Important!: FAQ Reworking

[Nick]

So we're in the process of reworking the FAQ to modernize it and make it more user friendly and easier to use by making it a thread. I thought it would be very helpful to us if you guys can help us out in figuring out some FAQs. What are questions that you see pop up often that you think would help out someone tremendously if it was included in this thread?

 

[antemortem]

'How do I post a blog?' would be a good start.

 

[Aquacorde]

For the love of everything please address "What are claims for?" and expand upon "Can I change my username/Why can I not?" including "how much do I have to pay to get it changed" and "will name changes become an option again?"

 

[tabor62]

How about addressing "Why are the forums so slow?" and "What's CloudFlare?"

 

[Hikamaru]

I've also had people asking me why my username is green, so I might leave a suggestion as well, "How do I become a PC Supporter?".

It would be a good addition since some members don't know what Supporters are, and why they have italic green names and such. Even though your "How to prevent minimodding guide" explains the difference between staff and supporters, there have been some cases where I was welcoming a newbie and they thought I was a staff member or something.

 

[ANARCHit3cht]

For one... I'd suggest making the questions... well the questions people would ask. To give an easy situation, I'll use becoming a pc supporter. A question that is "How do I become a PC supporter?" would less likely be asked, and thus less likely to be viewed in this so called "FAQ." The member who would want to know about green names probably wouldn't know about PC supporters, as the knowledge goes hand in hand... so asking that question would be like speaking in a foreign language. It'd be better to go with the very basic questions that immediately jumps to their mind... that is, "Why are some usernames green? How do I get mine that color? What other colors can a username be?" Things like that would seem to be far better than ones laden with forum jargon and other special terms or ideas that one wouldn't really recognize unless they pretty much already had the answer to the question.

 

[Nihilego]

For reference, here's the list I've already written up:

• introduction

• general forum usage
-global & forum-specific rules
-forums, subforums & navigation
-threads & posts
-the user control panel
-blogs
-announcements

• posts & posting
-the reply box, bbcode & css
-likes & post comments
-regarding links & postcount
-reporting rulebreakers

• user profiles & messaging
-vms & pms
-name changes
-friends
-emblems
-warnings & infractions

• personalisation
-avatars, usertitles & details
-signatures
-profile customisation
-styles
-options

• supportership
-about supporters
-the tiers & perks
-becoming a supporter

• the staff
-role of the staff
-getting help
-how mods are picked
-becoming a moderator
-moderators
-super moderators
-staff administrators

• miscellaneous faq

This is the general backbone of the guide which I've come up with in the draft thread I've made.

@ANARCHit3cht: I get what you're saying, but I don't think calling them 'supporters' is really confusing. All supporters have a bar underneath their username which clearly says "PC Supporter" and if someone sees something in the FAQ that they don't recognise I'd assume they'd go read about that thing anyway.

@Team Fail: I'm the one writing the FAQ, actually. Unless other hstaff want to help out - but no-one's expressed any interest. d: In any case - Nick's blog is good but not nearly concise enough to have as part of the main FAQ. I'd have no issues with linking to it as a 'further reading' thing, though. Assuming, Nick, that you're not still in the habit of deleting your blogs every few days. ;]

@Anna, tabor62: I'd include claims and CloudFlare under the last section.

 

[Squirrel]

Make sure to include how to embed YouTube videos in the BB Code section, that question comes up allll the time.

 

[Her]

Something about the sound tags would be appreciated.

 

[Elaitenstile]

Some good stuff would include stuff that's written in the rules section, which probably no-one would read. A good FAQ entry will be: "I saw someone posting something wrong, but when I corrected him, a mod deleted my post!"
... that's rather long, but many still don't know the rules of mini-modding, so yeah.
... this might help too:

"I've made a lot of posts, but my post count doesn't increase! Help!" ... about the post count rules in FG and PT.

 

[Nihilego]

@★Hoenn★: I'll be sure to make a specific note about minimodding under the "reporting rulebreakers", maybe with a link to the thread which Nick posted a little while back in here.

@AlexOzzyCake, Harlequin: I'll look at both of those specifically.

 

[Nihilego]

A request!

Can anyone who's a dab hand at CSS help me out a wee bit? It'd be awesome if someone could help me come up with a format for this thing which'll make it really easy to read and navigate rather than just having a huge block of text to plough through. Kinda like how PC's main rules are done. Anyone up for helping?

 

[droomph]

A request!

Can anyone who's a dab hand at CSS help me out a wee bit? It'd be awesome if someone could help me come up with a format for this thing which'll make it really easy to read and navigate rather than just having a huge block of text to plough through. Kinda like how PC's main rules are done. Anyone up for helping?

æ mig

just provide me with the materials and general idea of layout, and I'll try to get to them two days at most.

 

[droomph]

Kinda like using a id tags to allow people to jump to a part of a page?

also we could do it so it could only show a couple of blocks at a time depending on what was selected so that it's a bit less "essay" and more "helpful info".

 

[destinedjagold]

commonly asked questions for the FAQ renovation?
hm...

*stares at the PokéCommunity Questions & Feedback header about ROM hacks*
*shrugs*

meh, I got nothing. :3