Member Feedback Needed on "How Do I.." center

I forget who suggested that at first but I liked it too. It would reduce the number of questions posted in the Discussion forum. I responded to and redirected nearly 20 Discussion topics to be posted in Tech Q&A this morning, VERY frustrating. Especially since the favorite/recent discussions and Subscribed discussions no longer work. The Discussions just get buried underneath a long list of improperly posted Questions!

It is hard to follow more than one discussion at a time this way, I REALLY wish you guys could get it fixed before trying to save the rest of he site. The Discussion participation has dropped to dismal levels as all the older 'regulars' are just getting tired of all the problems and changes that make more problems, without addressing the issues that we were asked about to begin with.

DEEEEEEEP breath, Ok, I'm fine now. Yes that would be a nice idea, or even the "Get Help" center, which would make more sense than "How Do I" (which sounds like a list of tutorials and white papers).

If I was trying to resolve a daunting WinXp issue, I would choose 'Discussions' over 'How Do I', I want to talk with someone and share feedback, not read a white paper.

Now between "Discussions" and "Get Help" I would be mroe inclined to check 'Get Help' before the 'Discussions'.

One of the things we were thinking of was creating a community discussion center in the HDI center relating to the specific topics included -- to help focus discussions and to also help members can answers to issues quicker. Any expansion fo the site would be interactive and provide members faster access to sharing info and sharing solutions.
Judy

If our question is not among the chosen few, it would be greatly helpful if we could key in a question and get responses from those who know.

The "How Do I.." section is indeed a gem. I find the information most useful and pertinent. However, I would like to see more sections regarding project planning and management. Nevertheless, keep up the excellent work.

Love it

I have never heard of the "How Do I..." center.
I do, however intend to check it out.

Every email has good how-to info, but you don't always need it when you read it. It would be great if all the email text tips and links were setup and organized in your How Do I... page.

I had never even heard of the How Do I center. Went to the URL that Judi Motti supplied, and voila! Great new resource!

The word needs to get out. How about slipping a reminder into each of the TechRepublic mails every once in awhile? That would definitely boost the number of hits.

Thanks again!

elinder

I'm split 50/50 - certainly it is a good thing and I have had recourse to try to use it once so far - however the answer I required just led me to a "paid for only subscription" topic. And after having a quick scout around it would seem that the majority of answers fall into that category.

Not all of us work for private companies who understand the importance of paying for items like subs and so I suffer. I do understand the site needs to stay profitable and I am unsure how you can resolve this one - but to my mind, more free resources in teh "How Do I" would be much better.

My 2p worth.

How about that What would you do Series Discussions ? I'd love to see those back. It gave me a great sense of belonging. IMHO every techie has to have the soft skill side. This applies to TR as well. How about it being turned into a regular topic of discussion?

I had no idea that was on your site. I do intend to go through and take a look.

I never heard of it until today. I browsed to a article about finding rogue APs, found it. I had already read it in the past, but this is a useful way of archiving articles. In the past, I saved TR emails, but the links don't always continue to work.

I did not know about it until I saw this request for feedback. I took a look and do like the format. I believe I will get a bit of use from this.

Thank you.

Hi. Great article on hiding drives, but generally speaking, letters like these are one way; that is, for example, in this case, the author describes how to hide drive letters, but he doesn't say how to unhide them so that only the Administrator can see them. Must one always unchange the registry settings in order to see the drive he hides, or is there a simpler way?

Judy-

The link just doesn't describe what it IS. Certainly not when it's buried as the next to last link, after Discussion Center and Technical Q&A. The links might benefit from a small [5 words?] explanation under each as to what it is. Also, place the How Do I?... link above Technical Q&A, which again should be above Discussions, and I think you'll see a great increase in hits.

How Do I?... [quick solutions to most of your issues]

Technical Q&A [earn points solving our members' hardest problems]

Discussion Center [Talk about the IT world you work and play in]

Something like that... But I'm sure your staff can do better than my 10 second thought process there.

Can I suggest that the headings in the "Resources" section on the home page - which isn't the way most people seem to come into the TechRepublic site, I think they follow newsletter links, articles e-mailed to them, etc - be added as another row of "tabs" under the main navbar at the top of every page. I think this would then allow for "pop up" hints to help describe each section.

This would help all the users (many of us 10K users) who didn't really know it was there.

To me it seems like a lot of subjects about XP is missing. XP is today the widest spread operating system so I think it's more & more people running into problems with it. It should maybe be divided into a General & a Deeper sections. I help people every second day with (to me...) just everything about XP: recovering from virus, fix MBR, name it. Everything happens even with XP. Still I love it compare to W95/98, ME mostly because it's possible to recover. W95/98 was hopeless: the only really working tip to them was Format C:.
So help me to help others with new way to look at "How to...", I think I would like it...
Bj?rn

How about making links that members post in their replies to discussion active hyperlinks? That way I don't have to cut and paste links, which of course works, but by clicking on the link would be much easier.

had no idea it existed

The How Do I.. should be classtified into categories for easy accessibility & tracking. eg hardware can be broken into motherboard, USB, HD, etc.

But I think that needs more items.

Probably a section of IT related business management and a section for freelance consultants.

Also a section related to hardware (instalation of, solving problems, etc) would be great. Thinking good, a section related to software is ok too. That talks for software recomended to certain tasks or functions, like sniffers, network administration, tools, etc.

Congrats, good job and I hope you can improve all the time.

Best regards from Honduras

I have used this publication as the number one source for all of my technical computer needs. You provide very reliable and accurate information.

One thing lacking however are answers to specific questions when they are asked. It seems to be the policy of a great many techniological resources to provide answers to discussions brought up in the past, where up-to-date answers are rarely brought up soon enough. Answers need to somehow get back to the questioner when one is given---by email, and supplied to the general public as it always has been.

in content for the linux section.

most linux data is also badly outdated.