This category is too broad

[Richard Liu]

The category "Affinity on Desktop Questions (Mac and Windows) is frustratingly broad.  Consequently, I neither search in it nor tend to post on it.  There should be a sub-forum for each combination of OS and Affinity product.

[John Rostron]

This issue has been raised many times. Serif has always maintained that the commonality between the three products necessitates a common forum. Like you and many others, I disagree. However I doubt that there is a need to split the questions by OS.

John

[jmwellborn]

There is always the possibility that we might learn something if we browse through this forum.  After all, Studio Link uses all three apps.  Personally, I like it just the way it is.  

[Cecil]

40 minutes ago, jmwellborn said:

There is always the possibility that we might learn something if we browse through this forum.  After all, Studio Link uses all three apps.  Personally, I like it just the way it is.  

This is true and one could subscribe to all.  I think the main problem is repeated posting to the wrong forum and need to redirect question. 

[walt.farrell]

17 minutes ago, Cecil said:

 I think the main problem is repeated posting to the wrong forum and need to redirect question. 

Splitting the forum would not help that, in my opinion.

The main difficulty is between distinguishing what should be a question from what should be a bug report from what should be a feature request, I think. Or what should be in the beta forums vs the released version forums.

[thomaso]

6 hours ago, Richard Liu said:

I neither search in it nor tend to post on it.  There should be a sub-forum for each combination of OS and Affinity product.

There are many topics with relevance for all three apps. For instance the UI, panels, most tools, menus, commands, effects and filters and all color issues, not to forget export options. From this perspective a common forum makes sense, both for those who search and the developers, too.

At the moment, this forum has 181 thousand posts:

Divided by 2 (mac / win) and then 3 (AfPh / AfDes / AfPub) this would still give an average of 30,000 posts – for each forum.

Nobody would read 30,000 posts. Therefore, it is best to use the forum search frequently and try the different options to define a search. Even an external search on the Internet (not in this forum) often leads to a relevant result, too. – Of course the result is depending on the quality and precision of details of the search terms.

Imagine: if this forum (which is a sub-forum already) would be split to 3 apps then the number of topics and posts will increase and become multiplied by up to 3. Then x 2 for win/mac. Results in a possible average number of 30,000 x 3 x 2 = 180,000. For each single sub-section. Your request could result in kind of a lose-lose situation.

[v_kyr]

• The biggest problem is, when people commonly question, that they initially always never tell for which App and/or on which OS they need help. Those willing to help always have to ask first and wait for those missing and sometimes needed informations. - A better forum structuring might be helpful here, as far as people make use of that then.
• The forum help system is pretty bad and often not of much help in order to find concrete themes
• Another one is the forum structure itself, which is also partly confusing for newbies. As an example things like ...

1. "Affinity on Desktop Questions (Mac and Windows)"
2. ... and then as a subcategory inside of this burried/hidden in the past "iPad Questions..." (nowadays this has luckily changed)

• ... and so on ...

 

[Alfred]

7 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

• Another one is the forum structure itself, which is also partly confusing for newbies. As an example things like ...

1. "Affinity on Desktop Questions (Mac and Windows)"
2. ... and then as a subcategory inside of this burried/hidden "iPad Questions..."

The iPad Questions forum used to be buried/hidden as a subforum of the main Questions forum, but it’s now at the same level under Affinity Support & Questions.

[v_kyr]

2 minutes ago, Alfred said:

The iPad Questions forum used to be buried/hidden as a subforum of the main Questions forum, but it’s now at the same level under Affinity Support & Questions.

In the past it wasn't. - As in the past (for 5 years), there was for example no Studio Link, which some claim now that thus it's Ok that the forum handles all three apps only in one and the same category.

[Alfred]

1 minute ago, v_kyr said:

In the past it wasn't [at the same level]

Agreed.

11 minutes ago, Alfred said:

The iPad Questions forum used to be buried/hidden as a subforum of the main Questions forum

I think it’s (slightly) less confusing now.

