Please save us from the Community Help threads

Noel,

Has something changed since it was posted?  Did it get edited?

No, but the world round it changed while it unfolded.

As you can see, the thread in question started on the 13th, before anything that might explain its appearance and how someone wished us to  handle it, so the natives were at a loss how to interpret it at all.

Others in other forums have experienced the same astonishment as it appears from this quote:

... they misteriously and unexpextedly fall down out of the blue sky.

Also, when Pierre made us understand the context, starting in post #15, we actually tried to do something about it, regretfully too late for the OP > author of the first post, it seems.

I believe this is a rather exceptional coincidence of different things, including completely new and unexpected extraterrestrial > extraforal threads and meeting of old friends, and that nothing quite like it is likely to happen again.

I still doubt whether these Community Help threads are really helpful, especially as compared to referring those with questions to the forums.

This is also being discussed elsewhere.

One rather obvious reason to reconsider is that such posters with questions would have the option of making a search for previews threads/answers, if only they knew that they appeared in the forums, and especially if they were made aware of the search options: as we all know, the forums including their archives hold a vast amount of knowledge shared over years, directly answering questions of exactly the same kind(s).

Jacob Bugge wrote: http://forums.adobe.com/message/4205555?tstart=0#4205555

What I see is someone who has asked the simple, straightforward question, "What are the best practices for creating web graphics?", then the natives going on to discuss anything but the best practices for creating web graphics.

Has something changed since it was posted?  Did it get edited?

Frankly - and I'm sorry to be blunt - if I had asked that particular question then been redirected to a discussion of wonga-wonga birds, dirt track minds, snow, and other nonsense, I'd just turn away quite disappointed with the quality of the help.  And, to make matters worse, the entire blob of noise is now tied to the Adobe Help page for Illustrator.

I see that Steve just a little while ago posted the very pertinent comment:  "Mods might need to delete the off topic posts, so that the help files only have relevant info."

Was there something wrong with assuming Anup Rav genuinely wanted more information and/or was just commenting on the extreme terseness of that page and either:

A) Addressing the question directly?

-or-

B) Just not saying anything so that someone else could address it?

Even the following would have been more helpful...

C) This help topic certainly does seem a bit light on information.

-Noel

Something new we will all have to learn how to cope with.

I really hope not, Rick. You may have a look at the comments in the first thread linked to in the OP.

Thank you to John, who is trying to help me post replies. So far, I can only do it in IE instead of FF.

Hi Jacob

What you are seeing is the result of Adobe linking Community Help with the forums. I believe they found a trend where too many users were attempting to use the ability to comment on Community Help to ask a question as opposed to offering a way to make the help better. Because of this, we now see that any comment also ends up in the forums.

Something new we will all have to learn how to cope with.

Cheers... Rick