Is CE too complicated to understand?

[The_Big_K]

CEans,

[Especially, the new members]

Over the last couple of month, lot of new members have told me this -

"The site is too complicated to understand!"

I, personally, do not agree with that. I'd still like to hear what you want to say! Also tell me what you think we can do to make it simpler to understand.

PS: CEan - Ash is working on Video tutorials to make the things easier for new members.

[mayurpathak]

If I have to comment as a user, one of the first thing that come to my mind is that we should have a navigation pane on the home page. The four tabs aren't enough.

Next, there should be drop downs to ensure better visibility.

Third, my guess is that due to too many threads under a heading, people might find it difficult to locate the threads they are interested in. SO we might introduce some more subheads with previews displayed as meta tags.

Will think more if I can

[mayurpathak]

And biggie the four options in the poll aren't enough. The options should be
1. Yes, too complicated for my brain to understand.
2. May be a li'l complicated for a geek like me.
3. Not really. I'm a good surfer.
4. Absolutely not. Bring that nerd who says its complicated.

The last two options are solutions.

[ash]

Perhaps its too complicated because its their first time to use a forum? I could understand with that point.

Maybe when a new member signs up, we can send them an e-mail about tips and advice about navigating and posting. When the videos are done, we can give them the links too. At least they'll be "ready" when they log into CE.

[The_Big_K]

Yep, instead of changing the forum structure; we can educate new members. That'll be easier. Video lectures will be useful, of course.

Probably, we've come up with too many lectures. I'll look into it. One more suggestion that I got was to have 1 sticky post per section that explains what to post & how to post in that section.

[friendster7]

Restructuring the forum section could solve the problem because educating the user now can be a good choice but when it reaches 50000 members or more,user find it hard to see or locate the posted topics.
so making few changes now will solve the problem for future.

like a simple structure change can be having project ideas as one sub section and seminar topic on another sub section and having these two subsection in a new name main section.

[KINETIC_JOULES]

Well. . . since I'm use to online forums; no, it is not complicated for me to understand.

[crazyboy]

Originally Posted by The_Big_K

Yep, instead of changing the forum structure; we can educate new members. That'll be easier. Video lectures will be useful, of course.

Probably, we've come up with too many lectures. I'll look into it. One more suggestion that I got was to have 1 sticky post per section that explains what to post & how to post in that section.

Internet connectivity @ some parts of the world is not so good to do Video streaming so efficiently.

Do you think giving a video Demo will be a very good idea? Good Admin your take on this?

-Crazy

[just2rock]

Good to see that majority views on CE is getting more and more positive day by Day..towards each and every of our's contribution for making CE a better,easy,cool place for Hangout

Keep on the GO!

[ash]

Originally Posted by crazyboy

Internet connectivity @ some parts of the world is not so good to do Video streaming so efficiently.

Do you think giving a video Demo will be a very good idea? Good Admin your take on this?

-Crazy

Yeah, we can just do screen shots or powerpoint presentations as well (Biggie suggested SlideShare last time: (SlideShare is the best place to share powerpoint presentations)

Video Tutorials are there as another option for those who have video streaming available. But I try to minimize the size if possible. The flash one I did is around 4-5 MB, compared to 40 MB of avi before conversion.

@just2rock
Indeed, CE should be a place to hangout

[The_Big_K]

I've another plan [as a part of forum restructure]

We rename our "Newbie Training Center" to "New Members's Section" (or something similar). We rewrite all articles using pictures, screenshots and stick them in that section.

It will be easier for us to point new members to this section where they will learn all the basics (in case they don't know) including "What is CE all about" , "How to post?" , "How to reply to thread", "How to use private messaging" , "What are titles" etc. Each one of us can work on 1 tutorial at least.

Secondly, we make "Before you post" sticky in each of the sections so that any new member reads it first. This article will have quick details of what to post in this section and what not.

I believe this will work. What do you say?

[crazyboy]

Originally Posted by The_Big_K

I've another plan [as a part of forum restructure]

We rename our "Newbie Training Center" to "New Members's Section" (or something similar). We rewrite all articles using pictures, screenshots and stick them in that section.

It will be easier for us to point new members to this section where they will learn all the basics (in case they don't know) including "What is CE all about" , "How to post?" , "How to reply to thread", "How to use private messaging" , "What are titles" etc. Each one of us can work on 1 tutorial at least.

Secondly, we make "Before you post" sticky in each of the sections so that any new member reads it first. This article will have quick details of what to post in this section and what not.

I believe this will work. What do you say?

Biggi Rocks !! Nice Idea.

-Crazy

[kedarjk]

Yes, Big_K having sections about basic things is a better idea.

[The_Big_K]

Originally Posted by kedarjk

Yes, Big_K having sections about basic things is a better idea.

We've a restructure plan ready and we'll soon begin our documentation project

Things will be better once the restructure is done.