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General Discussion

Chris Howell
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Chris Howell
Python Web Development Techdegree Graduate 49,702 Points
Posted by Chris Howell
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Chris Howell
Python Web Development Techdegree Graduate 49,702 Points

Community Features Request?

Hi all,

So I spend a bit of time going through the forum posts of students needing help on particular languages I am familiar with. The List filtering drop down is very helpful and I am glad it is there. Helps me get to those Unanswered questions a bit quicker.

But I was dwelling on the ideas of how the community forums could be better improved, or even a few things that would greatly improve the experience for those that take time to Answer posts. A lot of time is spent going through posts that could of initially been prevented from being posted or posts that could have been better written out.

So my request for features are based on implementations I have seen other places.

Feature 1

A concept of "Sticky Posts" for a given language Category or even Generalized run by Treehouse Staff or even Moderators.

Why? It would be listed (highlighted) at the top with an informative title and content for things like "How to post a question?" or "When to use comments vs answer" or "How to use Markdown", "Share/Forking a Workspace" or general guidelines to follow.

I feel this would prevent MANY unnecessary posts that I find myself viewing or responding to.

Feature 2

"Collapsing Code Snippets" inside questions/answers.

This would be similar to that which Slack uses to collapse long segments of code when sharing snippets.

Some students need to post multiple code snippets from different files, some of that code could be extensive. It can be a real pain when you need to jump around to each snippet. Just to scroll all the way to the bottom to respond and have to scroll back up to remember what they said or attempt to copy a segment of code from the multiple snippets.

Im sure more could be thought up, but just in my experience of helping students out on here, I feel those would immensely help improve the community forums!

Thats all, any feedback is appreciated as well :)

Ammar Fatihallah
Ammar Fatihallah
7,417 Points

I have always been waiting for something like this to be used in treehouse too, hopefully they can work it out.

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,248 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,248 Points

Feature 1, "Sticky Posts"

This sounds very close to what is already implemented as "Featured" posts, but it could perhaps be used more frequently.

Feature 2, "Collapsing Code Snippets"

I recommend that posters provide links to workshop snapshots, github repos, or codepen projects instead of posting large amounts of code inline. It not only keeps their question concise, but the other storage methods provide features that make testing and analyzing the code much more convenient.

Chris Howell
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Chris Howell
Python Web Development Techdegree Graduate 49,702 Points
Chris Howell
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
Chris Howell
Python Web Development Techdegree Graduate 49,702 Points

Steven Parker

Yes you are right "Featured" posts does kind of work like "Sticky Posts".

I feel it should be more of an "In-your-face" like how the Recommended Posts show up at the top of the Post listing page. Highlighted too, to separate Stick posts from regular posts. Give it an importance level. Make it so they are always there and always available to be seen. But really only for very important posts for things commonly happening on the forums. Excessive Stick Posts can be annoying.

And yes, Workspace snapshots are more ideal to get their full code and even run it. It is my preferred way to look at code on here, but not all know how to setup and share. Some dont know about it and Im not sure if there are limitations on Workspaces per account type.

The sharing of code snippets are situational though. If its a huge amount of files that need to be looked at to trace a problem. Yeah, Sharing a workspace is ideal. But sometimes setting up a workspace to share a few snippets is excessive depending on the issue or even code challenge.

I generally try to give really detailed answers with resource links, but I dont like the idea of having to click on a Link that takes me off of the treehouse website to view code so I can come back to answer. I should be able to read/answer treehouse specific questions right here. If that makes sense?

Even though you do find some great examples on places like Stack Overflow.