Help Section.

[ethankcvds]

In 2.0 RC5 I've seen that you changed the help section to redirect to the wiki located here. The problem that I have with it being redirected here is if the SM.org servers are down you have no way what so ever to access those wiki pages for help on how to use SMF. I'd rather have them back as part of SMF where they can be accessed even when SM.org is down.

ethankcvds

[Arantor]

This whole thing has been debated back and forth quite a bit both behind the scenes and a little more publicly.

I've yet to see a forum where users actually read it, even here.

[Spoogs]

I dont really care for the new style either... but then again I just dont care for anything that redirects a member from my site anyway

[ethankcvds]

I've yet to see a forum where users actually read it, even here.

I read it quite a bit when I'm not sure about something like BBC and a few other things. Heck I even check out other forum scripts help sections when I'm unsure about what BBC might be available.

[Kindred]

1- the help section was outdated
2- it was very hard to keep the help section updated and translated
3- we are going to all the work of getting the wiki implemented and maintaining all documentation in one place...  why duplicate effort?
4- If you don't like it, you are free to change your own site's help however you like.

[ethankcvds]

1- the help section was outdated

I can kinda agree on that, though parts of it were still accurate to a t.

2- it was very hard to keep the help section updated and translated

I really don't see much translation of the wiki going on at all.

3- we are going to all the work of getting the wiki implemented and maintaining all documentation in one place...  why duplicate effort?

So you're basically saying you want the documentation in only one place so what happens when sm.org is down on ones going to be able to access that documentation in order to better under stand how SMF works. 

4- If you don't like it, you are free to change your own site's help however you like.

Sure I can do that but I think it would be better put back into SMF.

[Arantor]

You're in the distinct minority - virtually every forum I've ever been on, I see people asking how to use xyz, or just assuming it doesn't exist - they don't look at the help area.

Have you ever seen a custom bbcode that actually adds to the help area, for example?

[Kindred]

we discussed it and made a project decision to centralize the documentation.

If you feel it is important to have it on your site, then a) do as I said and make your own or b) have someone write a mod that does that.

either way, it is not going to be added back for 2.0 and unlikely to be added for 2.1


As for the wiki translation...   we're working on it.

[ethankcvds]

Have you ever seen a custom bbcode that actually adds to the help area, for example?

No though I generally stick to what I know is available.

[Arantor]

No though I generally stick to what I know is available.

Exactly the point: as soon as mods extend the core, they don't extend the help area so it becomes more useless for any given site.