| Title | External Tools should be consistently able (and required) to provide support information | » | Potentially possible to do a better job at routing external tool support requests to tool-specific support boards |
| Priority | 3 | » | 4 |
I have changed the title because it suggests something that is already standard for External Tools.
Maybe we can improve its visibility, but as stated, this is already the case. Every tool, if you go to the Tool Store you can either:
1. Click its "More Info" link and click "Support Board"
2. Go to its details page (where you suggested finding contact information, which is not really there, except for names and institutions) and click the red "Support Board" button.
Possible improvements include:
1. Moving the "Support Board" link on the Tool Store page out of the main text that frequently puts it inside "More info" and instead make it a button like Download and Documentation.
2. In the Skyline Tools > Tool Store form, which may be the most common way to install tools, make the "Tool Store" button just go to the main Tool Store web page. (it currently goes to the tool detail page for the selected tool), and add buttons right-aligned with "More Information" that say "Details" and "Support Board". Also, make the main logo click-able and linked to the Details page (containing the red "Support Board" button).
Otherwise, I think we just need to be consistent about pointing to these support boards whenever we give tool support. Ideally, we would only give tool support on these pages, but most of us are not signed up to receive the email. As Nick pointed out, the support response to these support boards is often not as immediate as our own support board. I have even had to remind tool owners of the need to respond. So, there is a good part of this that is human nature we cannot control.