1. Acknowledge the feedback/suggestions given by forum members.
Those people cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them because they see and covet what He has not given them. All of our discontents for what we want appear to me to spring from want of thankfulness for what we have.Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, 1719
About a fortnight ago I had a most interesting evening chat with one of the moderators from Joomla Stack Exchange. It was worthwhile gauging the impressions of an independent outsider, that is, someone who is not a regular user of the Joomla! forum. Our chat gave me several further ideas about how we could use JAFFAAS to improve the quality and effectiveness of the Joomla! forum.
There are three key strengths that set the Joomla! forum apart from other technical forums for Joomla!:
- The Joomla! forum is usually the first place that novice users visit when they have a question about Joomla. Depending on how their questions are received, new users will decide to persevere with, or abandon, Joomla based on that experience. In other words, the Joomla! forum is not merely a showcase of technical excellence but, depending on that first experience, the forum can be a deal-maker or a deal-breaker. In that regard, the Joomla! forum stands out from all other technical forums where Joomla! issues are discussed.
- The Joomla! forum is the first place where the arrival of new releases of the Joomla! CMS product are announced.
- The forum has a large multi-language area for people to discuss Joomla in a language other than English. Although other forums exist for people who prefer to write in a language other than English, most of the well-established and respected technical forums only allows for questions and answers to be discussed in English.
In this article we will look five simple improvements for the Joomla! forum.
