On the Zotero documentation/web organization

iagogv

The Zotero documentation on the web is sometimes something difficult to reach.

When I look for something (usually, I saw previously), I go to https://www.zotero.org/support, but many links are not directly included there.

Actually, Zotero users must notice there is a link called Knowledge Base (https://www.zotero.org/support/kb) and either for some reason they know this is relevant or they try this link as could try most of the rest of links in https://www.zotero.org/support.

For example, links such as https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/item_types_and_fields only appear under Knowldege Base.

And I could not find other links such as https://www.zotero.org/support/forum_guidelines neither in the Support/Documentation nor in the Knowledge Base.

dstillman

I mean, the start page can only be so long — you can't expect every single article in the documentation to be linked from there. There's already too much there.

The knowledge base is the first link under "Getting the Most Out of Zotero", because it covers all sorts of other topics beyond the basics. Many KB articles are linked from other documentation pages, as well as from forum threads here. They obviously also appear in web search results (e.g., the first result for "zotero item types").

The forum guidelines are linked from Getting Help, the third link on that page.

In an upcoming update, we'll be doing more to surface relevant KB articles when searching and when starting to post to the forums.

iagogv

More on this and related to an issue appears once and again through the forums, last here: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/494634/#Comment_494634.

Shouldn't be in the FAQ or in the Knowledge Base an explanation for the difference between Debug ID and Report ID and how to get each one? If it is already, where?

dstillman

You're just wildly overestimating the value of a documentation page here. We link the words "Report ID" or "Debug ID" in literally every single thread where we request one of them, including in the thread you link to, and each page mentions the other. People skipping over a provided link aren't going go to find a KB entry that explains the difference. People just don't always read things carefully. It's fine.

(And that person had already provided a Debug ID once in that thread. They just forgot how the second time.)