Might it be worth revisiting the idea of a topic template for the deepspeech category

[JRMeyer]

>>> nmstoker
[February 25, 2021, 5:09pm]

Not sure how easy this is to organise on the forum admin side, but I
understand that it is possible to have Topic Templates on a per
category basis.

Given the way that a fair proportion of new forum users often overlook
the level of detail that's necessary for anyone to have even the vaguest
chance to help them, I thought this might be a positive and proactive
way to nudge them towards doing the right thing (or possibly make them
realise this may end up being beyond their commitment level before they
jump in blindly)

The basic details of Topic Templates for Discourse are described here:

21](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-are-topic-templates/38295/10 '09:33AM - 15 February 2021')

### What are Topic Templates?

Can you specify comments in the template? So that this doesn't get
included if the user doesn't first delete the template instructions when
he posts?

I signed up to the Demo site for Discourse (linked to from page link
above), and when you go to create a topic which is in the 'Movies'
category, it pre-populates some details.

As you'll see, someone else has asked whether comments that don't flow
into the final post are possible, and it does seem they are - I
confirmed that HTML formatted comments do not show in the final
submitted topic post, so I think the trick is to create the guidance
comments wholly or largely as HTML comments and then even if someone's a
complete beginner at forums / the internet and doesn't realise
unneeded template text shouldn't part of their submission, it won't
leave the entries littered with this kind of mildly embarrassing
artefact

Any template needn't be super complex or onerous - could start with a
basic mention of the guidelines and a word of encouragement to point
people in the right direction. It can always be extended / altered /
removed later depending on how it goes.

My motivation here is to bring some harmony between groups

people haven't been practical (and I am sympathetic)
themselves with relevant details (esp given some skip/miss seeing
the guidelines).

Beginners may still skip things but I'm hoping it'll be marginally less
likely and even a few fewer cases would be better than none!!

Any thoughts on this?

[This is an archived TTS discussion thread from discourse.mozilla.org/t/might-it-be-worth-revisiting-the-idea-of-a-topic-template-for-the-deepspeech-category]

[JRMeyer]

>>> nmstoker
[February 25, 2021, 5:09pm]

Not sure how easy this is to organise on the forum admin side, but I
understand that it is possible to have Topic Templates on a per
category basis.

Given the way that a fair proportion of new forum users often overlook
the level of detail that's necessary for anyone to have even the vaguest
chance to help them, I thought this might be a positive and proactive
way to nudge them towards doing the right thing (or possibly make them
realise this may end up being beyond their commitment level before they
jump in blindly)

The basic details of Topic Templates for Discourse are described here:

21](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-are-topic-templates/38295/10 '09:33AM - 15 February 2021')

### What are Topic Templates?

Can you specify comments in the template? So that this doesn't get
included if the user doesn't first delete the template instructions when
he posts?

I signed up to the Demo site for Discourse (linked to from page link
above), and when you go to create a topic which is in the 'Movies'
category, it pre-populates some details.

As you'll see, someone else has asked whether comments that don't flow
into the final post are possible, and it does seem they are - I
confirmed that HTML formatted comments do not show in the final
submitted topic post, so I think the trick is to create the guidance
comments wholly or largely as HTML comments and then even if someone's a
complete beginner at forums / the internet and doesn't realise
unneeded template text shouldn't part of their submission, it won't
leave the entries littered with this kind of mildly embarrassing
artefact

Any template needn't be super complex or onerous - could start with a
basic mention of the guidelines and a word of encouragement to point
people in the right direction. It can always be extended / altered /
removed later depending on how it goes.

My motivation here is to bring some harmony between groups

people haven't been practical (and I am sympathetic)
themselves with relevant details (esp given some skip/miss seeing
the guidelines).

Beginners may still skip things but I'm hoping it'll be marginally less
likely and even a few fewer cases would be better than none!!

Any thoughts on this?

[This is an archived TTS discussion thread from discourse.mozilla.org/t/might-it-be-worth-revisiting-the-idea-of-a-topic-template-for-the-deepspeech-category]