Check! I've added the FAQ on the sidebar. That'll be better then having it buried under More → About → "FAQ". Plus, Discourse already links there when new users sign up, like the welcome PM & when composing their first post.
I'm happy for a condensed, precise, to the point version to be added into the site's FAQ. Something to fit with Discourse's tone. I'm thinking a "Best Practices for Support" section with points like:
- Check for an existing topic or answer online.
- Clear topic titles.
Perfect: "example here"
Try another: "example here"
- Include release version and system specifications if applicable.
- Include detail - what's been tried? do you know how it happened? how can we reproduce it?
- We do accept MATE questions from other distros, although there could be technical differences.
(Any others? Do we wish to encourage/educate about tags...?)
(Actual wording to be written, I'll look into this again tomorrow)
(See also: @stephematician's suggestions above)
I do wonder about a topic template. Not everyone is going to read the FAQs, never mind a pinned topic - should they start from the home page's "New Topic" button - skip skip, create topic!
More thoughts...
My reasons for not being so sure about a pinned topic is that it does feel the community becomes less approachable by adding upfront paragraphs to read, or members start policing content instead of contributing to the topic. It could be the proposal currently reads to me like a rule book, even though that's not intentional.
That topic from 2016 ended up forgotten & buried - likely because Discourse didn't have a "pin forever" option back then. Still, we seldom use pinned topics and really only for 'important' news.
I do wonder if any particular topics, distros or specific members are causing frustrations over in the Support & Help Requests category?