Make it easier to search support forum, before posting support request

[downstairsdev]

Perhaps we could nudge more people to actually do a search before posting in the forums by including the search field on that page.

This what the form post screen currently looks like:
​http://wordpress.org/support/forum/installation#postform

Attached screenshot shows proposed change.

[iandunn]

Maybe we can takes some cues from WordPress.com and Stack Exchange, which both have implemented ways to encourage users to search first.

WordPress.com forces users to search before allowing them to post a new thread -- ​http://en.support.wordpress.com/contact/ (you have to be logged in, otherwise you see a different form). If you look at the search results and don't see anything helpful, then the next step is to create a new post.

StackExchange will look at the title as you type it and suggest similar topics -- ​http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/ask

[mordauk]

Wow, I never even realized there was a search form at all.

[Clorith]

After the migration to bbPress 2.x, and the introduction of the new forum theme, we've seen far less issues like this. The new, more prominent and obvious, search box that greets you on the support site (and also introduction of a rudimentary search on individual plugin forums) have greatly reduced this issue.

As such I'm marking this as worksforme, as we seem to have an acceptable solution at this time. If it does in fact turn out to be worse than what we are experiencing, this ticket can be revisited when we have some form of ES setup to rely on for a good user experience (much like wpcom and Stack Exchange do it).