[ros-users] Improving the visibility of answers.ros.org [Was: Issues with wstool Error processing 'rospack']

[Michael Gratton]

On 20/04/13 03:24, William Woodall wrote:
> Questions like these should really be posted on answers.ros.org
> <http://answers.ros.org>.
> 
> If you post it there can tag it with wstool, I will try to answer your
> question.

On pointers to answers.ros.org, it would be nice if package pages on the
wiki had a more obvious connection with a.r.o.

I've always found the "FAQ" link to be somewhat less than-obvious -
expecting it to go to the kind of traditionally out-of-date,
non-maintained pages that "FAQ" links usually point to. It might also be
that it's hidden away in a sidebar.

Much in the same way as the SIGs now have a Google Groups widget
embedded in their pages showing latest discussion, it would be good to
have an a.r.o widget embedded on each package page with a few things,
perhaps under a "Support" heading:

 - A link (or perhaps better, a text input) labelled "Ask a question
about $PACKAGE_NAME" that - importantly - when followed creates a
properly tagged question on a.r.o - presumably tagged by $PACKAGE_NAME
 - A dynamic list of the top say 5 questions on a.r.o tagged with
$PACKAGE_NAME
 - A link "See all questions about $PACKAGE_NAME" that points to a
search on a.r.o for all questions tagged with $PACKAGE_NAME

It might also be be worthwhile removing the "Support" link at the top of
the common page template, since that's probably how most users end up
posting a question to this list. It's certainly the first place I would
go to ask a question about a random package.

//Mike

-- 
Michael Gratton <http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~mikeg/>
UNSW School of Computer Science and Engineering.


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