[Solved]Beginners posting queries on this forum

RahulG31 · Active User Joined: 20 Dec 2014 Posts: 446 Location: USA

After being here for almost a year and after reading some recent comments about beginners placing queries on this forum, I can say that not much has been done to make users aware about the beginners forum.

I would like to point out that the useful stuff for a beginner like 'Quick Search' and 'Where to go' has been kept at the bottom of the page (they appear after the long advertisement on the left sidebar).

If these 2 are put on the top and a couple of comments like, 'Do your search before posting with Quick Search' and 'Go to beginners forum for basics' then I believe the beginners questions can be very much avoided on this forum.

But since the 'Quick Search' and 'Where to go' sections are almost hidden on the homepage, beginners will continue to post their questions on this website.

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Akatsukami · Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 6:23 pm

I respectfully disagree. The less able beginners will ignore every attempt to give them tools to solve their problems, demanding that we do so for them.

Rohit Umarjikar · Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2015 2:11 am

We should lock such topics as soon as we recognize them as beginners post and instruct TS to go to "Beginners Forum" instead than having further discussions or replies to it, Period.
This is easiest way to avoid such post than introducing any UI changes as that wouldn't anyways ensure of stopping such incidents in future.

mcmillan · Site Admin Joined: 18 May 2003 Posts: 1210 Location: India

mcmillan · Site Admin Joined: 18 May 2003 Posts: 1210 Location: India

We have done some modifications on the home page, please have a look and let me know if you have any more suggestions.

RahulG31 · Active User Joined: 20 Dec 2014 Posts: 446 Location: USA

Thanks for giving it a thought and working on it.

What I had in mind was a little different.

1. I wanted to see a link to the beginner's forum and the Quick Search at the top (may be just below the HOME, MANUALS, DOWNLOADS,... tabs) or see point 3.

2. The advertisement at the left side bar takes a lot of vertical space. The content that comes after the advertisement will often be ignored (Unless somebody knows what he needs to see, is present at the left side bar).

3. I don't think there's a need for 'Recent Job Vacancies' at the middle of the page (occupying a huge space). I give this less importance as I believe not much people come to this website looking for a job. This can be shifted to left side bar and then more useful information can be placed at this space.

These are only my suggestions, I know it can be difficult to make such changes but thanks for giving it a thought.

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mcmillan · Site Admin Joined: 18 May 2003 Posts: 1210 Location: India

1. We have added the link to student forums now and let me think about the quick search.
2. Done
3. Yes, I am too not much a fan of job vacancies there, but what dynamic information we have other than job posts.

Expecting more suggestions from other members too...

RahulG31 · Active User Joined: 20 Dec 2014 Posts: 446 Location: USA

Please see attached. I have separated the lines in the middle section (pointing to beginners and experts forums) for better visibility.

Reduced the left sidebar content and moved the recent topics in middle.

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mcmillan · Site Admin Joined: 18 May 2003 Posts: 1210 Location: India

You are too good. Left side bar is perfect now, let me think about the recent topics in middle.

Nic Clouston · Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2015 7:15 pm

I never see this page as my bookmark is set to the sign-in page which leads directly to the forum section.

As an aside, after reading all topics in a section I have to 'mark all topics read' to make the dark blue indicator on the forum menu go light blue to indicate that I have read all messages. Any other forum software seem to know when I have read all topics without me specifically stating the obvious.

Edit: I also need to re-read before posting - corrected 3 errors!

RahulG31 · Active User Joined: 20 Dec 2014 Posts: 446 Location: USA

In the stats, It will be interesting to see how many users will get redirected to Beginner's forum using the links on this page (may be after a month or so).

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mcmillan · Site Admin Joined: 18 May 2003 Posts: 1210 Location: India

RahulG31 · Active User Joined: 20 Dec 2014 Posts: 446 Location: USA

Hi, Can we have some stats on how many users were redirected to Beginner's forum from here after the layout change?

Thank you.

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mcmillan · Site Admin Joined: 18 May 2003 Posts: 1210 Location: India

Sure, Please have a look.

mcmillan · Site Admin Joined: 18 May 2003 Posts: 1210 Location: India

Rahul,

It actually works. Look at the average amount of time spend on the target site(the last column). I don't care about the total number of hits, but we are redirecting the real students.

RahulG31 · Active User Joined: 20 Dec 2014 Posts: 446 Location: USA

I would have liked to see more redirections but I am really surprised at the average amount of time spent on those redirections.

Thanks for the stats.

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