[wp-meta] [Making WordPress.org] #6841: Support Forums: Re-establish use of the `/support` top level page
Making WordPress.org
noreply at wordpress.org
Wed Mar 8 10:57:57 UTC 2023
#6841: Support Forums: Re-establish use of the `/support` top level page
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Reporter: Clorith | Owner: (none)
Type: enhancement | Status: new
Priority: normal | Milestone:
Component: Support Forums | Keywords:
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With the redesign of the HelpHub, they moved this content to the new
`/documentation` top level page. In that same action, the `/support` top
level page was redirected to the new HelpHub location as well.
It would be nice if we could have a support landing page here instead, we
used to have that before HelpHub (HelpHub was implemented as part of the
Support Theme on dotorg, with a companion plugin initially). By having a
proper support landing page, it would be possible to properly link off to
rosetta forums in a unified location (the support team currently maintains
a manual list in their handbook, which is well hidden, and it would be
nice to help lift up these communities existence, as the locale-
recommendations bar is flimsy at best, but is the only way to do so
currently).
One of the drawbacks of the current redirect of the support top level page
is that this is a 301 permanent indicator to search engines, and a search
for "WordPress support" would take you to to `/documentation` (some
indexes are now up to date and take you to the forums directly, this was
not initially the case). I'm a big fan of users helping them selves before
seeking assistance when possible, but there's no reason a landing page
can't have a "search our documentation" header like it had before the
HelpHub redesign, even on the support landing page to help with this, but
still maintain it's support-focuses otherwise.
I'm aware that a redesign of the support pages have been talked about, but
they're also the last in the group due to the high complexity from all the
tie-ins with the support theme; forums, plugins, and themes. Getting a leg
up on the potential effect of permanently redirecting support elsewhere,
and at the same time lifting up other parts of our community, when its
possible to do this without any major changes (HelpHub's front-page will
be replaced with the old support front-page by default if we disable the
widgets in use, this was so that HelpHub could be rolled out to rosetta
sites easily back in the day).
Just to point it out though, this isn't specifically about moving
`/support/forums` up on layer to `/support`, as I think the hierarchy of
having forums defined in the URL like this makes perfect sense, but rather
about not having a "non-existent" parent page, that could instead have
links to our guidelines and similar in a natural and discoverable
location, and maintain the ranking-potential of this page without causing
confusion over it shifting back and forth in purpose.
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Ticket URL: <https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/6841>
Making WordPress.org <https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/>
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