[4.0] Dashboard - Joomla Helpscreen

[coolcat-creations]

What needs to be fixed

Migrated issue from https://github.com/joomla/40-backend-template/issues/419

1) Joomla Helpscreen with space to do a volunteer announcement

2) Mobile example (Icons at the bottom not correct yet)

[mbabker]

But going to the fact that Joomla is 100% community driven we need volunteers, our software is the first place they really interact with us.

This operates under the assumption that every user of the software wants to engage with the community. Please provide data that supports this impression.

An end user of the software should not be put into a marketing pipeline to get them to engage in the community and play into people's altruistic tendencies. In fact, I would say that this type of engagement is the worst thing that can be added to the software given the state of the community and how toxic it is these days.

Yes, there are some other promotional links already in the backend. I'd suggest that those be reviewed and limited to links that are actually beneficial to the end user and their use of the software. I think based on the partial list presented earlier, that would be removing the links to the Shop, links related to events and/or meetups, "Meet Joomlers" (which I assume is the Volunteers Portal which again has nothing to do with the use of the software) and anything related to Glip (since it is an invite only platform for the inner circle); if it is decided to have a link to a chat platform then it should be one that is publicly accessible and not behind some form of gate.

I don't think anyone who disagrees with the introduction of these marketing resources into the software is of the stance that Joomla should not do any outreach to try and engage new volunteers. But, the software is not the recruiting platform for new free labor on behalf of Open Source Matters, Inc. The software is a location for end users of the software to conduct their business, they should not feel pressured into giving back.

Github is not place for endusers and so it is not place for ask for right way.

GitHub is the project's canonical issue tracking platform, wherein bug reports pertaining to the software, feature requests, and feature proposals (pull requests) are to be presented. This platform is the appropriate place for discussions pertaining to the software. You must pick one canonical place to coordinate efforts around otherwise you are creating a fragmented community. The use of social media is going to attract the attention of one segment of the community, the use of GitHub will attract another segment of the community, and the use of the forums will attract another segment of the community; there may be some overlap across those three places (and maybe others) but the point here is it is three fragmented mediums targeting three (mostly) separate groups.

Joomla is 100% community driven ? are you sure ? if this was true maybe this should'nt have been merged cause a lot of us disagree

I stopped agreeing with this "community driven" approach about 2 years ago when it became crystal clear that the direction of the software was that of a very small group of people operating behind closed doors.

[mbabker]

I'm just going to tack something else on here. It has now been a year since this issue was originally opened and the vocal viewpoints of "please re-think this" expressed. Yet the team that worked on the template introduced this against all feedback. The template proposal has existed for over 18 months now. In that time, has anyone actually thought about ways to solicit feedback on this idea, or other changes in the template or 4.0 in general, or has the operating motive been "this is what was in Elisa's design proposal, minus feedback within our internal template group this is what we are rolling with"?

Part of the problem that is trying to be solved with this screen is engaging new users to contribute to the project and community. Is that effort ending at "let's put a screen in the admin panel", or is there legitimate interest in engaging people to contribute to the project and community? Because if there were a legitimate interest, there is a lot more effort that people could put in to solicit feedback (like all the failed attempts at some kind of survey team) to be more proactive and not just hope people flock to the project out of the good will in their hearts.

[HLeithner]

In my opinion this is not a recruiting page. Nothing engage you to help Joomla everything helps you to find help.

That the wording of "get involved" maybe is aggressive or goes into the wrong direction is true. Also "Meet Joomlers" could be more "Find local help".

But where do you see an call to action request?

That we use a closed platform to chat is another thing an could truly removed.

So maybe we get a consent what should be in this screen and what should be removed?

But maybe this isn't the correct place to ask because I think none of use needs this page as Benito already stated.

[chmst]

Remove the link to the shop and rename "get involved" to "For developers"?

[mbabker]

"Meet Joomlers" needs to change to something that does not use inner circle terminology. Since this box is aimed at helping people find other people to interact with, the links for JUGs and Events are OK in this context. As much as I think the links in the software should be relevant to the use of the software, I think you can justify the links in this box by helping users to network with one another and share knowledge about working with Joomla.

All links on the page need to be crystal clear what they are linking to, or introduce some kind of short description for the links if you can't make it clear with 2-3 words. WTF is "Joomla Resources"? Is it books, training material, marketing material, etc. ("Resources Directory" isn't any better). It's even worse that there's a "Resources" box right next to it. And honestly, I'd move the JRD link into "Find help" because that site isn't meant to be a networking site.

The news box should link the release announcements and security center only. The community blog is not a relevant resource for the use of Joomla, likewise with the newsletter (if you are hell bent and determined to link a newsletter, I would suggest a low volume newsletter specific for releases and use that newsletter as a means to link to other resources periodically, but not turn that into a marketing spam fest like the release announcements are right now).

Drop the shop link from the resources box. Again, nothing to do with the actual use of the software. Move either the "Joomla on GitHub" or the "Issue Tracker" link here, there is no harm direct linking end users to this resource as it may encourage them to direct report bugs they encounter or make suggestions for improvements instead of just posting at Facebook or Twitter and hoping someone does something with it.

Add a link to the training section of CJO to the resources box.

I think the get Involved box really just needs to go. Once you move the issue tracker link to resources, there's nothing really there worth consuming as a user of the software (Glip is invite only, you don't need two links for GitHub/issues, and CJO is again a non-software related thing and with the other links to specific sections of that site users are already finding their way there in ways that are more relevant to them in the context of the CMS backend). If you're hell bent and determined to keep this box, then link to more direct resources than the vague links that are there now (i.e. "Help Translate" with link to Crowdin), the intent being to put people at spots that they can immediately take action; with Glip being closed off linking to that just gives them marketing exposure without any benefit to the project, and just linking to anything Joomla on GitHub is too vague without better use of features like the default label GitHub suggests for a good first issue, or pinned issues on the repositories, or effective use of projects (both at org and repo levels). I'd say linking to the roadmap page might be useful here too, but that implies there's an actual roadmap and the data there is actually kept up to date.

[brianteeman]

add a link to the training section of CJO to the resources box.

No point in doing that. The trading videos have never been updated and are very out of date

[alikon]

Can we close this ?

[brianteeman]

Personally speaking this issue is not resolved

[brianteeman]

Looks like everything is now resolved here

[coolcat-creations]

closing as not relavant anymore