Is it possible to give every homey-app it’s own sub forum (under the “Apps” sub form)? Now there’s a main discussion topic for every app, even some with over 4000 reactions. Every topic and question gets posted in there, and it’s a mess. Reading trough the whole thing is undoable, and searching through that topic isn’t handy. Sometimes there are several discussions being discussed at once.
If every topic gets its own topic, the discussion stays neatly kept together. This would make it way easier to find solutions that might already been solved.
There are currently 394 apps in the app store, that’s a lot of sub forums so most likely not going to happen.
And don’t forget that there is also several different languages with their own “apps” sub forum, that makes it 394 X 4 (as there are 3 languages with the “apps” sub forum).
Same here. And because the threads are so long people will not read it all and ask a question that has been asked before which will be followed by some reactions that the search function has to be used cluttering the threads even more.
Yeah yeah, it’s always the helpers and messengers. Think i am going to leave this community for what it is. Helping a lot but only getting ungrateful reactions and bashing instead of gratitude. Waste of my spare time…
Yeah. Best make 400 subtopics per language and start topics with a title like “Algemeen”. After that ask 10 different questions in that same topic and we can all find it way better.
Well, actually, that is a bit what has already happened, although the topics aren’t called “Algemeen”.
Take for example the Heimdall or Homeydash.com topic (I pick those because I have special interrest in these and follow them closely ) Both have well over 500 posts and go from left to right and all over the place. Sometimes I just know a particular question/problem has been discussed before but have a hard time finding it in these lengthy posts.
When these apps had had their own sub category every particular question/problem would have had their own post and would be easier to find and I also think would be easier to moderate.
Also, the option to mark a post as Solution functionality would be usable and posts could be locked when solved, creating a good and searchable Knowledge Base for the app.
I do understand maintaining all this would require time from moderators but I really think this time investment would return in a decreasing need to moderate these lengthy posts.
As some of u guys know this is a community forum. Run by the community and for the community. Also totally in control of Athom. There is not a single thing we can adjust to this forum as a community member. For the moderators there will be no difference. We move the topics anyway.
Well it sure does not work the way it currently is, so something ought to be changed.
Currently, the rules are based upon the assumption that people should first search for their answer and then ask. I personally do not believe that is ever going to work, as there will always be a lot of parameters involved in most questions. Questions often take a number of iterations to be answered properly and for the asker to actually have a chance to get thoroughly educated. This, combined with the fact that apps are all a big mess in one thread, really makes the value of the community fade.
This means people are not getting the help they need, and thus leaving the product and community.
Had it been my product, I would encourage my community to ask as much as they possibly could, and prioritize making sure that people’s hands are held whenever they are learning. I am sure this would create a really great community that would inevitably strengthen the product in every way. Prioritizing creating more experts continuously will ensure that more and more people share guides that help other helps solve their problems.
It is obvious that the opposite is happening for Homey, as it is close to impossible to find an answer to anything. Too much of what the Homey can do(like apps) has extremely poor documentation, and YouTube(the place the majority of people go to, when looking for help) has almost no content regarding Homey.
I think it is critical that every app that people actually use should have a community around them. It is also critical that they are extremely documented, with step-by-step guides for everything, known issues etc.
So you think that a question that is being asked 10 times a week, at least (yes, that does happen, a lot), is making it better on a community forum?
No, that just fills the forum with duplicate, on duplicate on duplicate questions.
We have tried that, just check the old forum.
The biggest used “engine” for most issues is google, not youtube, especially for the group that is using Homey.
You can’t create video’s about everything Homey can do, that is impossible.
The biggest “issue” with Homey is the indefinite amount of possibilities that there are, you can’t fix that by just creating multiple sub forums for every app, as most people don’t use just the 1 app, they will use 3 or more apps and that in just 1 flow, there is no easy way to just put that under 1 sub forum, you’ll get people asking the same question in all 3 separate sub spots, and then also create 1 in the general “questions and help” part.
Or just down right in the wrong one, cause they don’t know where to put it under, that is already happening now for 5-10% of the newly created posts, with the few “sub forums” there are.
As for the bad documentation, most apps don’t even need documentation on the forum, as all the help is already implemented into the app itself, or people just need to read the description (RTFM!) that is with every app, which is THE place for putting documentation about an app, that people just don’t read (or even know about) at all, they just press “install” and it should work just like they want it.
For other explanations like “how to use tags”, a big explanation usually already is on the forum, or on the support pages, but are never searched for/read, “as why take the time to read, when you can just (re-)post the question”, which takes much more time, then just to read in the first place.
People will always continue to ask the same questions, as 90% of the people don’t like/want to read, that is just in their nature.
There is no system other then pointing it out to “change” that, sometimes even a popup right up their nose they will immediately search for the “X” or the “OK” button without reading even a word of that popup warning they can’t ever turn back without completely resetting their Homey.
But feel free to say any suggestions to Athom themselves on their support lines to make changes, as they are the ones making the big calls.
Just to reply to the initial topic, I would also prefer a subforum per app. That would make it much easier to see all topics related to a single app and as a side result would probably result in less duplicate topics.
The way the forum is set up now gives too much clutter. As a newbie I really search a lot, but I think a forum should also be kept active. If everyone searches and relies on older topics, it could better be a wiki tool instead of a community.
I understand that there are a lot of apps and that it would require some serious work. But I would rather see 1182 subforums then having all the info about those 1182 apps totally unstructured. The amount of work required to should not be the reason to leave it as it is.
That said, it would be my personal preference, not necessarily the best solution.
And then we have a sub forum with an app. Then we have 80 questions in that sub forum. All with wicked topic titles. U gonna read all that topics to find ur answer ?
Btw, the search engine don’t mind where the post is containing ur trigger words. He will find it anywhere. Also in a topic with 500+ posts in it.
But then again: Athom is the only one who can change this so that’s ur best shot.
Yeah. And then every new member that doesn’t like to read or search (which i understood is very common and very normal) creates a new topic with a very similar name asking something already explained in the “offical” topic… And the mods are not allowed to delete it and we are not allowed to point to the correct topic because those ppl tend to walk away because they were not helped correctly).
I really don’t see the difference (except that it took weeks to do that (time that was better spent to solve real problems) and a month later everyone complains that nothing can be found again).
so most likely not going to happen.
