Code Download Questions

Ben Horne · #1 (**permalink**) April 19th, 2004, 04:55 PM

I realize that there have been a lot of requests for help on code downloads. To be honest, I don't think those messages regarding code download questions are helping very much.

Here's my idea (I think it may help with this problem):

There could be a message asking if the person is looking for code downloads. If they check Yes, they would be redirected to the Code Download FAQ.

Again, this is just my idea. I think it might help cut down on the whole problem of people asking where to download the code for some book here

Ben Horne
Madison Area Technical College student

-------------------------
http://community.webshots.com/user/valerian114

"There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who claim to be Flash junkies and those who actually are Flash junkies"

Snib · #2 (**permalink**) April 19th, 2004, 05:20 PM

Ben:

What do you mean by 'message?'

Please, explain this to me. I would love to reduce the amount of times this question is posted. However, Many things have already been done to attempt to eliminate "Where do I get the code..." questions, but we're still left with quite a few. Additionally, some of the people on this forum do not have great English.

Thanks,

Snib

<><

Ben Horne · #3 (**permalink**) April 19th, 2004, 08:34 PM

Snib,

Sorry for not making myself clear the last time around. There could actually be an alert message asking if people are looking for code for their books. If the user clicked Yes, they'd be taken to the Code Download FAQ. If they clicked No, they'd be able to continue on to the Feedback forum.

Am I making myself clearer this time?

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by Snib
Ben:

What do you mean by 'message?'

Please, explain this to me. I would love to reduce the amount of times this question is posted. However, Many things have already been done to attempt to eliminate "Where do I get the code..." questions, but we're still left with quite a few. Additionally, some of the people on this forum do not have great English.

Thanks,

Snib

<><

Ben Horne
Madison Area Technical College student

-------------------------
http://community.webshots.com/user/valerian114

"There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who claim to be Flash junkies and those who actually are Flash junkies"

Snib · #4 (**permalink**) April 19th, 2004, 08:41 PM

Kind of annoying, in my opinion (not you, the idea :)).... What if you just want to get to the Feedback forum? Then again, it's not like you have to work to press cancel.

Maybe it would only prompt users with 50 posts or less, or something like that....

With some fine-tuning, and maybe some input from someone else, this might become an attractive idea.

Of course, it's up to the Admins whether or not to implement this. I certainly think that prompting everybody who goes to the forum will be a bother.

There's my idea for it,

Snib

<><

Ben Horne · #5 (**permalink**) April 19th, 2004, 08:51 PM

Yeah,

My initial thought after reading your reply was that it might be annoying. However, I do like the idea of only prompting those users who have up to 50 posts(50 posts should be the cut-off point).

I do agree that we should leave it up to the forum administrators to decide on this.

If anyone else has any ideas, that'd be great.

Thanks,

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by Snib
Maybe it would only prompt users with 50 posts or less, or something like that....

With some fine-tuning, and maybe some input from someone else, this might become an attractive idea.

Of course, it's up to the Admins whether or not to implement this. I certainly think that prompting everybody who goes to the forum will be a bother.

There's my idea for it,

Ben Horne
Madison Area Technical College student

-------------------------
http://community.webshots.com/user/valerian114

"There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who claim to be Flash junkies and those who actually are Flash junkies"

richard.york · #6 (**permalink**) April 20th, 2004, 12:44 AM

Its not a bad idea, but prompting someone 50 times is, for lack of a better word, retarded. I'd say something like that would be cool for the very first post only, since when people ask these questions they ask the first time they post.

