How can we help more people on G2G?

Question

In 2018, longtime G2G contributor Herbert Tardy made two posts in the hope of improving G2G efficiency--one with advice, mainly for newcomers, on how to formulate questions, and another with answers to the commonest questions.  Now that Herb wishes to take a less active role in G2G, he has turned over maintenance of the two free-space pages that hold this advice to Dennis Barton and me:

How To Get Great Answers on G2G

 

 Questions Frequently Asked on G2G               

 

We would like you all to know about these pages.  We hope you will find them useful, and if so, consider linking to them in your answers to G2G questions.

 

Is there any way to make these pages more useful?  We welcome suggestions.  Would it be useful to incorporate these suggestions, or links to the pages, into the G2G Help page?  Is there any way to make the Help page itself more prominent?  Would anyone support proposing a revision to the Help page?

Edited to add page URL so this thread will show up on FSP. 

Comments

Thanks.  My first impression is that the numbers are useful for reference, and the table of contents is useful not only because of the links but because it creates an easy overview of the page.

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Julie & Dennis, I was speaking off the top of my head and gave inaccurate info. The bullet and number is inherent in the Table of Contents. I'll be quiet now (LOL fat chance)

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I was confused too (already had to edit my first comment!).  It's still fairly early here in California.  I need another cup of coffee!

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Not to worry Debi, I think you're right, it just won't work in the TOC since the software generates that all by itself.  RJ's proposal might be a reasonable approach, I'd just like to see if any more comments/complaints materialize.  (It's not to be assumed that those of us who have been up for a couple of hours have cleared the fog!)

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Herb, you are not forgotten. You are missed!!

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Thanks Pip that's very kind of you!

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Please look again Suzanne, Herb, all, and see if aesthetic appeal is any better.  We tried it using RJ's suggestion.

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Looks great Dennis!  Well done, sir.

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Thanks Herb!

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Looks good to me too - thanks!

Answer 1

Thank you to Herbert Tardy creating such well-written and easy-to-follow pages. Thank you to Dennis Barton and Julie Kelts for taking them over. I agree that it would be a good idea to provide links to these pages when we answer certain questions. I cannot suggest any missing content at this time.

I am sad to admit that this is the first time that I have read these pages because I did not know that they existed. I went searching for these pages, but I could not find links to them. I agree that we need to find a way to link them so that they are more prominent. Under the Help tab, there are a variety of pages with links to helpful pages organized in alphabetical order. One page does not do that. When you click on the Forum ("G2G") page, you go directly to the G2G Questions feed. We need a G2G page, under the Help tab, that organizes the links to all of these helpful pages in alphabetical order. I am sure that there are more helpful G2G pages that I have never seen.

Comments

One of the pages is newly created based on the 2018 G2G post.

There are probably more free-space pages of all kinds that none of us know about.  I've been keeping my own list for  reference.  Isn't finding things on WikiTree a common complaint?  Someone should create a Help page for that!  (Or maybe they have, and I haven't found it.)

Answer 2

Suzanne, Herb, others:  we'll take a cut at trying to make the Table of Contents a little more presentable tomorrow.  (Forgive me, I'm cheating and posting this as an answer to bump the thread back to top and try to make sure all regular participants see it.)

Comments

Thanks - but from my perspective I'd only fix it if there is a quick and easy way to format differently. I've inadvertently distracted from the primary question of how to make these good pages easier to find!

Answer 3

These pages are wordy and therefore, even if someone found them, they would probably not find them useful.  Cut the words in half, and they would be clearer.

Comments

Maybe you could take one item and suggest the edits as an example?

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I don't see any realistic way to do that on the FAQ page.  Those answers are already direct and to the point, and they're mostly talking to people who don't have boatloads of experience with the topics.  I think the only way to cut the words in half would be to change the threshold for "frequent" and dump half the questions.

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I just looked over the pages again and I agree with Dennis (and about both pages).