With the influx of new users (which is great for the ecosystem!) there's a constant stream of help requests for issues like lost connections, hub not working, pairing and a bunch of other common themes which come up pretty regularly.
Unfortunately in many cases not a lot of information is provided initially (due to lack of experience specifically with HE or home automation in general) and quite a few info requests are needed from the community or support to be able to make at least a stab at identifying the root cause of the problem.
To make helping users easier can I suggest that there be a pinned post or tab on the forum front page with a checklist of steps/information for users to do/provide to assist in troubleshooting in various common scenarios?
I like @rocketwiz' suggestion of a pinned post. @rlithgow1 and @neonturbo have helped lots of new HE users who have come over from Wink. Maybe a pinned post can be created using their already posted material?
Don't forget about the docs, including the Z-Wave doc that, in part, afdresses general exclusion, polling, ghosts, and other issues. Happy to add or create something else as needed.
If you do, lead with ghosts. This by far is the biggest new person issue. Maybe present it a a semi non technical way (ie easy for a new person to understand) along with what it does to one's mesh. We've all gone through it at the start (well hey, at least I did). Honestly I keep pushing for notices about ghosts on the add z-wave page page.
For my part in suggesting topics for new comers, though more so those who move beyond a 1-hub setup.... Partially driven by having left my garage door open earlier today
Notifications with more than 1 hub
Setting up and maintaining Hub Mesh
Options for external access to hubs and device states
It's the second thing in the above. The first is failure to include (think of people who never excluded anything from their old system). Is second close enough? I figured you can't get a ghost if you can't even try to include in the first place. (I also think ghosts are less common nowadays than those of us with early C-7 hubs have been traumatized into remembering...the updated have really helped if you haven't set up a new hub/network lately!)
Man, I remember my first experience with Ghosts… I went so far as to take my hub in the car with me and go for a drive, and still that one ghost would not go away… Oh the good old days… (Plus I still had some old leftover non-plus devices at that time…)
