WordPress/Support

An idea that’s definitely worth consideration and discussion!

I actually prefer how it’s set up right now. The discussions found on this forum are still the best support available for WordPress, and thanks to the new search script the wiki doesn’t get left out. Frustrated people don’t want to navigate a wiki, they want answers fast and searching a forum (plus wiki) is probably the best method. 🙂

I’d agree that the forums are the best support but davidprince’s idea of a buffer page is still a good idea since searching the forums (even with the improved search engine) can be problematic. Particularly for new users who don’t know what they’re doing and who will either not bother trying to search or won’t know how to phrase their search phrase to get the information they need. A collection of links to “popular” topics in the support forums (e.g. I’m having problem so & so) and links to the various bits of documentation scattered around the site would be very helpful to those new users.

Believe me, there are lots of such examples.
Part of the problem is that no matter what docs we have, some people will always pass them over in favour of someone telling them the answer. They may think that they are the first person ever to get a “Headers already sent” error for instance.
Docs ARE good, and more pointers are being worked on, but they’ll never eliminate all the questions.
There are those that will problem solve on their own.
There are those that will problem solve if pointed in the right direction.
And there is the ‘What docs ?’ brigade 🙂
But that’s why we come along and answer … must be close to 20,000 WordPress installs out there, so in the big scheme of things, it ain’t so bad.

There are so many different kinds of support, that the support pge should be directing towards all of them, first.
Wiki, FAQ, Forums, etc. are all subsets of Support.