Can't ask a question on answers.unity.com

I can type out a question and it has the option to "login and post". When I click it just redirects me to https://id.unity.com/en/account/edit. When I try to log in before asking the question, the same thing happens. I've tried disabling browser extensions as well as using Firefox, same thing happens. Very frustrating.

 

It would be worth start of, which link you navigate from, rather just redirection link.
Is it
https://answers.unity.com/index.html
or
https://answers.unity.com/questions/ask.html

 

Both of those pages end up taking me to the account page. When I first go to https://answers.unity.com/index.html I can click "ask a question" which takes me to https://answers.unity.com/questions/ask.html. After submitting the question I end up at the account page. Then, all further clicks to "ask a question" on https://answers.unity.com/index.html take me to the account page. I'm wondering if something is misconfigured in my account settings.

 

I never used answers to ask question, so I am unable to confirm, if issue is there on your side.
But if I am not wrong, Unity may be trying to discontinue answers.
I don't think there is much traction this days anyway.
Forum is great source of information by its own.

 

They're not actively trying to discontinue it to my knowledge but they're not actively promoting it either. It's basically in a bit of a limbo since it has value in the same sense that the official wiki has value but they don't want to put actual effort into it making it effectively worthless going forward.

Use the forums.

 

Forums and UA logins have always been sporadically glitchy, for years. When I first came here I had to relog into Forums to do anything, and UA was fine (only for me -- others had the reverse). There was a crazy bug where following a google link to a UA question took you to the login screen, _only_ if you were already logged in. Following the same link a second time took you there, but also logged you out.

From what I remember, some browsers were buggy (I'm on Safarii -- no problems, now). Combinations of being logged into Forums then going to UA could do odd things. Following a link to a login wasn't so good (try logging in first, navigating around, to Forums and back to UA. Then post a Q). Browser caches could get messed up. It's never been "fixed" since it self-resolves for most people. New users post Qs there all the time with no bugs.

UA is about the same as forums, now. If you read the history, UA was created since forums was bad at a StackExchange format, and extra bad at producing search results. UA was run like StackExchange for a while. That's why so many searches lead there now, with a Q having the exact title of your search, with an answer upvoted 12 times and comments updating it for new versions. But the experienced mods all quit a few years ago. A problem is new users get moderator status, don't know what to do, so randomly delete and close Q's.

 

For real problems I ascvutally post in Unity answers and in the forums. xD

 

Personally speaking, I never go on UA. I find the content too disjointed for me to want to bother with it.

Since I work for a living, my time is pretty limited, and I simply don't have the time to look through both the forums and UA. So I just stick to the forums, and help out whereever I can.

 

although I use it. I have to confess that the mods over there also delete the questions like for no reason. I wanted to ask something that technically was never asked, and the mod went and said that the question looks similar than other question that was posted years ago. Well, of course, the answer for that question worked jack S*** for me.

 

That's funny. Disjointed is a good description of how UA is supposed to work. Each Q stands on it's own, about one specific isolated topic.

I sometimes find Forums too jointed. Someone asks how to apply top-spin to a ball. Immediately it's a discussion of the golf game everyone else knows that person is working on and how to make a Manager class for it, because the 4 people responding were talking about that on another thread.

 

Not to mention often offtopics

Personally, if I see posts in UA, while searching via search engine, they are often very old and happens to be outdated. Some solution still works, true. But there are tons of modern solutions alternatives, which happens, I can not see on UA.
Either because UA don't function correctly. Or moderation issue. Or maybe people don't find it appealing. I am more likely find an answer on Stack Exchange, or private blogs.

Hence I always back to forum search.

 

Yes. You're using hyberbole, but they really do delete Qs for reasons they can't explain. Just last week I moved a Q into the beginner area adding a comment about that. Another mod, with fewer points then me, deleted it for being a beginner Q. Then helped the user anyway over the next few days.

The problem is the mod community collapsed about 4 years ago. Now a UA moderator is just any user who got 100 "likes" (1,000 points, where a Like is 10 or 15 points). Help 10 kids with 10 syntax errors each, and you're a moderator. On the way, they've had Q's deleted for no reason. They've seen every Mod just doing their own thing. A few read the old, old guidelines, see the 100's of Q's every day that violate them, and decide if they're super-mean to 10, the rest will magically get the idea or something.

 

The last two. Sometimes an old UA Q will pop up in Recent Activity with a fresh comment "this no longer works in 2018.12." Which is great -- hopefully another users updates it. The FAQ even describes this.

But now it often gets closed it as a necro. But not completely the mod's fault, since the Close a Q menu has a completely wrong option "because correct answer was accepted".

 

Unfortunately this is often the case. So I just mostly ignore search results from UA.
But I think there is option to vote, for reopen. Isn't it?

 

Funny story, a few months ago a UA moderator wrote "did anyone else notice that we've had a Reported queue for the last 6 years?" Users have been clicking the "report this" button since 2011 and no one looked at them. It's still 30 pages long and no one seems to be looking at it, save for just after that post.

It's pretty amusing: https://answers.unity.com/questions/1450480/report-queue-and-its-recent-importance.html Note that I'm the only moderator who even responded to it.

 

Well, that sadly only indicates, UA lost completely traction.
I am really interested, what stance is on whole UA by Unity officials.

 

I just now got a mass email about new Unity training. I assume everyone else got the same? Consultants and courses and support lines. I feel like I've been seeing more official Unity support stuff for maybe a year. And, of course, the Unity "Learn" section is recent. In that context, UA was just a stopgap before they were able to provide all this new in-house support. The single official Unity rep on UA was pulled off at least year ago.

This new stuff might be like taking a pottery class. You'll probably never become a professional potter, but that's fine. You never expected to and you had fun.

