What has happened to Tiny Portal...?

[Dazed]

First, let me say I prefer SMF / TP ...

Second, I have paid for and received many quality themes here.

Third, I am seeing something that is bringing me to a point that upsets me.

I came here a very long time ago looking for a quality system to create and modify a home page and forum for our group of gamers. I am not a super code person but in the few times I have asked for help I mostly have been helped. It seems of late that the sarcasm level has grown to amazing proportions. I always look for answers using search before ever asking for help. What I have been seeing as of late is when a new user comes in asking for help they are met with responses like "use the search button" , "That question has been answered many times" ; and that gives me a bad feeling. I am sure those questions have been answered many times. If responses need to be made then they should be handled by providing links, words of encouragement, or a genuine answer. I know everyone is busy but what has kept me here is the help and support of fellow TP users. When you come here you don't expect some sarcastic answer to your question and by all accounts, I suspect many users have already used the search feature. We are not all coders and have issues understanding certain things. What has happened to the friendly TP community that I have come to know and love? Those that are providing help ... Thank You!

Same thing we have told those that are new to our game servers... "We were all noobs once" ... Sometimes we beginners, no matter how hard we try, cannot solve our issues. Sometimes a link to a relevant topic is all thats needed. Not insults or sarcasm.

I for one appreciate everything that everyone has helped me with here as I am sure many others are also. Lets remember the TP "roots" and try to show users why they should be here and not why they should just remove themselves....   

[G6Cad]

Noob or no noobs, we have built on both the script and the site here for a long time now.
When you first come to a site with no knowlage or a hunger to know, the first place to start would be to help your self by using the search or just read the docs.
All the info we have on how to work things are posted more then 20 times (even more ) on some things, i simply dont know how much you want us to give you.
If you decide to use a free software, it's your call, if you want to change some thingm it's your call, we are here to help yea, we are here to give you the best answers we can, but if the answers are posted in the forum, our docsection several times, do you really thing us asking you to use the search is rude ?
We dont run your forums, we are not webmasters of them eather, we provide info, and that is just what we do, and have done for as long as this site have been online.
Im sorry to inform you that we will not serve everything to you on silverplates, you as webmasters have to help your self with the info we have given you, I cant se any reason to keep posting answers to the same questions all over the forum every day. The time we have on this site is limited, so is it rude that we go through the posts and give the support we can with this time to the questions not asked before ? We can only do as much we can with the time we have, and if some one comes in with a question on any issue we havent seen or heard of before, i can assure you that ALL mods do what they can to solve the issue for that member. If the questions have the answers in the forum time and time again, theres no reson what so ever for us to take the time writing the answers again and again when a simple search and common sense from the member will solve their issues.
An other thing, SMF and TP is growing really fast, this site have twice as many members and users online then last year at the same time. Every thing grows, and with that the support grows, and like any other big forum support, the answers will be short and the selfhelp will be more of a way to solve your issues.

When you can write a post like this telling us we are bad at our support now, maybe you can give us some good examples on how we can be better in our support ? How can we get our new members to use the search and read the documentation that holds the answers to 95% of the questions asked every single day ?   How can we get our new members to follow our posting guides ? How can we get our new members to read the info and most of all, how can we teach our new members what we support and whatnot ?
If you have a solution for that, we are more then glad to read all about it.

[Hairy]

I see both sides as being very true and agree with both.

Some of the answers are a little bit too sarcastic and seem a little rude, on the other hand I also see the same questions asked over and over again and it is only natural for a human being to answer like that when it seems like a never-ending saga.

I personally think the support board would be much better off if the only way a person can start a topic in it is to use a form via an article, once a support form has posted then anyone can reply to help.

By making it mandatory to start the topic via an article, you can lay out the article so it takes them through the various steps to help themselves, then if that does not answer it for them they have the option to start a topic via the article.

Then all the lazy people who try to just post in the help section get denied because they need to use the article to start a topic.

From memory you should be able to set permissions to do that. And a form that bypasses the initial post permission to start a topic.

Now there's a great idea if I ever saw one  *Pat's own back*

Edit: made my awesome idea more visable by making it bold and underlined

[Smoky]

that might be possible.. maybe in the long run Hairy, good thinking 

[Nokonium]

If we used up our time to repeatedly answer topics like 'Need Help' etc where the poster hasn't bothered to follow simple posting guidelines, doesn't include the basic information about versions etc and/or very clearly hasn't used the search, it would be unfair to the members who have searched, have included the information needed and really do need assistance from the support team.

[marzi]

nokonium,
What you say is succinct and true, but that still does not give the support people an excuse to be rude and sarcastic. "You cannot wash your dirty hands in someone else's dirty water and expect them to come out clean", or in other words, 2 wrongs do not a right make.
Like Drifter, I too have noticed this trend and have only been a visitor for a little over a year.
My suggestion to the support people is that instead of reacting inappropriately when

poster hasn't bothered to follow simple posting guidelines

, bow out, retire. You will be missed, remembered but unfortunately, probably replaced with barely a ripple.

