Suggestions for new questions page

[steviepubliclab]

Hello! I'm looking at the new draft for the /questions page (https://publiclab.org/questions_shadow) and wanted to start a thread for suggestions on it.

1. I'm interested in seeing the need for "questions:___" to come out of the tag line. I'm wondering if we can change the system here so any regular tags added to the /questions page get this power tag on the back end rather than having this something the user needs to do or see. I think it's a little confusing and a lot of people don't know to do this tagging as a power tag as it stands.

2. I'm confused if this new interface would be at /questions or if it would show up when you type in your question and click continue (see current /questions page). If the new interface doesn't show current/recent questions, where would one go to see them?

3. Where would people to go view questions by topics? I think this is a useful part of the current page.

4. I'm curious why we are directing people to draft in a two page process? First users ask their question, then for myself I'm expecting it to post, but instead it directs me to another page that asks me to fill in more information. I'm curious about the design decision behind having this spread over two pages.

Think that's it for now! Thanks all!

[jywarren]

Hi! On #2, real quick, this would replace the /questions page! There is more about this page design here: https://publiclab.org/notes/warren/04-22-2019/user-interface-projects-update-and-dial-osc-project-recap#Questions+page

…

On Mon, Sep 23, 2019 at 3:54 PM Stevie ***@***.***> wrote: Hello! I'm looking at the new draft for the /questions page ( https://publiclab.org/questions_shadow) and wanted to start a thread for suggestions on it. 1. I'm interested in seeing the need for "questions:___" to come out of the tag line. I'm wondering if we can change the system here so any regular tags added to the /questions page get this power tag on the back end rather than having this something the user needs to do or see. I think it's a little confusing and a lot of people don't know to do this tagging as a power tag as it stands. 2. I'm confused if this new interface would be at /questions or if it would show up when you type in your question and click continue (see current /questions page). If the new interface doesn't show current/recent questions, where would one go to see them? 3. Where would people to go view questions by topics? I think this is a useful part of the current page. 4. I'm curious why we are directing people to draft in a two page process? First users ask their question, then for myself I'm expecting it to post, but instead it directs me to another page that asks me to fill in more information. I'm curious about the design decision behind having this spread over two pages. Think that's it for now! Thanks all! — You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#6323?email_source=notifications&email_token=AAAF6J43375VX4LJDT6JUWTQLENEHA5CNFSM4IZQVCQ2YY3PNVWWK3TUL52HS4DFUVEXG43VMWVGG33NNVSW45C7NFSM4HNEEAPA>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAAF6J6ATNGEN52L2ZBAXXLQLENEHANCNFSM4IZQVCQQ> .

[jywarren]

Re: topics, that section seems not to have made it into this version but it's supposed to be there from the mockup:

Zoomed in:

Let me get that fixed!

[jywarren]

Actually i see that in the original design, clicking soil would open a tag card that displays a list of soil questions. What do you think of that @steviepubliclab ? We went over this a million years ago so I had totally forgotten this little "switcher" but it shouldn't be too hard to generate.

[jywarren]

Here it is updated to the latest style guide:

[jywarren]

The code that drives this is here; currently it's set up to show just "recent questions" instead of questions by topic:

plots2/app/views/questions/index_shadow.html.erb

Lines 47 to 51 in cba5499

	<div class="RecentQuestions col-md-12">
	<span class="d-none d-lg-inline"><h2>Recent questions </h2></span>
	</div>
	<%= render partial: "questions/recent_questions_shadow" %>

Also: the "feature questions" are currently just popular ones, i think. They can be rewired to show questions bearing the tag featured:question here:

plots2/app/controllers/questions_controller.rb

Lines 40 to 42 in cba5499

	@popularquestions = filter_questions_by_tag(@questions, params[:tagnames])
	.order('views DESC')
	.limit(20)

[jywarren]

Finally, regarding your first point, @steviepubliclab - do you mean, you'd like question:general to be removed from the form, here?

[steviepubliclab]

for 1- yes, but I actually I think I meant something more complicated than this. Like if someone's working in the questions form, can we take the power tags out and have the system added it on the the back end -- so people would just add regular tags and they would turn into the power tags whenever you're submitting from the questions template. I think people don't realize they need to do "question:topic" to mark something as a question rather than a normal research note.

2- I think it's important people can come to this page to see, and search for questions. This isn't just an asking interface it's also our best Answering interface. If we don't make that part easy, I think people will be less inclined to answer questions

3- ok great by topic is good, but what if they're topic of interest isn't listed? goes to point 2 a bit.

[jywarren]

Thanks Stevie, sorry, catching up here. In particular, you mentioned "search for questions" -- do you think this page must have a search box? Just clarifying, thanks!

OK, so breaking out some to-dos:

• ensure any tag used on the /questions/new form gets converted to its question:_____ form (as per stevie's first item in last comment)
• re-add Topics listing on this page. Discuss with Tag team.
• swap this header section with a feature, so it's configurable: the questions-header feature (fix question area in question shadow page #5860)
• ensure a "more topics" link
• ensure "featured questions" area is working: https://github.com/publiclab/plots2/blob/master/app/views/questions/_questions_shadow.html.erb,

  plots2/app/controllers/questions_controller.rb

  Lines 37 to 42 in ee8200e

  	@populartitle = 'Popular Questions'
  	@popularquestions = Node.questions
  	.where(status: 1)
  	@popularquestions = filter_questions_by_tag(@questions, params[:tagnames])
  	.order('views DESC')
  	.limit(20)

[steviepubliclab]

Hi Jeff,
I think viewing questions by topic is helpful, but it doesn't help us with duplication. A search feature could help with this.
-Stevie

[jywarren]

Thanks - sorry, what did you mean by "duplication"?

[steviepubliclab]

by duplication I just mean people posting the same or similar questions.

[jywarren]

Ah i see - and yeah, we can also try to do better on finding "similar posts" as you type yours, to reduce duplication as wel - we actually had that, but turned that feature off because it was causing site slowdowns :-(