 

And why the mods from the forum don't foment or invite the people who post their problem here to go to the UA? Or it doesn't work?

 

Is likely, because people value their time too much, to spread between more than one community instance (I.e. Forum, or UA).

 

This. Time is finite. That said it's not the only reason. You have to factor in that the moderators are entirely volunteers for this community. There are multiple reasons people may volunteer but to stay active in it you need to have passion for it and it's simply the case that most of those who accept the invitation to join the forum staff are already passionate for them.

Likewise people who are actively moderating Unity Answers in a way that is intended even with what is clearly a decline in proper support for it are the people who are passionate about it and if you've ever read posts by @Owen-Reynolds when they defend Answers you can see this.

 

Still, 1 moderator from the forum can create 1 single post, inviting the community to answer the questions from UA. It sounds like a minuscule idea but is better than nothing c:

 

Why would anyone pay any attention to a post by a moderator suggesting that they make use of Unity Answers? We don't pay attention to them when they tell us to behave and that has the potential to be followed up with the ban hammer.

 

On Unity Answers, back when it worked, we often rejected Qs and added comments like "that's a discussion Q which our rules don't allow. Could you please post it in Forums?" Actually, we did that for people that needed hand-holding, syntax errors fixed, or multiple Qs specific only to that asker. It's in the FAQ.

But what would you write here? "Your Q is too well-researched and isolated to a single problem of general interest. Unless you can muddle it up some, could you post it to UA?" Seems unnecessary.

But that's old anyway. UA is unmoderated now and got a HelpRoom section a few years ago. You'll often see very simple Qs from beginners, answered by someone with just a little more experience, and they all seem happy. So, bizarrely, UA is now a decent place to send someone who needs the manual explained in smaller words. There's only a small chance a moderator will ignore the rules and delete it.

 

Yes and no. It's very much dependent on where and how you ask the question. Some sections (eg Getting Started) are more inclined to provide a straight up answer than other sections (eg Scripting). That being said just providing a straight up answer isn't necessarily the best choice.

One major problem with Unity Answers is that it doesn't have a sufficient number of users to be able to function like a proper Q&A. With a proper Q&A you would have people voting on answers based on the quality of the answer but with Unity Answers there simply aren't enough people and if a question receives multiple answers the person asking the question may not be able to pick the best one.

Just as an example the following question had three answers all with three votes each (at the time of this post). All three of them could have been marked as "Best Answer".

https://answers.unity.com/questions/1553706/how-to-check-if-each-element-in-a-list-has-met-a-c.html

Furthermore just because they're asking the question doesn't mean they're asking it in a way that necessarily makes sense for the problem they have. Forum discussions often start because the person asked a question and didn't provide sufficient information for the problem. I'd imagine a moderator would have to handle that on a Q&A but since there isn't much of a moderation staff now that's not going to be handled properly.

 

Yes. That question in UA you linked is a Forum Q, for many reasons. It's completely wrong for UA. 6 years ago a UA moderator would have taken one look and Rejected it (with "See the FAQ, try the Forums").

The second answer shows the problem with UA. It was written by a moderator. Mouse over the name -- they have 4,000 points where 1000 is a moderator. They joined UA 4 years ago, which was after the experienced Mods all quit. They've never seen how UA is supposed to be moderated and have never gotten any guidance. They don't know the Q belongs in Forums, or how terrible their answer is for UA, or how many rules they just broke. If they looked at the FAQ, it's describing something completely alien to them.

 

I cant even find a part for asking a question in the forums unless i have names of people to add. I been fighting with trying to get anything asked on here for over 4 years and can only go here to things like this. Its driving me up the wall.

 

I'd have thought it was obvious but since it isn't below are the basic steps.

1. Start by determining the topic of your question (eg Graphics, Scripting, etc)
2. Find the appropriate forum section for that topic (General Discussion is a fallback)
3. Use the Post New Thread button to create a thread with the question in it

Spoiler has an image showing the exact location of the button.

Spoiler

 

Unless you look for single key word, or short phrase, I would use web browser search, rather forum search. You will receive answers with synonyms as well.

 

Thanks for not comprehending I have followed these "instructions" and have used web searches, as this is just another way of saying "google it."

 

Is not, since world is much bigger than just google. In short, there are many search engines and tools, where you may receive different answers.

 

What is even the point of having an Ask a Question Button if its not fixed? Logically it should have been removed or Fixed by now and there is no TAB available even at the top of this page to Post a New Discussion nor is it available or clear on my account page. Apparently this is true for many others. I would add several visual snapshots to show none of the suggestions work but its not allowed here. The website needs a major overhaul.

 

I've been saying for years now that Answers should be put into archive mode with questions being directed to the relevant sections of the forums.

 

SO they still haven't paid anyone to fix it despite their budgets. But yeah, sucks when trying to actually get help or assistance for a specific concept since "Google It" doesn't actually solve or answer specific questions. When I see someone post that as a response it shows me they don't know either and pretend to be remotely knowledgeable.

 

They're not going to pay anyone to fix it when not long ago their plans were to completely delete the entirety of Answers.

 

Well I hope they actually get around to it and give us who want to communicate with one another to get advice and answers to specific question and actually inspire a real mutually supportive community and keep the snarky ones off for not answering those questions people ask. LOL. I know I can dream.

 

Snarkiness is largely restricted to General Discussion. If you treat the rest of the forums the way you see this section you're going to miss out on a great community. GD is just here for people to talk about random game development topics while they wait for the editor to compile/bake/build.

With regards to Answers I wouldn't expect anything to come from that. Once Unity admitted to Connect failing and returned the Job sub-forums it was only a matter of time until they decided that everything else was a failure too even if it wasn't. It's only still present today because of the backlash. If not for that it would be completely gone.