Help Us Out Please

[David]

As many of you know, Peter and the team have been working quite heavily on documentation for upcoming releases.  Right now what we need is for you to let us know which of the icons either don't work or are not very useful.  Please just post them here.  We are also happy to hear any specific suggestions about documentation.  Thanks!

[eFishie]

Personally, I've always found all of them hard to understand.

To do these good, you need to . . . *gasp!* . . . THINK N00B!

[Beaman]

What I have found is the 'Manage Membergroups' has the info on the header. The help window, itself, is blank. The info might look better compiled into the window instead of across the header. Just mentioning a thought to help out.

[[Unknown]]

What I have found is the 'Manage Membergroups' has the info on the header. The help window, itself, is blank. The info might look better compiled into the window instead of across the header. Just mentioning a thought to help out.

I agree; But I'm not sure.  For consistency, it might be best to keep the text there, but I also think it could look better...

-[Unknown]

[Beaman]

It's a tough call, I'm kind of half and half there as well. lol    I guess the text could stay and the help.gif and script could be modded out? Or some more info could launch from the window, that would be the easiest I suppose.

[[Unknown]]

Well, I'm not neccessarily looking for the easiest solution, but rather the best solution.

However, this does help.  What we're looking for is, basically:
  - blank [?] popups.
  - sections that are missing [?] but should have them.
  - areas with less-than-helpful [?] popup windows.
  - incorrectly documented sections.

This includes things that are commonly asked about or sorta confusing; for example, the cvs has a little "why isn't moderator here?" link in the profile's account settings next to primary group - because you can't set them as moderator from there.

As well, some layout has changed making [?] popups talk about things that aren't there or have moved... and not mention at all new things.

-[Unknown]

[Beaman]

If I happen to notice more, I'll report it. I launched it earlier today so I'll keep looking if anything appears out of the norm, but it's been great and I'm sure it will continue  to do so. 

[A.M.A]

Edit Permissions --> Apply pre-defined permission profile

If I may suggest .. how about some tutorials! i.e. suppose you are at the 'Edit Features and Options' there will be a 'Tutorial's icon' that list some common tasks that you can do in this section. Ex. How to allow members to select an external avatar? How to make a new avatar category ? ..etc

[Oldiesmann]

In the "Edit Permissions" section, for "Moderate Board":

The moderate board permission adds a few small permissions that make a moderator a real moderator. Permissions include replying to locked topics, changing the poll expire time and viewing poll results eventhough

I also find this a bit confusing because you have this permission for the "unregistered guests" group. This is next to "Vote in Polls":

This permission allows a (registered) user to cast one vote. It doesn't apply to guests.

Other than that and the one "blank" help window that has already been mentioned, everything seems fine.

[Jack.R.Abbit™]

The [?] for the calendar settings...  it seems to be one of the few areas that has all the help jammed into one [?].  Does not make it very easy to add additional calendar settings... unless you add the additional help info right to the existing help info.  that might not have made sense... but I can't word any other way.

[Killer Possum]

The "Enable SP1 style statistics on board index" in the theme settings sould use a '?' again, or be called something else.

I know what it is because I've used YaBB and YaBBSE as well as many of our YaBBSE members, but for some of our newcomers they may look at that and say... "SP1 style? What the Hell is that?"

[Oldiesmann]

Yeah... That would be a good idea. After the YaBB SE site disappears, the connection between SMF and the current perl-based YaBB forum system is going to slowly disappear, and we don't want to confuse people. Most people won't know that "SP1" refers to YaBB Gold Service Pack 1.

[^Raven^]

When using Firefox I'm unable to see the white arrow/triangles (they face to the right) in the Edit Features and Settings part of the Admin Center.  Also, the menu doesn't show when using Firefox.  It only works with my main URL of forum.warhammerforum.com.  I'm noticing this when using my laptop but haven't checked with my desktop or file server yet.

[[Unknown]]

I use Firefox without issue.

-[Unknown]

[^Raven^]

I noticed this only happens on my laptop and it has me perplexed why my Dell Inspiron 8500 would be having problems with it now.

[[Unknown]]

Maybe it's a caching/hotlinking issue?  Do you have hotlinking disabled?

-[Unknown]

[^Raven^]

Maybe it's a caching/hotlinking issue?  Do you have hotlinking disabled?

-[Unknown]

Nope I don't have hotlinking disabled but I think I'm gonna clear my temporary internet files and such to see if that helps.

