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2.0 Final has been released
agridoc:
A number of replies were split and moved in a non public board for further discussion. However I believe something and a solution must remain in public until a better public board and way is found.
Integrating basic user help with SMF structure, as used so far, is far superior, as it uses the forum's default theme and so is better help for the end user.
SMF Wiki help uses screen captures. This means a lot of unnecessary work to be done for different languages and the end result will be inferior for the user of a specific SMF forum.
For most foreign languages, current basic user help state for 2.0 is back to early 1.0x versions when not many translations were available.
Fortunately, as Gary informed, there is a mod that restores the feature back, so, until a better solution is found
--- Quote from: agridoc on July 30, 2011, 01:29:32 AM ---This mod is a welcomed go back move to the online basic help system of SMF until 2.0 RC4.
There are ready translations in older language packs. Unfortunately 2.0 RC4 language packs adopted the new SMF Wiki help a little before RC5 release so, unless someone has an older 2.0 RC4 language pack, 2.0 RC3 language packs must be used, they are the most recent available.
Take Manual.[language].php from translation pack, rename it to ExtendedManual.[language].php and upload it to /Themes/default/languages.
"Extended Help" mod is not a exactly a mod, neither a new fearure, it's a restoration of an existing feature that was stripped a little before 2.0 RC5 release. An overenthusiastic but wrong move as I see it.
I believe that SMF should go back to this system, this is basic user help and should be available in SMF installation. Read this and related messages before.
--- Quote from: agridoc on July 29, 2011, 05:07:41 PM ---
--- Quote from: Gary on July 29, 2011, 04:28:09 PM ---There's a mod that'll revert the help backwards to RC4's local method somewhere on the mod site.
--- End quote ---
Thank you Gary, it's Extended Help mod by SMF Customization Team , that makes it an "official" mod. That also means that quite a few find the old way better.
So, bringing back Manual.[language].php and basic user help in SMF files and adding a link like "SMF Wiki extended help" is the best way. "Extended" goes for Wiki, as this will be the full documentation when finished.
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Bloc:
--- Quote from: agridoc on July 30, 2011, 10:47:28 AM ---A number of replies were split and moved in a non public board for further discussion. However I believe something and a solution must remain in public until a better public board and way is found.
Integrating basic user help with SMF structure, as used so far, is far superior, as it uses the forum's default theme and so is better help for the end user.
SMF Wiki help uses screen captures. This means a lot of unnecessary work to be done for different languages and the end result will be inferior for the user of a specific SMF forum.
For most foreign languages, current basic user help state for 2.0 is back to early 1.0x versions when not many translations were available.
Fortunately, as Gary informed, there is a mod that restores the feature back, so, until a better solution is found
--- End quote ---
Can only agreed(and have already said what I mean elsewhere), the choice of Wiki as the help feature was very unwise, for the reasons you mentioned.
I don't think anything will change though, it seems this was done to relieve some work - even if the drawbacks are bigger than the advantages lol:
+ centrally located docs
+ no need to administer submitted work from translators (though CompuArt's editor is there to help with that...)
+ more targeted software for actually displaying docs(which is really a design question around the Help.template => solvable)
- more server stress
- NO docs when server is down
- existing work not updated into the Wiki yet, due to lacking manpower?..and
- previous translators feel their work was "wasted", thus perhaps reluctant to contribute to the Wiki?
- No way to keep docs in sync theme-wise, which was cool to show off features in other themes as well(well, partly anyway)
- SMF site is not Google, so we can expect delays, especially as SMF 2.0 get more spread and updated around the world.
Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen:
I was one of the more vocal tea members speaking against that move in the first place, and I still agree with you guys that we should've kept an offline help section available, and could have expanded that with links to the wiki where suitable.
The reason that wasn't done is still beyond me, but I believe there were views that the existing help section was outdated and would've had to have been rewritten from scratch - which I also disagreed with, as I felt it held all the most needed basic user help in a working format as it was...
ahrasis:
+10 for the last three posts...
impreza:
and I will move soon to smf 2 - thanks
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