Hello
I am thinking about putting together a Guide to Troubleshooting for beginners which would be aimed at helping people who are new to Ghost, but could also help them learn how to troubleshoot in other technical applications.
A process along the lines of:
“Step 1: If you see an error, copy and paste that text into Google.
Look to see if other people have encountered similar problems (and found solutions). You will often find solutions, or at least clues to get you on the right track, by reading through some threads on Stack Overflow, application-specific forums like forum.ghost.org or sometimes Reddit.”
Step 2: Try to eliminate possibilities.
Imagine one of your home appliances isn’t working. One of the first things you would check is whether swapping the power cord or power supply fixes the problem. You can do a similar thing with troubleshooting software issues. Go through each part of the system and try to narrow it down."
Is this a good idea? Would anybody be interested?
I think it depends on how well you identify your audience. The range of people using Ghost is (I assume) fairly large, just like those using other publishing platforms. People with significant technical backgrounds would see those first two points and say “Well, duh” and skip the rest. Someone with limited technical expertise would probably find that valuable.
I would outline the work, then share it with some people to see if it is all at roughly the same level of expertise. OR, I would split it into graduated levels of expertise.
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Yes, this would definitely be the target audience. Many people don’t realise how useful the combination of an error code and search engine can be. 
There is perhaps a concern that if I teach too many people this closely-guarded secret, I may put many customer support reps out of a job. 
I appreciate your feedback, Bruce. Thank you.
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As someone who does a lot of the “level one tech support” stuff for the ObsidianMD community on a volunteer basis, I think there’s definitely value in something like this, if only as a place for more experienced people to point new folks to.
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