Scripting forum needs to be split between scripting help and full guidance

I completely rescind my recommendation to simply tag posts and allow searching of posts by said tags. It will not be enough due to a simple fact; There are alot of newer and younger users, new blood, just getting started using Unity, and they will flood the forum with basic questions irregardless of available forum tools. As programming or scripting gets taught at a younger age, and as Unity get ever more popular, this is to be expected. In a way its a good problem to have, but a problem nonetheless.

As an experiment, I searched for a question that was not about, simple syntax errors, how to move an object or some other simple thing, how to use a certain component, how to implement saving/loading, infinite loop logic errors, etc. I had to go 12 pages back in the scripting forum, and in the end the question was about how to load images from a URL, which has been asked several times even after the WWW class needed to be replaced with UnityWebRequest.

Not to say that these are beginner questions, but they are things which can and should be searched for, in the API, in written guides, even youtube guides, and previous posts in the forums since they have been asked repeatedly even before this wave of new blood came in.

The new blood already don't have a comprehensive understanding of forum use, let alone the Unity game engine, and C# scripting. The problem isn't beginner questions being asked, but their frequency. The forum has been flooded with an extreme amount of beginner level questions, people with genuine problems on what they are trying to do get pushed down and go unnoticed.

So my recommendation is to split scripting into at least 2 subcategories. The current scripting forum remains as is, and there be a new forum called "Scripting Guidance" where a more teaching approach is expected, since that's what the new blood needs, guidance.

I do realise this might actually be creating a hug box, which has led to many modern problems when it has happened, but I am at a loss of how else this problem can be combatted.

 

vs.

So, what makes you think it would work?

 

Unity Answers did that years ago and it failed. Mostly it was poor execution: "HelpRoom" was for novices and "Default" was for regular Q's. The problem was that most novices didn't find the HelpRoom. Also UA is user-moderated and the rules weren't updated well. We still have mods deleting beginner Q's from the beginner area since they aren't allowed based on the out-of-date FAQ.

But in Forums new users already navigate the page and seem to find the Scripting area well enough. If a clearly labelled "Learning Scripting" area (have to work on the name) popped up next to it tomorrow, that might work. There might still be one problem UA had -- novice Q's in the wrong area would get some responses to post in the correct area (since unlike UA we can't move them there ourselves) but also some answers, then some people telling the answerers not to answer Q's in the wrong area.

 

Why would this help when "getting started" doesn't?

 

There are definitely other solutions out there. What I personally like is when users are allowed to browse different topics, but cannot per se post directly to any subsection. Instead, they open a new thread by working through a short series of dropdowns. This guides users to subsections by asking more specific questions like "Beginner - Intermediate - Pro", "Bug, Question, Discussion". Just interface-wise this also makes it possible to add more information, maybe show related search links right there (just like in the Bug Reporter Tool) and also highlight the most important policies.

I can totally understand why new users wouldn't know where to post, because they have "Getting Started", "Scripting", "Answers" and more to chose from. Without knowing what exactly the policy behind these categories is, it's impossible to know to which category a beginner scripting question belongs. But Unity could just define some rules via the forms dialog: If you are a beginner, everything goes into the beginner section. But scripting-related questions always override all other stats.

 

Displaying results for similar threads and maybe even articles while they are typing the thread title would also help reduce the amount of duplicated basic questions. For example, there are tons of threads with "NullReferenceException" in their title, and those users could be suggested articles and posts explaining how to deal with that.