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In the Illustrator forum we are getting some silly threads that no one know what to do about. It seems to be posted by Community Help with an article that the first post seems to be a question about, but it is all completely unintelligible to us, the natives, and the supposed first poster seems to have no clue of being transferred.
So far, we have two threads:
http://forums.adobe.com/message/4205555?tstart=0#4205555
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/962694?tstart=0
Please spare us, we have enough to do with providing real community help.
For some (or no) reason I was unable to post a reply in the other thread,
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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
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Looks like the Forums are to He** in a hand basket.
I propose That some with the server space and knowledge to run such, create a Answers forum set up for adobe products and get off this wacky System. Should be individualized based on Product and Computer Platform. It appears adobe is not interested in providing decent help and trying run users away.
Perhaps They can run it using PHPbb one of the most reliable systems out. The will need to hook it up to FOIS system T1 or T5 line and get of these wonky servers that are lightning fast one minute, next minute takes 1/2 hour to load or is down completely.
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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.
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Would a different wording on the original thread help in some way?
You should see the other discussion in comments : http://forums.adobe.com/message/4197986#4197986 it explains why there are such threads.
I might post a sticky on that matter on the AI forum, I did it in the forums I monitor more closely.
Jacob, are you a moderator? (just asking, I don't mean anything bad)
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No, Pierre, I am just one of the natives. And thank you for the sticky.
I am looking forward to see whether the next Community Help threads are less baffling; they would be, if the OP was the one with the question.
Meanwhile, I have seen that in one of two threads in the Illustrator forum, so far the one with the question actually found his way to take part but seemed to disappear out again with no comment on whether he got help.
The other thread still only reflects the way it has seemed to the natives.
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Jacob Bugge wrote:
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
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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).
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It seems to me the only thing that the context of "the world round it" should really influence is that people will know that the answers will end up linked to a help page, but that really shouldn't affect whether the responses are on-topic or not. Knowing ought to make people think/check just a little more before answering I suppose, to make sure the information is accurate.
I'm all for keeping things light and humorous in the forums, don't get me wrong, and it's clear Adobe sprang something new on us all without saying much. But making light of something not yet understood, almost to the point of disrespect, just doesn't seem the best approach.
Wouldn't a simple probative response to Anup and/or the Community Help (bot/process/person/who knows?) along the lines of "I don't understand what you're asking or how this question has appeared here... Could you please be more specific?" been better?
Just providing my subjective first impressions here, that's all. Not a big deal.
-Noel
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I understand your impression, Noel.
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Jacob, after, or just before the first community helps posts appeared in the Ps forum, I wrote a post explaining what was going on, I don't know what other forums are in the case, and did not want to step on anyone's toes, so limited my explanation posts to the forums I more closely monitor. Sorry if the info came to late in the AI forums.
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Pierre,
No apology is acceptable: we have had one of the most enjoyable threads because of it.
So thank you for just throwing it upon us, when it had to happen.