@SLAB-Mr.Thomas I think it’s better to discuss ways to change chiefdelphi to get better questions in a separate thread from tips on how to form better questions. In the CD Forum Support category, it will be seen by administrators.
I think there’s a few different ways something could be implemented.
Discourse has the ability to add default text to a post in certain categories. That could be used to link to the tips for asking questions thread, or another resource (for example, an expanded version of the frc-docs support resources page that includes tips for asking questions). The latter would be something easier to digest and manage rather then a tip thread that might grow to have hundreds of tips after a few years. But someone would have to make a PR to add that. One disadvantage is that the default text remains if the user doesn’t delete it. I’ve seen this happen in the CD Forum Support not uncommonly.
That discourse feature could also be used to create a form, similar to the WPILib form on github. My concern is that many questions don’t fit neatly into a little box, and doing that might discourage questions from being asked. Perhaps a programming support section could be created, with the existing programming forums staying for more freeform discussion. But that comes at the downside that people may not see the support forum and post without the benefit of the form.
@Brandon_Martus has been pretty open to adding new discourse plugins as well, if someone can find one that would be useful for this.
There’s always the non-technical solution of helping each individual poster see what could be included to improve things. This takes more time for the question answer-er, but is probably much more effective for the questioner who wants the help (and if they don’t want the help, then no amount of technical improvements will help).
What are other’s thoughts on how to change CD to lead to better programming questions?
Somewhat of a weird thought but I think programming questions might be better asked in a discord server or something like that. I think the environment works better. Maybe if there is a programming question a link to .gg/frc can be given and they can try asking there too? I know the advantages of a system like CD for questions (all on one thread, can be found by people in the future) but for immediate help discord is a lot more fast paced and I think can help a bit more.
I think the format of Discord is the worst way to ask programming questions. I know it has threading but is isn’t the best. CD is innately threaded and allows for a separate more in-depth discussion. The posting format in CD allows better intermixing of graphics and encourages a more detailed response than the individual message in a stream that people get in discord.
Of course that’s a fairly easy system to implement, but the problem is solving each individual case of a problem won’t really leave a lasting overarching solution to the problem. One thing I’ve noticed (especially on CD) is that there isn’t much of a way to archive solved problems. Most of the time when some one asks a question, it’s already been answered with just slightly different context (I can not count how many “how to tune a limelight the right way” sort of answers I’ve given with full rants on how to make it work anywhere). An easier way to access archived questions before asking the question yourself might A) reduce the amount of repeated questions and B) give people more context they can include in their question if it doesn’t work (i.e. I tried [xyz] as recommended in [some post] but that isn’t working in my situation). That would also mean people giving answers can avoid giving answers that don’t work for that person’s special case.
That said, if someone were to come accross one of these jedi archive entries, they could open up a related forum or thread that would allow them to ask for clarification or help in their specific cases. That way not only can they see the origional problem/solution, but problems/solutions that happen in a bunch of different cases. That way the age-old question of how to tune my shooter’s PID will be 100% totally and perfectly answered in every possible way and I don’t have to explain what kF does a bajillion times.
Official CD request: Please make topic-based forums/threads. I.e. if someone makes a question and tags it with pid or something like that it will be put in some category with every other question tagged with pid so they can see other people’s problems and solutions.
Unless I’m misunderstanding the request, this exists through tags. If fact, you can click on pid and see all the threads tagged with pid. And the search feature will search tags.
Hm, I find Discord’s format is great for programming questions because you can quickly ask multiple and people can explain how your problem and solution in a conversational manner. With forums like CD I feel like responses will take more time and even though it will have more detail initially, can potentially be harder to understand than a conversation about a problem you’re having which can then be extended to include detail.
The unofficial FRC server, which is the largest FRC related server to my knowledge, does not have threads enabled, so programming and other questions quickly become lost. CD is the much better suited forum for technical help.
Does this mean templates? If so I’d love a basic template in the appropriate categories that looks something like this (replacing triple backtick with actual triple backtick, since I can’t embed backticks in a code segment apparently):
<Replace the angle-bracket sections with what you're seeing in particular>
My question is:
<What is not working as expected>
My code is:
(triple backtick with java/cpp for java/cpp subcategories)
<code from file>
(triple backtick)
My error is:
(triple backtick)
<full error message from build output, you may need to scroll up>
(triple backtick)
At least it would introduce the concept of code blocks to people and may avoid some struggling to read code.
Sorry, I guess I didn’t articulate my idea very well, but this is what I’m thinking.
So when someone posts a question, they have to tag it with a relavant topic before they start asking. Then it automatically redirects you to the relavant topic page. then you can browse existing posts to search for answers there first