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Strategy - How should we handle new user FAQs on the forums: links or template responses? (1 Viewer)

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New users have a lot of questions so we end up repeating ourselves fairly often.

On Discord we use !bangs to display answers to these questions, e.g.

when someone asks about petnames, someone (usually kaen01) types !petname, and a bot spits out:

---------------------
So you want to hide petnames with MQ2?
You will need to edit this in your macroquest.ini in your Release Folder.

Open macroquest.ini and control-F search for `[Captions]`
Under that section you will find Pet=

Change this:
Pet=${If[${NamingSpawn.Mark},${NamingSpawn.Mark} - ,]}${If[${NamingSpawn.Assist},>> ,]}${NamingSpawn.DisplayName}${If[${NamingSpawn.Assist}, - ${NamingSpawn.PctHPs}%<<,]}

to this:
Pet=${If[${NamingSpawn.Mark}, - ,]}
--------------------

We should have something similar for the forums, and there are two ways to approach a solution:

1) !Bangs (forum version)

When you reply with !petname, the word !petname is a link to a relevant post.

Example of a reply to a user,
---------------------
Hey, there's an answer to your question right here !petname
--------------------

pros:
- quick
- answer is kept in a single location, making updating easy and old answers eternally relevant

cons:
- not quite as friendly, you need to remember the !bangs
- users have to click the link to see the answer

2) Reply Templates

In the wysiwyg bar, there'd be a dropdown list of common replies. You pick one out, and it spits it into your editor.

Example of a reply to a user,

(dropdown -> hide petname response)
-----------------
So you want to hide petnames with MQ2?
You will need to edit this in your macroquest.ini in your Release Folder.

Open macroquest.ini and control-F search for `[Captions]`
Under that section you will find Pet=

Change this:
Pet=${If[${NamingSpawn.Mark},${NamingSpawn.Mark} - ,]}${If[${NamingSpawn.Assist},>> ,]}${NamingSpawn.DisplayName}${If[${NamingSpawn.Assist}, - ${NamingSpawn.PctHPs}%<<,]}

to this:
Pet=${If[${NamingSpawn.Mark}, - ,]}
-----------------

pros
- fewer clicks, answer is displayed for the user
- easy to modify the answer for a more specific question

cons
- more text for the search engine to go through
- old answers become outdated


Which solution should we use?
 
Last edited:
Hmm... both definitely have merit and will require upkeep. For those that know the bangs, it's definitely easier for them rather than repeating themselves.

Maybe putting the list of bangs in a FAQ channel to see how many people would go on their own to see if their question has been answered? Just to see if there are enough people willing to try solve their own problem before putting a lot of effort into the solution?
 
Guys, new users are going to ask you about ibangs and reply templates now as much as the repeat questions imo...

Between the two I think !Bangs would be easier.
 
Say I am a noob to MQ2 and am having fits on dealing with Restless Ice.... how would one go about !bangs that? An example of each would be good (template example and !bangs example)
 
I think the detailed write up and videos that exist should be posted and stickied. A new forum created for easy access to the top rated ones. There is so much useful information scattered on these boards. I even have to search at length to find answers to questions I asked 6 months ago to refresh myself. The big issue I think is the "noobs" rely too much on asking questions because the info they seek is too hard to find or they just are not reading the start up guides.
 
I can't even remember the list of !'s in the existing bot, don't give me more!

give me a drop down list of bangs to pick, that' might work, even better if it's a pick-list with the first column being the bangs, the second column a short 1 sentence description
 
!bang idea sounds like a idea worth trying IMO. Also found the search filter on webpage isnt very helpful since it can bring up posts from 2015 and later which contradicts newer information. Just from personal experience myself. Wondering is there anyway to clean up older information that is not relevant anymore on forums?
 
!bang idea sounds like a idea worth trying IMO. Also found the search filter on webpage isnt very helpful since it can bring up posts from 2015 and later which contradicts newer information. Just from personal experience myself. Wondering is there anyway to clean up older information that is not relevant anymore on forums?
I can add search weight to newer posts and resources if you'd find that helpful.
 
Another potential suggestion is the FAQ sheet/section.

I send returning players to the Magicians Tower because it has an excellent FAQ for returning players write up. (https://eqmagetower.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3482)

A FAQ page or section could be made, with requests to add to it as new repeated questions come up.

A few times of pointing it out or "have you looked here before posting" suggestions would tend to get the things used. Especially if someone took ownership of it to either maintain it, or offering goodies to folks who take the time to update it.
 
Another potential suggestion is the FAQ sheet/section.

I send returning players to the Magicians Tower because it has an excellent FAQ for returning players write up. (https://eqmagetower.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3482)

A FAQ page or section could be made, with requests to add to it as new repeated questions come up.

A few times of pointing it out or "have you looked here before posting" suggestions would tend to get the things used. Especially if someone took ownership of it to either maintain it, or offering goodies to folks who take the time to update it.
I am with you on that.
But yes - it would require folks to feel "in charge" so it gets updated regularly.

Maybe it could be structured like having a main topic like "I think my problem relates to pets" and you just click on <pet> from there you can proceed.
Pretty much like a wiki :)
 
My personal experience here helping folks (and i usually talk to 5-20 people a day about various things) is that there is simply too much information to have a catch all that would answer all the questions - and if you tried to have it all consolidated in one section or area it easily becomes something so large it becomes unwieldy. Many folks don't have time to sort through years of threads and stickies and such.
Something that has really helped me help out newer folks, is the imformation they need for something specific, be in an easily found, accessible location, that is readable and specific to answer questions.

maybe sprucing up each macro/plugin specific page to be a little more uniform/thorough might help - and then a "welcome / FAQ" which would have some common questions with links to those resources/information
 
Could always generate static html docs with advanced search functionality. Host and deploy them via git so anyone can contribute. Something that uses TeXi format probably. It's very similar to markdown already used in discord so not hard to adapt to. I think the main problem with the forum is the little tab buttons that switch panels. The functionality is limited on mobile but on PC I think it makes it near impossible for newer users to navigate it. Most of the questions I answer are already answered on "another tab" they never even found.
 

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