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As a Regular User - A PDF Compilation for New Users of SMF

Started by Irisado, November 06, 2013, 05:54:37 PM

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Irisado

The Documentation Team has fully reviewed and edited the 'As a Regular User' section of the SMF Online Manual and is now making it available as a PDF. This is part of the continual process of improving the quality of the documentation and making it more accessible to the SMF community. The PDF covers the basic aspects of SMF and is particularly useful for people that are new to SMF or forums in general.

The PDF is attached to this post, so feel free to download it and let us know what you think. In addition, the PDF can be distributed in accordance with the creative commons license
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Shambles

This is a very good piece of work; nicely done.

If I have one criticism, it's in the interchange of personal and impersonal addressing: some parts of the brief speak directly to the reader and refer to him as "you", while others refer to "the member" or "a guest".

For example:

QuoteThe Login Screen:
This is the screen you see when you use the "Login" option of the main menu

▪ Username - The member's username
▪ Password - The member's password

... When using a shared computer, a member probably should not stay logged in for a long time.

Logging out
When you have finished browsing the forum, you may decide to logout


As the document is entitled "As A Regular User" I'd prefer to see the personal aspect prevail.

On that matter, is it correct to include descriptions of detail that are impertinent to "regular users", such as the mechanics for IP tracking, warning, and banning?

Irisado

The use of 'you' is for when articles address the reader directly, while words such as 'member' or less commonly 'user' are chosen when explaining how a function works.

In the case of the examples you cite, 'member' was preferred because those sentences explain a function of SMF, whereas the logging out section is a direct suggestion to the user, rather than a technical explanation of the function of logging out.

This doesn't mean that we will have always used the correct word every time, but that was the rationale behind the choice.

Regarding the mechanics you list, I don't think that there is any issue with giving a rough outline about these options, since they can directly affect regular users.  We're not giving away a huge amount about administration functions, and curious minds could find out about the administration functions anyway by looking through other wiki pages ;).
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socializemetoday

Thanks. Really useful information. I always need assistance when I work with smf on my site



Irisado

That's beyond the scope of the PDF.  I've replied in more detail in your thread on this issue.
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Illori

no it does not, as the title of this thread says it only covers as a regular user category.

umina

This sounds like my next step in understanding SMF, but I can't figure out where the attached PDF file is!

I'm having a very basic issue.  What is the difference between a forum, topic, category, and board.  An example would really help, but a hierarchical diagram would be awesome.

I'm setting up a new system to handle the organization of the insurrection inside our HOA and since this is going to be a "flame on" application once I open it up, I really need to make sure I get the basic structure perfect the first time.

There must be an example somewhere.

From what I understand forums are global segments within the site.  Beyond that boards, categories, and topics are confusing.  I think they go in that order as far as granularity is concerned, but I'm concerned that violating of the hierarchy might cause me to create a site that destroys the presumed architecture of the application and destroy the performance of SMF by accident.  (For a stupid example, lets say every topic was a forum).

Therefore explicitly understanding the intended relationship could be really important.  I tried the documentation, searched the forums, and came up empty handed.

So I went to Google.  This got me really confused.  One site hxxp:www.aacconline.org/smf/index.php?action=help;page=index#message [nonactive] goes to great length to explain the granularity to its users.  It has board and category reversed from my first impression, but the explanation certainly did not help regardless.

I found other sites that have similar help postings, but things like "The forum name links back to the top of the board index" get pretty confusing if the board is inside the forum two levels deep (forum->category->board->topic->posts).  This says to me that "board index" is not being used correctly, but as a newbie to SMF I wouldn't make that statement.

Any insight, example, or pointer to a properly structured open site would be appreciated.

/Len


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QuoteThis sounds like my next step in understanding SMF, but I can't figure out where the attached PDF file is!

Tried looking on the first post?
There as attachment. :)

TheKnown

Quote from: umina on March 10, 2014, 02:52:21 PM
This sounds like my next step in understanding SMF, but I can't figure out where the attached PDF file is!

on the first post under the signature.

Quote from: umina on March 10, 2014, 02:52:21 PM
I'm having a very basic issue.  What is the difference between a forum, topic, category, and board.  An example would really help, but a hierarchical diagram would be awesome.

forum what you are on.
category is collection of board(s)
board is a collection of topic(s)
topic is a collection of post(s)
post is a collection of words/numbers/images

each can be plural or singular

Quote from: umina on March 10, 2014, 02:52:21 PM
I'm setting up a new system to handle the organization of the insurrection inside our HOA and since this is going to be a "flame on" application once I open it up, I really need to make sure I get the basic structure perfect the first time.

if you dont understand how forums etc work how do you plan on doing this effectivley

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