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I am prompted to ask by Name in English of different parts and tools.

Maybe it's obvious, but each time I've wanted it I had to dig around. (Yes, it's a favorite now :-)

I see a link on What topics can I ask about here?, but can it be in an easier-find-place?

Update:

After some more experimentation I think the "Questions that may already have your answer" feature just does a word match between the [question] title you type and other titles and content, with titles more highly weighted. Maybe it uses tags also, but I haven't experimented with that.

Another update:

I have added an answer that proposes changing the terminology index page. Your votes on that answer will be used to decide whether to proceed.

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  • I could make a community promotion ad for it. It wouldn't show up every time a new user hit the site, but it would show up fairly frequently.
    – jimchristie Mod
    Apr 15, 2014 at 12:59
  • That could help. If we had knowledge for the way the "Questions that may already have your answer" feature works, then we may be able to change the Terminology Index so that such questions connect with it. I tested what happens when I start asking a terminology related question, and our Index was not shown as a related question.
    – andy256
    Apr 16, 2014 at 4:42
  • @jimirings I updated my question with a proposal. PS Congrats on your election :-)
    – andy256
    Apr 16, 2014 at 6:29
  • Your proposal would be better as an answer. That way, people could vote for it if they think it's a good proposal. If there seems to be a consensus, we could go with it. I don't personally have any knowledge about how those related question algorithms work, but I can look into finding out.
    – jimchristie Mod
    Apr 17, 2014 at 1:15
  • Yeah ... thought of that afterwards. Happening now ... feel free to improve when I've posted it.
    – andy256
    Apr 17, 2014 at 1:19

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Do you want me to change the Terminology Index?

The problem doesn't effect most of us directly; it effects the first experience some new users have on our site. It helps us accumulate more users if that first encounter is more positive.

I propose to make some changes to the Terminology index question. Since it's now community property I want to gauge the community feeling on this proposal. I think this is different to just adding a new answer to the terminology question.

Proposal

I propose to make some changes to the content and/or title of the Terminology index so that the matching algorithm finds it.

Suggestions

  1. Replace the first line of text

    It would be helpful to have a common place to list terminology, I'll start it off

    with

    This question and its answers list the names of bike parts and cycling concepts.

  2. Replace the title

    Terminology index

    with

    Terminology index - a list of bike part names and cycling concepts

I would change the content first, then test if simple terminology questions trigger the "Questions that may already have your answer" feature to show the modified terminology index. I would then test the changes to the title. I may need to wait a day in between making changes and successful tests, in case background processes have to build indexes.

Your votes on this answer will be used to decide whether to proceed

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  • Ok. It's been a week. I'll go ahead. It's not earth-shaking ...
    – andy256
    Apr 26, 2014 at 1:27
  • Changed the text. A test of a new question with title "names of bike parts and cycling concepts" does NOT show the updated question. I'll wait a day and re-test before updating the title.
    – andy256
    Apr 26, 2014 at 1:39
  • Success! Changed the title and a new question with title "names of bike parts" shows the index as the second item. A question "What is the name of" shows the index on the first page. Good 'nuff.
    – andy256
    Apr 27, 2014 at 2:51
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If you click "Questions" and then "frequent", it's right there. If you search for a specific term, it's likely to show up in a search.

It's perfectly fine to ask a question about terminology. We can provide a simple answer, link it to the terminology index, or close it as a duplicate of the terminology index (which will link to it and provide additional ways to search for that information)

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  • Yep, get all that. My question is how would a new user find it? If they don't know their way around the site, or don't know the words to Google (and with the typical person's weak Google skills), they are unlikely to find it. Can we put it on the front page some how (maybe as a default community bulletin)? Or add something to the article so that it comes up in the "Questions that may already have your answer" as you type in the question. Just seems to me that we aren't doing all we could to help new users.
    – andy256
    Apr 15, 2014 at 5:11
  • Updated my question with a proposal
    – andy256
    Apr 16, 2014 at 6:28

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