[Pšenda]

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

The main difficulty is between distinguishing what should be a question from what should be a bug report from what should be a feature request,

As with this thread :-)

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

Splitting the forum would not help that

It would be enough to use Tags.

[Pšenda]

35 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

that they initially always never tell for which App and/or on which OS they need help.

 

 

[Richard Liu]

The point I'm trying to make is slightly different.  I'm used to looking in the forums for answers to my problems before posting.  The searching facilities are ... extremely modest, so that pretty much defeats my search strategy of beginning very specifically and dropping terms as necessary until I find something pertinent.  So the alternative would be a more general search in more specific forums.

[Hilltop]

18 hours ago, Richard Liu said:

The point I'm trying to make is slightly different.  I'm used to looking in the forums for answers to my problems before posting.  The searching facilities are ... extremely modest, so that pretty much defeats my search strategy of beginning very specifically and dropping terms as necessary until I find something pertinent.  So the alternative would be a more general search in more specific forums.

Have you tried Google search: text wrap site:https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/forum/3-affinity-support/

Place the entire phrase in your browser's address bar. The red text is whatever you search for (I used 'text wrap' as an example).

[Richard Liu]

Thanks.  That works.  Pity having to jump through hoops just to find out whether one's question has already been answered before posting a new topic.

[Hilltop]

I like to do searches because I often find additional tips and contextual information but, yeah, it does take some effort.

[walt.farrell]

37 minutes ago, Richard Liu said:

Thanks.  That works.  Pity having to jump through hoops just to find out whether one's question has already been answered before posting a new topic.

Perhaps you haven't investigated all the search capabilities of the forums?

For example, if you browse the Affinity on Desktop Questions forum, you can search just that forum, and you can search for the phrase "text wrap":

That will give you this list of results:

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/search/&q="text wrap"&type=forums_topic&nodes=5

If you didn't include the " around the phrase, you would be default get a search that uses OR between the words, because of that checked "any of my search term words" but you could instead check "all of my search term words". Or, having searched, you could change the search to an AND or a phrase search using the options above the search results list.

(Note: the search capabilities will differ depending on the size of the browser window you're using. It's easiest to see all of them if you use a reasonably wide browser window on your desktop.)

[Alfred]

1 hour ago, Hilltop said:

Have you tried Google search: text wrap site:https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/forum/3-affinity-support/

You don’t need a full URL when performing a ‘site:’ search. For the above example,

"text wrap" site:forum.affinity.serif.com

will suffice. As @walt.farrell mentioned, you should omit the quotation marks if you want results for either of the words instead of the whole phrase.

[thomaso]

It's not only looking like us ...

https://invisioncommunity.com/forums/topic/453265-search-needs-some-work/?tab=comments#comment-2794624

 

[Hilltop]

59 minutes ago, Alfred said:

You don’t need a full URL when performing a ‘site:’ search. For the above example,

"text wrap" site:forum.affinity.serif.com

will suffice. As @walt.farrell mentioned, you should omit the quotation marks if you want results for either of the words instead of the whole phrase.

Sure, but I just did a copy & paste and added the search item. But I did miss Walt's post.

[Roger C]

3 hours ago, thomaso said:

  

 

So the clunky and sub-optimal Search facility on this forum is a feature the website provider itself struggles with!

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you @Hilltop and @Alfred !

I hadn't thought to search outside the forum to find things inside this forum, but it actually works; and so much better than what we have here.

Yes, it's an extra step, but it ultimately saves the time and frustration of repeatedly trying to second guess what the forum's search engine might respond to each time...

 

[walt.farrell]

1 minute ago, Roger C said:

So the clunky and sub-optimal Search facility on this forum is a feature the website provider itself struggles with!

I didn't have the impression that the Invision staff posting in that thread were having problems; just the Invision community members. Matt (the staff member) was primarily explaining the search options that the users were not using, or not using properly.