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Help page

Something to consider for 1.1: I was looking at the help page and...well, I can't see it being that used (TBH I never considered it particularly useful), so, what can we do to make it more appealing and meaningful?

First idea that came to my mind is a FAQ-like page that can be edited (permissions based).

The "install" version can have few entries from the current "manual", shorted and differently organised in a way that could fit into FAQs.
Then each install could personalize (if they want) the page adding, removing and the usual stuff.

It would be quite nice if these FAQs could be included in the search as well (maybe usual parameter in the search panel to include/exclude).

Opinions?
Suggestions?
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Re: Help page

Reply #1 –

I like this FAQ page idea. In fact I always like SMF old help page lol.

Re: Help page

Reply #2 –

And here I am at the moment.
I started few hours ago putting together some code to have an idea what it could look like and I have a few questions if there is anyone that finds it interesting enough. :P

First: I decided to use categories to subdivide the FAQs. Of course the first question is: there should be the possibility of nesting categories? So sub-cats, sub-sub-cats and so on? Nesting is always annoying to code, it implies lots of hassles. At the moment I went straight without considering sub-categories, but who knows.

Second: I suppose keep the author and the "last modified" is a must (somehow like the normal messages). I wonder if it would be 1) useful to render the name and/or avatar next to the FAQ itself (so make the FAQ similar to a message), I would avoid an option to show or hide that information, 2) useful to keep a full track of changes, so versioning of the single FAQs with in case a tool to diff the versions.

Third: published state? I mean: there should be a published/unpublished state so that a FAQ can be prepared before, and published only when "it's ready"?

 emanuele feels he is digging hiw own grave. lol
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Re: Help page

Reply #3 –

Please don't forget to inform the translators if they have to change the other-than-english language files. ;)  Maybe you should think about creating a user group, put all translators into it and inform them via newsletter if changes in any language files are made (when bugs are fixed or new features added)?

Re: Help page

Reply #4 –

I'm not that keen on maintaining groups and send mailing lists (they get outdated, they need maintenance, and have to rely on a person that must have the power to do a certain action).

A better option to me would be a topic: people can subscribe and anyone noticing a change can post in it, so that if someone is interested in tracking changes can just keep the notifications on. ;)

That said, I have not yet thought at how to add new languages... well, well, since my idea is to install languages through the package manager, it would be possible to execute code, and so add new entries directly from the language file itself, so it wouldn't require any change to the "normal" way, just some processing in produce the language package using the script I posted a while ago. :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkjD3D5FgmE
Bugs creator.
Features destroyer.
Template killer.

Re: Help page

Reply #5 –

One of my all time favorite movies :D

Re: Help page

Reply #6 –

Quote from: emanuele – A better option to me would be a topic: people can subscribe and anyone noticing a change can post in it, so that if someone is interested in tracking changes can just keep the notifications on. ;)

Sounds good enough for me.  ;)