Re: Add instruction to use a "good description title"?

I hate to sound defeatist, but I don't adding instructions will help. There's already lots of good documentation around: I want to ask a question of the Perl Monks; where do I start?, How to RTFM, Writeup Formatting Tips, and many others, all conveniently gathered up in the Site How To and the Perl Monks FAQ. And you can find them from the search box on every page. There's even hints when you're about to submit something.

It doesn't help. People don't read them. "Put a reasonable subject line" is something that's repeated in mailing lists, in newsgroups, and just about everywhere else that people communicate in writing. Nonetheless, you get titles like "Perl question", "What am I doing wrong?", "Help me please" and other completely unhelpful titles.

I think the only thing you can do is hire more janitors, and I applaud you for wanting to help. Let me know when you find out, and I'll lend a hand too.

Comment on Re: Add instruction to use a "good description title"?

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Re: Re: Add instruction to use a "good description title"? by gav^ (Curate) on Apr 23, 2002 at 20:48 UTC
I've found this problem with websites I've developed. Some people just seem to have trouble finding things and it is pretty hard to navigate around perlmonks. For instance to find the two links you've suggested I'd have to look on the right underneath the chatterbox, other users, and sections to find the information nodelet. That's a long scroll down and to the right on my browser. My suggestion would be to remove some of the links at the top and make sure these two are more obvious. The other problem is that if a newbie comes here and searches for 'cgi' they'll get the manpage for CGI.pm and if they type 'cgi help' they'll find nothing. Then they'll probably go and ask something that has been asked 1000 times before. Update: I was thinking that it would be pretty cool if on the preview page it listed nodes that had similar names to yours above the textbox. This would be a cunning way of getting people to search without them knowing it. I've also found the javascript/dhtml menu thingies to be an excellent way of flattening site structure and squeezing more links into what is already crowded real-estate. gav^	[reply]
Re: Re: Re: Add instruction to use a "good description title"? by belg4mit (Prior) on Apr 24, 2002 at 00:22 UTC
It has been suggested before that new posts be pushed through a search. Which is not entirely what you are suggesting with your update, but more or less. Likewise, have you tried doing a search for some some common but not so generic terms? You get an awful lot back. What would happen with these meaningless titles? It would bog down the server, and they would likeyl scroll right past them. You could certainly crop the list, but how do you know you aren't throwing away the one relevant node. Helas I have no easy solution. It boils down to the fact that it takes some general web cluefulness to use this site effectively. However as far as rearranging goes I think something like might make things easier for newbies, and cleaner for all. `Search box............................... Library * Perl FAQ * Q&A * Tutorials * Site FAQ * logout<br> SoPW * CUFP... Node heading...` [download] Basically try to keep all the help links together, hopefully on one-line (800x600 12 pt.). Making the Information nodelet obsolete, all other topics (Voting, etc.) need only be accessible from Site FAQ. `-- perl -pew "s/\b;([mnst])/'$1/g"`	[reply] [d/l]