Sticky for the Photoshop forum(s)

[Guest]

At least as far as the Windows side is concerned, it's annoying how many questions cannot be answered properly without asking first for information on PS version, OS version, System specs, and so on.

Can we have a "Sticky" at the top asking this or even just quoting the link How to get help.

[Phillip_M_Jones]

They could do like in the apple forums. As part of your profile you have to type Machine you Using and then they have a drop down list of OS your using.

When you type a question or response this is automatically appened to your post.

[Jesseham-JAh5zI]

I was thinking the same thing.  Make it a mandatory part of your profile and make it show up (tiny, so it doesn't waste a bunch of space) under your name - maybe in the place of your post count or something.

[Claudio_González1]

Well, making it mandatory to provide that information is a completely different matter. However, I have two questions.

1. Do we really want seeing that information all the time for every user? Even for the regulars, who rarely ask questions?

2. I use a Mac and a Win machine; and for all I have read around here, there are participants who normally use three or more different computers. Do we really want having the information for all of them on screen all the time?

I am under the impression that the cases where such information is completely irrelevant for the discussion largely outnumber the cases where it is relevant.

[Eric16]

Forum-wide (or at least Creative Suite-wide and wherever the Mac & Windows forums got mixed) what would be optimal would be extra fields in the "Post Reply" editor for Mac/Win & CS1, 2, 3, 4. Preferably with a warning about "Are you sure you want to continue without posting system details?" if you ignored those fields.

For bonus points, link them to 1 year cookies so they autofill once you've entered the info once. And then have them post in front of the subject line automatically.

Eg. "Mac CS3: Missing font but I activated it", "Win CS4: Can't load font", etc. The appropriate crowd would dog-pile on it. As it is now, I often click in, discover it's about Windows whose font intricacies I have no clue about, and then click out having lost 20 seconds to figuring out it wasn't an issue I could help with.

[Claudio_González1]

John, with all the messages you have posted, you should know by now that all requests, warnings, instructions and the like that are placed anywhere on the page are almost absolutely wasted, as only a few people notice them -usually those that don't need them. Remember that most newcomers are facing what for them is a terrible and most urgent problem, so we can consider ourselves as lucky if they post anything longer than "My Adobe is broken, how do I fix it?". In the wrong forum, of course.

[Guest]

Claudio González wrote:

John, with all the messages you have posted, you should know by now that all requests, warnings, instructions and the like that are placed anywhere on the page are almost absolutely wasted, as only a few people notice them -usually those that don't need them.

I know only too well Claudio, but it would still be easier for me to include a suggestion in my answer to "check the links at the top of the page" rather than fishing out the links every time.

And one day someone might read them.  

[Mark_A__Boyd]

Can we have a "Sticky" at the top asking this or even just quoting the link How to get help.

That is good enough to include as a link in the top grey bar with New, Your Stuff, History, Browse, and Search. Or someplace where it is accessible on every forum page. "Sticky Topics" are only available via a particular path, AFAICT. For instance, can you easily find the two for this forum - now that you are reading one of its "Discussions"?

They used to have a similar set of guidelines at http://www.adobe.com/support/forums/guidelines.html but they seem to have removed it. That link now redirects straight to forums.adobe.com. Too bad, too. It is archived all over google groups.

They do have a slimmer version in the little Support Options box on the right of the main Adobe Forums page Forum etiquette and best practices, but as mentioned, who is going to read it?