etresoft

Q: App Store User Tips

I have started publishing a series of User Tips for App Store development. The first one is already online - App Store 101: Planning

 

Anyone level 5 or above should be able to edit any User Tip. So feel free to hack up these tips. I think it is going to take a few of them. I should have done this a long time ago. Just be aware that the User Tip editing system is a bit crude. Once you edit someone else's tip, it transfers ownership to you. If there are multiple people editing a tip, it may get passed back and forth. I don't think people have really exploited the collaborative authorship avenue on User Tips very much. These tips are going to need that. There are some areas where I have very little knowledge, like book suggestions, online courses and tutorials, teams, business accounts, most iOS stuff, and other areas where I am so clueless I don't even know I am clueless.

 

Anyone who isn't level 5 or above should reply to this thread with suggestions for corrections or additions.

 

I hope this will help both the people asking and answering questions. I know it can be daunting to ask a basic, how to get started question online. Hopefully these User Tips will provide some canned answers. I also know it can be tiring for people to answer the same basic questions over and over again. My hope is that getting the basics out of the way will help prevent people from making big mistakes that can only be fixed by Apple Developer Support and will make follow-up questions more interesting for both the people who ask and the people who answer.

Posted on Apr 5, 2014 10:15 AM

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Q: App Store User Tips

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  • by etresoft,

    etresoft etresoft Apr 5, 2014 3:41 PM in response to etresoft
    Level 7 (29,051 points)
    Apr 5, 2014 3:41 PM in response to etresoft

    I'm done writing User Tips for a while. Here is what I have so far:

     

    App Development 101: Planning

    App Development 102: Getting Started

    App Development 103: Introduction to Coding

    App Development 104: Coding on the Mac

     

    My goal is to liven up this forum and get people asking productive questions before getting apps rejected.

     

    Please help me out by filling in the parts I don't know and suggesting new entries. These tips are already pretty long. More specific tasks such as getting DUNS numbers probably need their own User Tips with links from these.

     

    Anyone level 5 and above should be able to directly edit these tips. Anyone level 4 or below needs to go into one of the other forums where you are an expert and get yourself there. Until then, post replies here.

  • by Mark Szymczyk,

    Mark Szymczyk Mark Szymczyk Apr 6, 2014 11:50 AM in response to etresoft
    Level 4 (2,009 points)
    Apr 6, 2014 11:50 AM in response to etresoft

    Having user tips for frequently asked questions is an excellent idea. I don't see myself getting to Level 5 anytime soon so I'll post some suggestions for new tips.

     

    1. Have a list of links to other Apple resources, such as bug reporting, developer support, where to submit ideas, mailing lists, and Apple's other developer forum. A large percentage of questions on this forum are from people who think they're communicating with Apple employees. They ask questions only an Apple employee can answer, such as "Why is it taking so long to process my developer application?" or "Why is my app rejected?". Since no Apple employees answer questions on this forum, the people asking the questions get no response, and they get frustrated. Providing a link where they can submit their questions that will get answered by an Apple employee would relieve their frustration.

     

    2. A troubeshooting tip for Xcode crashes. This is a common question that has two typical responses. If Xcode is crashing at startup, the usual fixes are to reinstall Xcode, delete the preferences file, remove caches, and install Xcode on a new user account. If Xcode is crashing when opening a specific project, the usual fix is to remove the autosave information and restart Xcode. Placing these fixes in a user tip would eliminate duplicate questions.

     

    3. Provide a list of Macs suitable for Mac and iOS development. There are a lot of questions asking what Mac to get for development or if a certain Mac is suitable. A user tip could answer these questions.

     

    4. Add a tip on how to ask a question and the types of information they should supply when asking a question. There are many questions on this forum that don't provide any information that would enable anyone to answer the question. A tip on how to ask a question would allow questioners to receive help faster and waste less of the answerers' time.

  • by etresoft,

    etresoft etresoft Apr 6, 2014 4:29 PM in response to Mark Szymczyk
    Level 7 (29,051 points)
    Apr 6, 2014 4:29 PM in response to Mark Szymczyk

    Thanks. Those are all excellent ideas.