[Suggestion] Thread templates

[NFT5]

In another of the now seemingly endless stream of threads about the new sid/unstable section I made a suggestion that threads could have a template for basic information that is usually needed to answer requests for help. This was glaringly illustrated today when I read the "wall of text" post that had almost nothing to help direct a response.

Donald did ask me to put this up in a new thread and I got sidetracked.

So, here are a couple of screenshots of how things look when a new thread is started in certain sections on the other forum that I frequent.

ntn_new_topic-1.jpg (171.52 KiB) Viewed 5674 times

ntn_new_fs_template-1.jpg (182.37 KiB) Viewed 5674 times

It's maybe a bit crude in execution but actually works reasonably well.

[sunrat]

Sounds like a good idea. Not sure how simple it would be to implement but worth investigating. Your example is on phpBB forum software same as here, so probably a plugin.

It does get frustrating try to extract enough information out of some posters to even get a vague idea of their issues. People tend to give up after a short period of lack of relevant response.
Basic info to help a topic such as that one you referred to would be:
- which version of installer (and whether free or non-free)?
- which DE?
- hardware info (I find inxi good but it's not in default install)
- symptoms of problem
- what attempts to fix so far

Of course these are outlined in the Announcements section of each help subforum but few apparently read or follow them.

[donald]

hmmmm... I found an extension similar to that one, however it is a single use template and it does not allow categories as I can see.

In the example it seems to suggest there is a pull-down menu that will populate the thread, the version I found does not have such a menu but it will populate a thread with whatever we wish.

As a test it is live in this sub-forum only.

Start a new thread and you can see the fields.

[donald]

Of course these are outlined in the Announcements section of each help subforum but few apparently read or follow them.

No one reads on the Internet.

[Fossy]

Of course these are outlined in the Announcements section of each help subforum but few apparently read or follow them.

No one reads on the Internet.

Has to do with the nature of the beast , Debian is a distro where you can go either way , everything is possible or should be possible , a paradise for thinkers , tweakers , pseudo " devs “ in the making who on their test computers lustily fiddle with it for kicks or purely out of curiosity and who contribute relatively little , not to say nothing , to the vulgarization or support of the real Debian " users " .
How to avoid that these egocentric Debian cowboys who are all too happy to dominate the forums , ignore , not to say despise , haphazardly end up in the wrong run ?
By for example ( can still be expanded ) :
viewtopic.php?t=153188
Admittedly , creating the " Sid's Playpen. -- Debian Unstable and Testing " sub forum is a step in the right direction .

With all due respect to the efforts of the likes of " Hallvor " with his howto's , consider :
viewtopic.php?t=150334
This is just how I am and should this reaction not be in good taste / contrary to the good spirit of this forum I request its administrators to delete my response .
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