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Our FAQ is gone, there is a new help page now. Somewhere, hidden between 27 other links is a link named What topics can I ask about here?

No one will ever read this.

We cannot edit the main help page to include this section there.

We can edit the about page, but the link to that page is hidden at the bottom of each page. And worse: all the text there is centered; and adding text there removes all styles, including list bullets.

I took away at least the misleading announcement we would answer every WordPress question, and I added a link to our scope page.

Please fix this bug! The two most common errors for beginners on our site are:

  • asking for a plugin recommendation
  • asking for WordPress.com support

And now we cannot even say: Please read our FAQ, there you can find what is on topic and what is not. Because there is no short, readable FAQ anymore, just an unreasonable gigantic wall of text and links.

Please do not hide essential information. Make it easy to find instead, not more than one click from the start page away.

Addendum, see Chip’s answer: And when you are on it, fix all the links created with shortcuts [faq] too.

Looks like other SE sites have the same problem: Why does Server Fault's new help system de-emphasize the professional audience?

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    Agreed. Finding certain very relevant parts of the FAQ has become difficult. This is a very dysfunctional design change.
    – s_ha_dum
    Jun 12, 2013 at 18:17

2 Answers 2

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Why on earth is it helpful for the "above the fold" content on the WPSE help page to be generic information about SE network sites in general? All of that Take the Tour and Here's how it works banner content should be moved to the About page.

I assume this also breaks our "magic links" to the FAQ and FAQ sections? So we need some new magic links.

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    Yes, links are broken too: [faq] = faq.
    – fuxia Mod
    Jun 13, 2013 at 19:56
  • @toscho: The magical faq links now point to the equivalent page in the help-center/about page for the most part. Of course, that doesn't the core issue, which is that it's difficult to find the bits of the old FAQ that are most important to defining the scope of the site.
    – Jon 'links in bio' Ericson
    Oct 29, 2013 at 1:03
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    @JonEricson The current target for [faq] is the opposite of a FAQ. It is some kind of a … tutorial, not a short list of common issues. I don’t see that as a solution.
    – fuxia Mod
    Oct 29, 2013 at 1:07
  • I had no idea we even had magical links, their documentation is so buried. Just gonna leave these links here for anyone else who had a similar reaction.
    – bosco
    Jan 2, 2014 at 1:03
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Asking and Answering are pivotal features of stack, they are also the most confusing to new users, cluttering the screen with other information creates noise, please consider separating the concerns.

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