[rant]
Or better yet, if Wiley could get over itself and post the real [expletive deleted] link to the download page instead of saying "contact apress"... but corporate conglomeracies have strange ways. I think all the obfuscating reflects badly on the Wrox name and that no one cares that Wrox is owned by Wiley or that Apress exists at all.. after all they have book with the Wrox name on it and this is the Wrox website, even if the puppetmasters behind it are entirely different people. No one cares who owns what rights to which book, they didn't buy a Wrox book to learn the current goings on of the publishing world. Furthermore I don't think anyone should get up in arms when questions like these are posted. English isn't everyone's first language, and again its the Wrox name on the book and this is the Wrox website -- the laziness factor included or not. support.apress.com? See that wasn't so hard, was it? Oh, a complete list of all the *former* Wrox books with a support.apress.com link too... we couldn't do that, that might turn readers onto apress instead of Wiley. (sarcasm meant enitirely) Wiley bought the Wrox name and they should continue to uphold it. It goes back to simple good business practices, take care of the customer, because its *your* name that's getting the bad press!

Just my .02 anyway.
[/rant]

Rich

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
The Spicy Peanut Project
http://www.spicypeanut.net
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Imar · #7 (**permalink**) April 20th, 2004, 02:32 AM

Hi Rich,

I agree with you. Maybe the FAQs and other pages can be changed, so that when people *do* indeed contact APress, they see the code download page right away (see below for my suggestions).

When I answer "code not found" posts, I add something like: "You should probably look at support.apress.com". This usually seems to work well.

I am not really for the other idea. Prompting, checkboxes, questions, whatever, is not going to help. There are a zillion red signs "READ THIS BEFORE YOU POST" all over the place. The problem with this whole issue is not that people cannot find the right information, the problem is that they do not read (it keeps me wondering what they need a book for though). I am almost sure they they will cancel out any questions if they make a post so it will end up here anyway. Some people just want to be guided, instead of showing some initiative and fixing the problems themselves. Also, some guys post other stuff first, before they ask a Where's the Code question.
I guess we just have to live with this issue....

But I do think it would help if the following two changes were made. The first to the Code Download page:

Add a new question before question 1, something like:

Question:
Why do I not see all Wrox books on this page?

Answer:
Wrox went down some time ago. Bla bla bla. Explanation here. Some books were bought by Wiley, other books were bought by Apress. So, if you can't find the book in this list, please look at the apress site. (where APress is linked to the support site in a new window to keep people at P2P as soon as they downloaded their code.

The second change could be made to the FAQ at http://p2p.wrox.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=4112
Change the link to Apress from their contact page to the support.apress site, as Rich suggested.

I think these two changes may minimize code questions more than prompts, checkboxes etc.

Imar
---------------------------------------
Imar Spaanjaars
Everyone is unique, except for me.
While typing this post, I was listening to: Ruled By Secrecy by Muse (Track 14 from the album: Absolution)

Ben Horne · #8 (**permalink**) April 20th, 2004, 01:35 PM

Imar,

I think I'm beginning to see the whole picture more clearly now. Actually, I think your suggestion of changing the link in the FAQ to the support.apress site is a great idea.:) Sure as hell would be a lot better than prompting someone 50 times. Now that I think of it, that would be annoying(especially to me):D.

Ben Horne
Madison Area Technical College student

-------------------------
http://community.webshots.com/user/valerian114

"There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who claim to be Flash junkies and those who actually are Flash junkies"

Hal Levy · #9 (**permalink**) April 20th, 2004, 01:37 PM

I think we would be hard pressed to find an individhual who posts as frequently as you....that is on a daily basis.

Hal Levy
Web Developer, PDI Inc.

NOT a Wiley/Wrox Employee

Ben Horne · #10 (**permalink**) April 20th, 2004, 01:40 PM

Hal,

What do you mean by this? I do not think that I post here on a daily basis. The times I do post, it's to ask for help, help someone else or offer a suggestion.

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by Hal Levy
I think we would be hard pressed to find an individhual who posts as frequently as you....that is on a daily basis.

Hal Levy
Web Developer, PDI Inc.

NOT a Wiley/Wrox Employee

Ben Horne
Madison Area Technical College student

-------------------------
http://community.webshots.com/user/valerian114

"There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who claim to be Flash junkies and those who actually are Flash junkies"