Why not pin 'Known Issues' at top of respective Forums?

[viordiasko]

I have looked through a few recent forum posts (eg: Base 3.1 - Issues - Concerns) and note that some of the "Gotcha's" for 000v3.1 are beginning to show up.

Is it possible to pin a topic so a list of links & solutions can be assembled in a central, visible place? It will save linking directly to the bug reports in individual replies.

I know there is a link to the respective Guide at the top of the forum but wiki's are hard to navigate/search & not as current as a forum.

Are there any reasons against this I have overlooked?

Thank you.

[TheGurkha]

Sounds like a good idea.

[Hagar Delest]

Many users don't bother browse or let alone search the forum first. They just come, post in the first section they can find (Beginners) and wait for an answer. So that would be the first problem of such a topic: it won't prevent the questions at all IMHO.

Second, such a topic has to be maintained constantly to link to the best workaround/solution and the bug report. If you let everyone post in that topic, it will become very difficult to read and you won't avoid the standard questions that will be posted, even if you mention that it's not for questions.

Third, you've to keep it up to date and periodically check the status of the reports to warn what bugs have been fixed.

But if you feel the courage, you can start such a topic and see how it works.

[TheGurkha]

Sounds like a good idea.

Until you think it through...

[viordiasko]

Sorry, I should have made myself clearer in my first post.

Many users don't bother browse or let alone search the forum first. They just come, post in the first section they can find (Beginners) and wait for an answer. So that would be the first problem of such a topic: it won't prevent the questions at all IMHO.

I never thought of it as preventing the initial questions. It will allow for linking to the one document & prevent re-typing the answers. Look at the amount of typing for this one know issue:

http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/ ... nown+issue+

and the fact acknak even says: "The problem has been in every version of OOo that I've ever used."

Second, such a topic has to be maintained constantly to link to the best workaround/solution and the bug report. If you let everyone post in that topic, it will become very difficult to read and you won't avoid the standard questions that will be posted, even if you mention that it's not for questions.

Short answer: make it read only & moderators can update it.

Third, you've to keep it up to date and periodically check the status of the reports to warn what bugs have been fixed.

How is that worse than a thousand links in a thousand posts across the forum that need updating if a bug gets fixed? With a known issues post you have a thousand links to the one post that can be changed if necessary. You don't change all your old posts across the forum do you?

But if you feel the courage, you can start such a topic and see how it works.

It's not a question of working or failing. It's like a FAQ: you can head there & get a condensed version of issues listed in descending version number order & a separate outstanding issue list with links to the bug report so you do not have to guess at what search phrase to use to find them. It may help someone straight away, it may help them with search phrases to try. It should save a lot of re-typing when you can just make a post like

This is a known issue see: this link

[Villeroy]

There is a repository of well known issues. It's the issue tracker. One could provide a list of prepared queries as links.

[Hagar Delest]

Short answer: make it read only & moderators can update it.

I've enough work as moderator without that. But if another moderator is willing, just do it.

How is that worse than a thousand links in a thousand posts across the forum that need updating if a bug gets fixed? With a known issues post you have a thousand links to the one post that can be changed if necessary. You don't change all your old posts across the forum do you?

For important issues that have been fixed, I do edit the old threads to tag them as solved. A thousand links in a forum increase the chances that a user find one with a search. Because many discussions on a single subject lead to several ways of wording a same problem. Having such different keywords will ease the queries.

It's not a question of working or failing. It's like a FAQ: you can head there & get a condensed version of issues listed in descending version number order & a separate outstanding issue list with links to the bug report so you do not have to guess at what search phrase to use to find them.

I hate FAQs and never read them. But that's my personal position. Too much a mess. Anyway you need to search them with the find feature of your browser to find something quickly, else, you've to browse the whole list.
Anyway, you'll have the summary of the issues, so you still have to guess how your trouble would have been re-phrased in a condensed way.

It will allow for linking to the one document & prevent re-typing the answers. Look at the amount of typing for this one know issue:

http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/ ... nown+issue+

and the fact acknak even says: "The problem has been in every version of OOo that I've ever used."

And??? The discussion is rather short. If you don't prevent the initial question, you'll have to retype an answer, at least to your issues list, and the user will have to spot the right part of that long topic . So I don't see the point.

It should save a lot of re-typing when you can just make a post like

This is a known issue see: this link

The advantage of being a long-timer (regularly visiting the forum) is that you have a pretty good knowledge of the kind of issues and what are the relevant keywords. So it doesn't take me a long time to find the relevant topic and link it. I would say that I'm not really a specialist of OOo (I use quite only Writer moreover), the best help I give here is that I can often give relevant links quickly.

As said by Villeroy, there is no need to duplicate the Issue Tracker, better have relevant queries indeed. But if you want to start a thread like you would like to see, again, there is no problem, just start it and we will help to move the posts that don't meet the target.

[floris v]

A pinned thread listing really bad bugs in recent versions, like the tables bugs in 3.0.1 and 3.1, that are real show stoppers and cause people to lose their work would be great, it would at least warn the forum regulars.