[sensovision]

I see something strange in admin board, just about this text:
   "Email new password if a user changes his/her email address?"

there is quesiton mark which provide you with blank pop-up window, later there is no text and drop down menu which is blank as well. It contain 4 options from which I could only see text in the 4th one

[sensovision]

my apologies, this was caused by using old language file, now when I've figure this out it's fixed and all messages are shown.

[xzxzzx]

Under "Edit Features and Options", the item "Disable output caching" ("disableCaching") has the help text "Checking this box will make your forum more secure." - not only is that not very descriptive, it doesn't sound right.
I can't see how

Code Select Expand

header('Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate');
header('Pragma: no-cache'); would make one's forum more secure - but then, maybe I just need to be shown the light.

[[Unknown]]

It makes it so that the data is not cached - which in turn makes it more secure. (not stored in some place on the computer - possibly a public computer.)

But, that text is not horribly descriptive... I agree.

-[Unknown]

[mibcons]

Hi,

First of all kudo's to all off you!

I found the the link View/Delete Members in the admin area does not intuitively brought to mind that I could Manage the members there as well. Hence I change the text to View/Manage Members.

Hope this helps

Michel

[Tanks]

The next to the XML / RSS admin section dont explain clear enough how to use this option i think. 

[[Unknown]]

The next to the XML / RSS admin section dont explain clear enough how to use this option i think. 

Thanks, that's likely a good place to add information about it.

I found the the link View/Delete Members in the admin area does not intuitively brought to mind that I could Manage the members there as well. Hence I change the text to View/Manage Members.

We've hopefully done something to help this confusion in 1.1 - thanks.

-[Unknown]

[TXSherry]

In the SMF INSTALLER | Create Account page:

My SQL Database Password
"The Installer requires you supply the database password to create an administrator account, for security reasons."

Would be clearer, and more correct, to read (note the typo in the original of : My SQL):

MySQL Password
"The Installer requires you supply the database user password to create an administrator account, for security reasons."


The MySQL database password is (almost always) the ftp password.  The password required here is the one for the MySQL user with rights to the forum's MySQL database.

--Sherry

[Louis (CSpotkill)]

Re: Sherry's nitpick:
How about "... the database user's password ..." or "... the database account's password ..."

But it's probably better without the extra word (as using less words is always beneficial)

[nwowatcher]

My 2 cents would be that all help files should be as detailed in as simple English as possible..There is many Newbies (me included) who find after reading some help notes in the question mark are not detailed enough, yes they explain well enough for people who already have a general basic grasp, but in all honesty many newbies do need a fuller explanation..I understand short is sweat but , the easier a function is explained in its simplest terms for all to understand then i would also imagine the less would be needed for many newbies to run to the forum posting for help when all they needed was a better easier help file..

One more thing i love the software it rocks no more to be said..

[MrFlicks]

Personally, I've always found all of them hard to understand.

To do these good, you need to . . . *gasp!* . . . THINK N00B!

Hey Im a real NOOB can I see these docs ?

[^Raven^]

When using SMF any area that has that question mark icon David showed you click on the icon.  Then you get the "doc" for that feature.  You read it and discern as to its effectiveness and ease of reading.  If you think it could improve you post here with the information so David and crew can make it better.

[anunlike]

In: Forum Maintenance > - Remove Old Posts

I was confused as to whether this removed posts automatically or not. I saw the "Remove all topics not posted in for  XX  days, besides stickies." and was really kind of troubled over whether it would do that automatically. I tried making the number of days longer, but there's no 'Save' button.

I know that it doesn't automatically do it, I had to come here to look that up. I think it would be good to say something in particular about this in the pop-up. I've seen other posts about that here as well.


In: Manage Boards > Modify Boards screen

I was also confused as to what 'access' meant when I first started to set these up. I didn't know if it meant that the checked group could read or write or both. I had to go and check to see what this meant, just to be sure.

I think it'd be good to have something about that in a pop-up, basically what this inital access allows. At the time, I was wanting to set it up so that Guests couldn't post, only (all) members. It took me a bit to figure this out.

[^Raven^]

On here in Profile > Personal Message Options > Buddy List

When I click the question mark icon the buddylist search feature opens.  I'm not certain if this is supposed to happen or if there is documentation we're supposed to see.  But, I wanted to report that here as it relates to documentation.

[[Unknown]]

These icons differ:



The first is an action of some sort, the second is help.

-[Unknown]