Remove "This topic is not a support question" checkbox

[zoonini]

There is currently a checkbox under the support-forum message box that says:

This topic is not a support question

Both the clarity and helpfulness of this item is questionable. At today's Support Forum bug scrub, no one present, including several moderators and other forum volunteers, seemed to find it useful in handling forum threads.

Unless there are strong valid reasons to keep it, could we just ahead and remove this checkbox.

Let's also be sure to remove any references that may lie elsewhere, such as in the support guidelines, and any forum views where it's currently part of the logic.

Related ticket: #3619

[zoonini]

Checkbox screenshot

[Clorith]

This field does actually have a use case within plugins and themes, where the responded to support topics that's displayed on their plugin/theme landing pages, and the "percentage of resolved support requests" does take this into consideration to filter out topics.

It's not the best name for the field, I agree, it could instead be something more direct. Finding a better label for it though, is hard, since if it isn't a support request it could be one of many things, the first that come to mine would be bug reports or feature requests, but writing them all out is much harder than saying "I'm not looking for help, but I want to share something", if that makes sense.

[zoonini]

Interesting. But if people aren't actually checking the box much (either because they don't understand it, they don't notice it, or they just don't take the time) I guess its value in those various calculations is still a bit questionable/debatable, right?

Could it be an option to still remove all the references now and then potentially think up another solution for those "I just wanted to share something" cases, down the road? How often do those actually come up, I wonder?

[tobifjellner]

I'm using that checkbox regularly, when I as a translator,Polyglots Mentor,etc. reach out to developers with feedback.
The funny thing, though, is that whenever they have some "support rep" handling the forums, they virtually always move these to "Resolved". :)

[Otto42]

People do check the box quite often. I don't have any specific data on it. However, I have not noticed any real complaints about it in the plugins forums. But when you're looking at the resolved/not resolved/not a support question counts, they vary quite a lot. People do use it.

The checkbox is visible to everybody making a topic, not just moderators.

Also, the data is used in part of the plugin search calculations. Admittedly, it is a very minute fraction of percentage point. But it is used.

[zoonini]

What if instead, we had a checkbox available – perhaps only to plugin and theme authors/support reps/mods – that said "This is an announcement."

That would allow informational-type posts that wouldn't be counted toward those calculations mentioned above.

[dd32]

Perhaps this checkbox could be removed and a "Thread type" option added at the top of the thread form

• Need help using the plugin
• Reporting a bug
• Requesting a new feature
• General Plugin feedback
• Sticky Announcement (Plugin reps only, auto-locked from replies, maximum 2 stickied announcements)

That doesn't resolve the issue of plugin reps moving non-support threads to resolved directly (ie. All of them can be unresolved/resolved, but maybe we exclude bug/feature/announcements from the calculations), but might offer a middle-ground of allowing us to categorise and exclude certain thread types from the counts at the same time as automating some processes.

...In other words, move from Unresolved/Resolved/Not-Support to Help(unresolved/resolved), bug+feature(unresolved/resolved), feedback, announcements

[zodiac1978]

I like the idea from @dd32 - this would filter out the most common types of non-support questions and would additionally add the announcement feature.

[mrfoxtalbot]

I like @dd32's idea too. Listing what are the “other options" provides more clarity (and helps people understand when/why to use it).