I feel like I've been demoted

jayK said:It would be great if each line could link to a separate thread...so if you click on "Spyware", it takes you to the Spyware thread instead of this thread. The top "Help Guides" line could still link to this thread.
By the looks of things, you have not tried clicking on any of the Help Guides
listed in footn200's post above.

Each of the original threads is linked at the beginning of this thread so you
can reply to the threads indivually.

As footn200 has said, this is only a temporary measure.

What "I HOPE" he will be able to do is this:

- 1) Create a new forum which would be for Help Guides only
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- 2) Use an iframe or other method to create a scrollable window at the top of the computer forum list
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- 3) The new forum would both be listed with the other forums and be visable in the scrollable window
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- 4) Users could reply to the Help Guide threads
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- 5) No new threads could be created by any user in the Help Guide forum
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- 6) Help threads which Qualify for Help Guide status would be moved to the Help Guide forum by a Moderator
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- 7) As needed, a Help Guide author could incorporate information from user replies into their Help Guide and
       request the replies be removed to make room for more replies.
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- 8) Each Help Guide would be locked in place and numbered so users could refer to each Help Guide by number

The scrollable window would only need to be about 4 or 5 threads high so as not to take up too much space
in the computer forum.

Also as I've mentioned before, anyone could create a Help Guide.

All one would need to do is look through the computer forum to see what the most common problems are and
select something to tackle that fits your skills.

The point here is there will be other Help Guides and they can't all be linked
directly from the title of this thread as that would be no different than having
individual stickies. So we want to avoid taking up too much screen realestate.
We have no idea how many Help Guides we will eventually end up with.

Using a scrollable window, both the "View Counts and Reply Counts" would be VISABLE
which is very important, especially the Reply Count. Because this way, we will be
able to see when someone replies and respond.

I mentioned iframe as an example as there are other ways of creating scrollable
windows and done properly, it would not be a nightmare. All we want is to be able to
view another page within the window.

Currently, we only have 4 Help Guides (5 if you count the Guide to Seeking Help sticky)
For all we know, depending on the users here, we may easily end up with 50 Help Guides.
Now that is just a random number used as an example. You really would not want that many
threads stuck in place, now would you?

Also, those short names do not fully convey what each Help Guide is about. To the average
user, to which are they going to respond better?

Networking Solutions

or

Wired/Wireless Networking, Printer & File Sharing:Solutions,Guides & Troubleshooting

With the first one, they may not stop to think that it includes Wireless, printing,
file sharing and all the other aspects of networking, especially if they are not a
seasoned computer user or someone who has gone through certification testing.

After all, many people don't always stop to think things through.

So short descriptions are basically out of the picture.

Then that would defeat the purpose of each individual Help Guide, especially
if anyone could edit it.

Each Help Guide contains detailed information so as to help others with the
particular subject they need help with.

Take for instance, the Spyware Help Guide which you yourself have used. Do you
think it would be as effective if it contained less information or if others were
allowed to mess it up by removing important information or by adding bad information?

Also, if it was done as a single thread, then it could easily become who knows how
many pages if someone was to try printing it up?

Only the author of a particular Help Guide should able able to edit that one. If they
decide they don't want to maintain it any more, then they could request someone else
to take over and a Mod could take care of switching it to that user so they could edit it.

But that would not allow a user to view the reply count either which is important
so we can see when there is a new reply.

But for the Computer forum, there are more than enough subjects to be able to create
a lot more than 10 Help Guides.

As to the Help Guide forum I suggested to be viewed in a scrollable window, it would
only be for Computer Help Guides.

Off hand, I can think of a few possible Help Guides, some of which may be combined.

Data Recovery
Data Backup
Burning CD's and DVD's
UseNet
Systems Trouble Shooting
Running Multiple OS's
Router Configurations
Firewall Configuration
Processor Comparisons (sp?)
Voip

And that is just from glancing at the first page in the Computer forum.
I'm sure there are plenty of other subjects to cover.

jayK said:When there's a new reply, the individual HG would be bumped to the top.
Again, you failed to read part of what I wrote...

The Help Guides would each be numbered and stuck in place.

This means they would not be bumpable as forum threads are.

Previously, we refered to them as sticky 1, 2, 3 or 4

With the items I listed, those things do get asked about a lot in this forum.
Also, those subjects are not covered by the current Help Guides. Those subjects
are ones which whole Help Guides could be written about. The whole purpose of the
Help Guides is to help makes things easier for other users who need information
on various items and these Help Guides can do just that.

Having them so they could be bumped when replied to would not make it easier to see
when someone replies, especially if someone doesn't login for anywhere from half a
day to a day or more.

A pull down menu would not serve the purpose either as there would be no reply count
and the guides would not be visable unless one clicked on the pull down menu.

Also, if they were left as before, then that would mean that forum and screen realestate
would be taken up. I don't recall if the default threads per page is 20 or 40 threads.
But when you look at the default setting and you get ten or more stickies, then you can
see there would be a problem.

I keep mine set to 100, but even then, unless I scroll the forum page, there are 15 threads
showing, when I scroll down so the forum heading isn't showing, there are 23 threads showing.
I keep my screen set 1600 x 1200 and I don't set the browser to full window unless I am using
just the laptop screen which is at 1400 x (I forget the second half)

By having them in a scrollable window, the Help Guides would be visable to everyone with
only the first 4 or 5 showing unless one was to scroll through the list. This would keep
the computer forum from being cluttered up with stickies and it would serve the purpose.
Also, those of us who author any Help guides could scroll through the list and see at a
glance if there are any replies that we need to respond to.