[alving]

i can understand both sides of the situation. 

bloc and any other free software authors have devoted their time in making a really nice piece of work, and he could have not shared it with everybody and use it himself but he shared it with everyone.  that alone, is much to thank for!    now comes support..  to ask for support without even bothering to do a search is way too much.  support here is free and this support people devotes their time and effort in answering questions, i guess all they ask back is for people to do a simple search first before asking a question.  having said that, this problem is not only present here in TP.  this is a common problem in almost ALL free software like SMF and especially linux flavors like ubuntu.  the support on those forums are also community driven and every support person's signature carries a "do a search first blah blah.." sentence.  i think this is more of a users problem not support..

and actually eventhough im new in TP and SMF and don't know a thing about php, i personally don't feel offended with those posts..  and i know where they are coming from.. 

[Zetan]

We do actively discuss from time to time in the Team Boards, our methods and attitudes when offering support. You may have also noticed a large increase in the number of people using TinyPortal and with that comes an increase in Support Queries. Answering the same questions time and time and time and time again when there are Stickies, Documentation and Search, it does become a little tiresome. I personally try to be polite, and for the most part, I am. I am human, and I do at times become a little Snappy.

If I know an answer is there amongst all the information here, then I will be telling you to Search, or Read the Docs. The other option is to not answer some of these questions, then with that comes the bumping of posts, then the poster gets told off for bumping their post.

It is not our intention to upset or be rude to people, at the same time, it’s not our job to Search for you, or offer Support outside of TinyPortal.
Also you may have noticed that some of our Code Team Members are a little thin on the ground lately, without delving into personal issues, one has not been very well, another is tied up with work commitments and so on.
Some of the others are very busy debugging TP 1.0

All of which is free and time given.

[Dazed]

G6, I address you first because you posted first. I understand that things don't need to be given on a silver platter or directly answered to every post. My statement was and is that is seems over time there has become some frustration.

If a user asks a question, 2 forum posts or 1500, sometimes a user just can't see that one thing that is going to fix the issue.I read some responses these days and get taken aback by the sheer sarcasm of the response.

I am not questioning the efforts of anyone here. I am only addressing what I see regarding the tone of responses. I am not complaining either. I remember when I first came here and as I said, I have had help here and appreciate it. I looked at a few responses here and had I been a new person I would have been very dismayed by the "attitude" that I perceive lately.

I know the TP team puts in hard work, tries their best to help, and over all does a fantastic job. G6 you know me and I have always been open in my rants and discussions. I am not making this a personal attack toward anyone; just the number of what I feel are harsh responses. I understand the issue with the same questions being asked over and over. Not sure there is a quick fix. Typically for my own issues I search and try to find a resolution to my issue. If I can't find an answer here I will look over on SMF if it appears to be a forum issue. Most times I get it but every now an again I get hung up on some minute detail that I just can't fix. Then I come here and ask. 

When you can write a post like this telling us we are bad at our support now, maybe you can give us some good examples on how we can be better in our support ?

I am not saying the support is bad. Just saying that some responses seem harsh these days... What is a good balance? I don't have the answer. All I pointed out is a trend that I seem to be noticing. It could be frustration, language translation, bad day, or any other reason.

Is the possibility of a board or some other option say like a bug tracker so to speak where certain questions might be placed or moved to be addressed at a later time? So instead of the *bump, *bump idea it could be viewed later and addressed when support has time? Maybe in progress, under review, solved, insufficient information provided, etc... ?

I am part of this community and as I see it I felt obligated to speak my mind on an issue I see. It is not directed toward anyone directly. I think most regular users here want to see this community grow and we all appreciate all the hard work put in by those in all facets of creation, support, and modification of TP.

I am sorry if I have offended anyone as that is not my intent. It was to voice an opinion over something I feel was out of sorts for the way things were when I came here in the beginning.

Glad to see the dialog contributed. TP is still the best, just seems to be a bit of tension here these days. Hope some use can be made of this post in the future.

[Xarcell]

@ [cbl]Drifter

Thanks you for your feedback. I do not think you are attacking anyone, or saying we offer bad support.

What I read is that you are saying we starting to lean towards a more negative attitude in our support.

Nough said about that.

I would like to say, as ZTN did, that we "often" discuss our methods among other team members. Sometimes and team member may ask other team members: "did I handle this correctly".

We are always striving to improve, but we are not perfect.

The area I feel that could use alot of support, is the documentation. I have a theory that, if it is setup right, and written well, it will help more than a search. As I find myself frustrated with the search often.

Currently, I believe there is about 20-35 Doc's for TP .98. However for TP 1.0 there are already over 100. From simple questions, to more complex ones. I have tackled the documention head on to try and direction our members towards support in a more positive way.

Instead of "please search for THIS", how about "read this doc about THIS". If the doc doesn't help the user solve the problem, then the topic should continue. I believe this will save time for everyone, easing support and frustration that comes along with it.

Although, it is only a theory...

What do you think?