Super Want List: Integration between Asset Store & "Official" Forum Threads...

I sell on the Asset Store, and the Forums is (as far as I know) the most popular support channel for Unity Asset Store packages, aside from those who have set up a support system on their own site. However, the threads in the "Asset Store" section get pushed to the lower pages very quickly, and advertisements, support, and many other types of threads all exist there.

I would like a "Asset Store Support" section.

In this section, I would envision a "Sub-Section" for each publisher. If a user were to navigate to -- via a list or a search or what not -- the "S.F. Bay Studios" page, each one of my packages would have an automatically created forum thread.

The point of the thread is dedicated to support & news about that specific Asset Store package. Ideally, there would be a consistent "theme", similar to the asset store, where images, links, titles & header texts are all pre-populated.

Also, it would be great to have an "Add To Cart" and implementation of the "Buy Now" button so users don't have to leave the forum to purchase the Asset.

To go along with this, the "Ratings & Reviews" section on the Asset Store pages should be made clear that it's NOT for support. Too often users who are having support issues (often because they're new with Unity and don't know what they're doing) will post a review and low rating simply because they can't get things working. Sometimes, even if they receive support, they won't change the rating or review.

So have a "Support" button next to that area, which leads users to the forums.

Thoughts?


The list of publishers in the attached image would be based on the assets purchased by the user, not "most popular", as it is not an advertisement forum specifically.

Edit/Addition
Maybe it'd be great to allow us to have a "FAQ" list as well, based on users questions. We all know that most people don't read through all the previous pages of posts, and for someone like me, who has a lot of characters each with similar workflows, questions asked and answered in one thread may not be apparent to someone reading another thread.

So a list of FAQs could be very helpful, in the same place as the forum threads.

 

I like it.. I dont think it necessarily needs subsection for each seller, just having a thread there would be fine already..

quite a few times had to google for some official thread to find answers about the asset..(if there is no link in the description for the forum thread)..

 

I like the sub-section idea for two reasons.

First, it is one more chance to show people that I have a lot to offer, perhaps some things they haven't seen yet.

Second, there may be some questions in other threads that apply to a users question, and they may more easily find an answer if they happen to browse the other threads. [I'm going to edit my original idea now to add one more...]

 

Good idea. Some asset threads are so long searching them for an answer is off-putting so I'm sure asset developers must answer the same questions over and over.

 

We are currently in discussion with the Asset Store team as to how we can better accommodate publishers on the forums. I'm not quite sure if having a sub forum for each publisher is the route to go, but my team can discuss it moving forward!

We can bring this up with the web team, I'll get back to you here if it sounds like something feasible.

This is something that isn't related to the forums directly so I would suggest you bring it up with our Asset Store team, @Ian-Dunlap might have more to say on this.

 

Cool cool, thanks!

 

Another out-there reason to have an automatic sub-forum-per-publisher / thread-per-package, it would be cool, I think, if the forum that was "mine", as a publisher, had some sort of API to allow it to be displayed and used on my website as well.

There would have to be an "Login with Unity" API (which I think would be very valuable anyway), but it'd be nice to be able to format the look and feel of the forums to fit my site, and then let users choose either my site or the official forums to interact with me.

Any update from either location would be visible on both, meaning those who currently choose to set up their own support thread can do so with more ease, perhaps, than a custom integration, and benefit from Unitys ecosystem. While Unity would benefit, I think, from increased usage of the forums for specific assets. Usually the biggest ones with the most visitors have their own support systems, it looks like.