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I have something that I am confused or concerned about concerning how this site works. Where can I get help?

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    \$\begingroup\$ The intended purpose of this question is as a place to point new users to to let them know what they can do if they are confused about anything on the site. None of these options (besides the Help Center) are mentioned in the tour. I'm hoping it can be slightly useful in making the learning curve smoother for newer users by teaching them where they can go to find an answer and/or to ask for help. \$\endgroup\$
    – Rubiksmoose
    Jun 10, 2019 at 18:18
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    \$\begingroup\$ community wiki? \$\endgroup\$
    – user46925
    Jun 14, 2019 at 9:22

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Firstly, if you are a new user, welcome to the site! We are a community of people that want to help you and get you an answer. Unfortunately, the site has a bit of a learning curve to it. But many of us have already been through that and are here to help you get through it too.

If you are here and confused about anything at all, here are some of the options available to get help:

  • Take the tour — taking the tour will give you a quick rundown of how this site works. It covers most of the most basic questions and it only takes a minute to scroll through. Plus you get a badge for doing it!
  • Search our help center — This is a good place to come for questions about policies or mechanics about the site for things which the tour may have only briefly touched on. Search using some of the terms that are confusing you and see if anything helpful pops up.
  • Post your question to Meta — Meta is where we deal with questions about how this site works and resolve confusion and issues. Searching for your issue there is a good first step and your issue may have already been asked and answered! If not, simply post a question there and the community will be able to answer you or point you to an appropriate answer. Don't be shy about posting questions or concerns here, that is what it is for and we'd honestly be happy to help you out. If you are ever interested in browsing Meta, start with our FAQ which has answers to many of the most common issues you might run into.
  • Ask in our friendly chat room — Once you have 20 reputation, you will be able to post messages in chats. In the chatroom you will find people talking about a wide variety of topics. People almost always more than willing to help out someone with a concern or confusion. Just note that there are times when chat is not that active, in which case it might be a while before you get a response. However, if chat is busy, then you'll likely get an answer pretty quickly or pointed towards it.
  • Ask in a comment — If you are confused by something that somebody said, either in a comment or in their post (question or answer), you can try asking about it in a comment. Note that you have to have 50 rep to comment anywhere, but you can always comment under your own posts. To tag a particular user put "@[username]" in your comment. Tagging will notify the user, but only if the user has commented on that post already or has edited it (maximum of 1 tag per comment).

Just remember, we are here to help so please don't hesitate to use any or all of the resources above if you have any confusion or concerns or suggestions for us.

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    \$\begingroup\$ If this a way to get more info than what's 'standard' in front of a user - i'm all for it :) Can we add the good subjective guidance to this? Maybe also add the homebrew links? \$\endgroup\$
    – NotArch
    Jun 10, 2019 at 16:04
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    \$\begingroup\$ @NautArch This is a good suggestion, however my intent with the scope of this Q&A was only to provide a way to clearly point a person to a way to get help. That information would certainly be useful to put in front of a newer user, but I think it doesn't fit here. \$\endgroup\$
    – Rubiksmoose
    Jun 10, 2019 at 16:08
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    \$\begingroup\$ Then I'm not sure what the goal is here - doesn't tour and help center already have all this? And if this is targeted to new users, then the issue you point out about rep requirement for comment and directionto ask as a comment doesn't make sense. \$\endgroup\$
    – NotArch
    Jun 10, 2019 at 16:17
  • \$\begingroup\$ @NautArch the tour contains literally none of this information besides a simple unexplained link to the help center. That is why I wrote it. New users can still comment on their own posts, which is most often where I see them having confusion points. A 50 rep user can still be very new and still be confused (eg they could have gotten rep from a site association bonus at a site that does things differently from us). \$\endgroup\$
    – Rubiksmoose
    Jun 10, 2019 at 16:23
  • \$\begingroup\$ Ha, fair enough :) But if we're consolidating information we think would be helpful beyond the standard, why not fully consolidate? \$\endgroup\$
    – NotArch
    Jun 10, 2019 at 16:24
  • \$\begingroup\$ @NautArch Well, we could... However it would drastically change what I envisioned as the purpose of this post: a focused short place that we can point confused users to to help them find the resources they need to learn how to use the site. The goal is not to teach them how to use the site here. That would be the next step. The longer and more complicated something is, the less likely it is to be read by anyone. I think otherwise we'd just be replicating the FAQ which already includes that post (and is linked in my answer above). Does that make sense at all? I'm open to changes of course! \$\endgroup\$
    – Rubiksmoose
    Jun 10, 2019 at 16:30
  • \$\begingroup\$ Fair enough - removing comments. And maybe what I'm thinking of is this faq - but then how does what you're doing interact with that? \$\endgroup\$
    – NotArch
    Jun 10, 2019 at 16:39
  • \$\begingroup\$ @NautArch no need to remove comments BTW. I think it might help if other people have the same questions. I don't really see the FAQ and this as really interacting at all except for this might help people find it. Really I just wrote this as part of things I'm testing to try to help new users get over the initial hump of using the site more easily. The first thing I imagine most people feel on this site is confused and overwhelmed. I'd like to have a place to point them to to help them get over that. That's the idea anyways. \$\endgroup\$
    – Rubiksmoose
    Jun 10, 2019 at 16:42
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    \$\begingroup\$ So where should we send new users? The Tour, The Help Center, This Meta, the FAQ? This seems like we're putting things in too many places. \$\endgroup\$
    – NotArch
    Jun 10, 2019 at 16:43
  • \$\begingroup\$ @NautArch First we should always point new users to the tour since that is the intended onboarding place. Anything else is personal preference really. I'm playing around with messages to new users to see what works and thought this might be a good way to go. It might not be, but at least I'll have only wasted my own time :) \$\endgroup\$
    – Rubiksmoose
    Jun 10, 2019 at 16:47
  • \$\begingroup\$ Let us continue this discussion in chat. \$\endgroup\$
    – Rubiksmoose
    Jun 10, 2019 at 16:47
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    \$\begingroup\$ @NautArch Why not add another answer to this Meta with links you feel are relevant/useful? \$\endgroup\$
    – Jason_c_o
    Jun 10, 2019 at 20:24
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Jason_c_o See the chat - but mostly because i'm just trying to figure out the goal of this first :) \$\endgroup\$
    – NotArch
    Jun 10, 2019 at 20:25
  • \$\begingroup\$ @NautArch Fair, I will admit I didn't bother diving into the Chat. \$\endgroup\$
    – Jason_c_o
    Jun 10, 2019 at 20:26

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