Make "Getting Help" documentation much more prominent.
Issues like https://github.com/django/djangoproject.com/issues/947 show up very often, I think they are more common than actual website issues. Each and every time we close such an issue with "go get help in proper channels", it's a little failure -- for the submitter, of course, but also for us. I think we can try harder to make the correct channels more prominent. Here's a list of potential action items:
- The whole "Getting Help" section on the documentation front page sits only in the side bar, below obviously-less-interesting stuff like the navigation tools. It is easy to miss it entirely.
- We could make it one of the first sections in the list -- I suspect that the first three sections should be "First steps", "Getting help", and only then "How the documentation is organized".
I'd also consider making a link to .../faq/help/ float on the documentation page, like the language and version selectors do now. Fixed in PR969.
- The tutorial mentions "where to get help" in an admonition very close to its beginning, but then it is never repeated, and it is easily forgotten by the time anyone actually needs it.
- Make the admonition link to the faq, and mention the links to get help which are present on every documentation page
- Repeat the admonition, at least once on every tutorial page
- (moved to relevant repo)
The ticket-creation form for the Django code -- the one I'm filling in now -- has a list of things for a (first-time) submitter to consider, under the heading "Please read this first"; I believe this list greatly reduces the amount of support-tickets filed on this tracker. A similar thing can be done for the djangoproject.com repo using issue templates.
Change History
(16)
Summary: |
Make "Getting Help" documentation much more prominent → Make "Getting Help" documentation much more prominent.
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Triage Stage: |
Unreviewed → Accepted
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Description: |
modified (diff)
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Cc: |
Abdul Aziz Tetteh added
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Owner: |
changed from nobody to Abdul Aziz Tetteh
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new → assigned
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Owner: |
Abdul Aziz Tetteh removed
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Owner: |
set to nobody
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new → assigned
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Owner: |
changed from nobody to Gabriel Augendre
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Patch needs improvement: |
set
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modified (diff)
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Patch needs improvement: |
unset
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Triage Stage: |
Accepted → Ready for checkin
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Resolution: |
→ fixed
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Status: |
assigned → closed
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I agree with points 1.1, 1.2, and 2.2. I'm not sure about 2.1. The 3rd point should be open as an issue in code.djangoproject.com (see e.g. Better UX for website newticket page).