Uh, yeah.... clearly you and I are/were not on the same page. :-)
Anyhow, if there is anything I can do to actually help you sometime, I'll surely take a stab at it for you!
Cj
Posted 1 year ago #
I don't think this forum is slow...I've seen much worse: case in point here
Posted 1 year ago #
Nice to have a little bit of discussion over this. ;-)
But the answer isn't:
Because we aren't paid, and only a few of us care to spend our free time supporting hundreds of users each day in exchange for nothing more than personal gratification.
Because 90% of the fora in the world are community driven; all these people do all that helping, answering and discussing for free. I can't say I did scientific research on the topic I address here, but I am a enthusiastic user of different fora: 6 on a daily basis and 'round 20 on a weekly basis and maybe ten more in a month. And in comparison with many other fora I found this one was slow.
So much for the background (I hope I have explained my motivations enough now for no-one to feel attacked in there hard work here).
Now as said before: All these people who develop WordPress itself, its themes and plugins are also all volunteers, apart from a few folks at Automatic they are all unpaid. WordPress is basically the same in that way as many open source projects are. But whereas the fora of these other Open Source projects thrive and fly, the wordpress.org forum doesn't seem to reflect the overall activity in it's community.
Is that because maybe people don't like the forum software being used?
Is it hard to get started?
Both questions I'd answer with 'no'. But what is it then that keeps all these happy users of WordPress from engaging in the forum as well?
But the answer isn't:
"Because we aren't paid, and only a few of us care to spend our free time supporting hundreds of users each day in exchange for nothing more than personal gratification."
I'm sorry, I didn't realize that this was a test.
I see you're assuming that you know us better than we know ourselves, which is really not the proper way to start a survey on social participation in a community. You must learn to accept answers, even if they don't fit your ideal conclusion. You must observe from an outsider's perspective with a willingness to learn and to adapt your theories.
Because 90% of the fora in the world are community driven; all these people do all that helping, answering and discussing for free. . . And in comparison with many other fora I found this one was slow.
Again, you're comparing apples to oranges. The WordPress support forum cannot be compared to "90% of the fora in the world" because it deals with support for the WordPress blogging platform and not whatever "90% of the fora in the world" cover.
This forum, like any other, is powered by humans with their own individually, including skill level and motivation. Human individuality is a variable which cannot be accounted for in a mathematical or scientific process when conducting a statistical survey.
Is that because maybe people don't like the forum software being used? Is it hard to get started?
No, it's really because we're humans with our own individually, including skill level and motivation. There's really no other answer.
But what is it then that keeps all these happy users of WordPress from engaging in the forum as well?
Those who want to engage in the forums do, and those who don't want to engage in the forums simply don't.
You probably need to consider the nature of the WordPress project against other open source projects, too. Generally I would expect that a number of large open source projects have a fairly technical user-base, so the proportion of people with technical savvy using the product is quite high. WordPress, on the other hand, has a massive user base and attracts all sorts of folk both technical and not. The proportion of users who actually understand stuff like php etc. is likely quite low.
Posted 1 year ago #
@James: Sorry, I am not testing you and I don;t wan't to present myself as knowing better then you do. It is just that your answers seem circular: If the question is: "Why are not more people participating in the fora" and the answer is: "Because not many people are participating in the fora", we don't really get ahead, do we?
But really: all I was doing was wondering and trying to formulate a critical question on the WordPress Community and how it works. Sorry if I stepped on your tows.
You must learn to accept answers, even if they don't fit your ideal conclusion.
Sorry, probably my education and parents are to blame for never accepting answers just like that; I just love to ask over and over again until I get it.
@MrMist: Thanks! That comes closer to an explanation!
I wish I had an answer to that because I'm tired of answering that question.
Yogi Berra
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