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Simple Machines Wants You To Help With Documentation!
Posted by akabugeyes on August 02, 2008, 03:07:15 PM
Greetings to the Simple Machines Community. I would like to reach out to the community here to formally ask for the help of dedicated SMF users who are at all interested in helping to improve the documentation of SMF.
As it current stands the SMF Documentation Team consists of only a few members. As a consequence of limited outside assistance the Documentation Team bears the responsibility of documenting the SMF software by themselves. Occasionally the Documentation Team receives help from other Team Members of SMF, however usually they have their own duties that they need to fulfill so they cannot concentrate extensively on working on SMF documentation.
So what can you do to help?
Well to put it simply...anything!
But to elaborate on what we mean by anything, the following are examples of things you can do to help the Documentation Team:
A great way to start helping is to join the SMF Doc Helper Group on the Online Manual. From there you will be able to help in a slightly more formal environment, and get to meet and work with other SMF enthusiasts who have pledged to help out with documentation. Resources will be made available to helpers as well as the assistance of members of the Simple Machines Team. Helping us with documentation also provides good experience in the field of writing allows you to expand your knowledge of SMF, as well as providing a good opportunity to get to meet and become friends with many of the members of the SMF Team.
To join the Doc Helper Group you simply need to register for an account on the Online Manual and then send an email to us, and being sure to tell us what email address you used to sign up for an account with. You will then be given access to some special resources available to the Doc Helper Group and will be contacted with details with more information about the program.
Please consider helping us with documentation in anyway that you can. Every small contribution in making the Online Manual a more useful place for SMF users is appreciated!
Thanks.
Jack Thorsen, SMF Document Coordinator on behalf of the Simple Machines Documentation Team and the Simple Machines Team.
As it current stands the SMF Documentation Team consists of only a few members. As a consequence of limited outside assistance the Documentation Team bears the responsibility of documenting the SMF software by themselves. Occasionally the Documentation Team receives help from other Team Members of SMF, however usually they have their own duties that they need to fulfill so they cannot concentrate extensively on working on SMF documentation.
So what can you do to help?
Well to put it simply...anything!
But to elaborate on what we mean by anything, the following are examples of things you can do to help the Documentation Team:
- You can proofread documents for something as simple as typos.
- You can look through the documents for any content that is unclear or could use elaboration. Even if you do know what the document is conveying to the reader, you can try reading it as if you are a newcomer to SMF and then try to see if you still think you would understand everything you read. You can either tell us where the unclear fragments are, or if you think you are a decent writer, you can come up with a suggestion of what to change the unclear fragments to.
- You can look for out-of-date documents which need to be updated to help the reader understand the content better.
- You can look through the sections of the Online Manual and find topics of SMF that you think are missing. From there you can make a post on the Online Manual under the Document Requests board suggesting a certain document or documents to be written. You of course could offer a hand in writing an unofficial version of the document that the Documentation Team may be able to take and adapt into an official Online Manual document!
A great way to start helping is to join the SMF Doc Helper Group on the Online Manual. From there you will be able to help in a slightly more formal environment, and get to meet and work with other SMF enthusiasts who have pledged to help out with documentation. Resources will be made available to helpers as well as the assistance of members of the Simple Machines Team. Helping us with documentation also provides good experience in the field of writing allows you to expand your knowledge of SMF, as well as providing a good opportunity to get to meet and become friends with many of the members of the SMF Team.
To join the Doc Helper Group you simply need to register for an account on the Online Manual and then send an email to us, and being sure to tell us what email address you used to sign up for an account with. You will then be given access to some special resources available to the Doc Helper Group and will be contacted with details with more information about the program.
Please consider helping us with documentation in anyway that you can. Every small contribution in making the Online Manual a more useful place for SMF users is appreciated!
Thanks.
Jack Thorsen, SMF Document Coordinator on behalf of the Simple Machines Documentation Team and the Simple Machines Team.
I wanted to add a little more about the Doc Helper Group.
I run a training center for those who want to learn to write for the manual, where I interact with these users and help them understand the structure and formatting, wording, etc. that the manual currently uses. Users who enter this center have easy access to docs that need to be updated or rewritten and can be assigned to docs if they wish. They also get daily help and attention from me and other members (including SMF team members), so they can ask a million questions and get the help they need to complete what they're working on. I'm there every day, so you will always have someone around to look over your work and help you with it so you arent alone.
I started out in the Helper Group and I had a lot of fun...I still do now as an official Doc Writer. It's been a positive experience for me, and I've taken away some life lessons and skills to help me. I made a lot of new friends, including team members, and now I'm a part of something bigger. I was afraid to try at first, but now I'm glad I did
Not to mention, this would look great on a resume. Employers always look for those who have good writing skills (and we can help you improve those) and like to see some volunteer work on resumes.
i would like to join you as well.
I'm good with typing, I type pretty fast.
If you need helpers, i would like to help you.
Please reply me ASAP.
thanks,
RuneGold
We would love for you to join us
First you need to sign up for an account on the Online Manual
http://docs.simplemachines.org/index.php <Register button is up top
When you have done that let me know your username so I can put you on the Help Squad team
Thank you for your interest
Hope to help SMF soonish...
What am I missing?
Should you be missing something?
Hey I'll stick with the site default I think.
I think it is
I would like to join with you.
I also want to work on some language packs.
I really want to help you here.
Please reply me,
With thanks
jazzbrar
Have you signed up to the Online Manual yet? When you have PM me your username and I will get you set up right away!
Thanks for the interest
I am interested in helping with the SMF Online Manual. I could write some docs for mods as well as cool things to do with SMF.
I have registered on the OM and my username is brianjw.
- Brian
Sign up and I will send you a PM which should explain it all
A few quick questions before I go off though, is there a wiki? And, in dealing with my perspective, when people's questions are answered in the help thread, is there opportunity to include it into the manual or make the answer more obvious? I feel that a good manual could be linked to answer most questions (a link to a specific section or such, not just a general link as no one likes to read an entire document to answer a simple question). And, this kind of interface between the manual and the forums ensures better documentation and more volunteers.
FAQ's
There are many FAQ questions that are in demand, however, there is no wiki.
Let me know what your username is on the Online Manual and I will add you to the Help Squad group
I'm hoping that there's a way to check on progress so that I'm not going over ground that others have covered. I mean is there like a group leader who would assign specific review tasks and such who would tell me better where to go and what needs to be reviewed? Anyway, I'll also post this in my email, I think SMF is great!
Oh, also have a sandbox where I can test run SMF stuff if you also need someone to trial SMF goodies. Let me know!!!
I am the leader, and am more than happy to assist you
See this:
http://blogs.simplemachines.org/team/275357
Would love to help out if needed.
If you contact me you can get fast access as I am on every day
preety shore THIS covers it all, most people just need to take a look. I dont think theirs a How to get a domain but your free to write one and show jade. She said she was going to be gone for a week from 25 of dec (tho she made a post in the online manual today{Yes jade i seen that
I was actually creating a site dedicated to that....but I had to push it to the back burner because the Online Manual needs attention for the moment
Cool, does that mean that you'll get to check out of the updates i made to my doc's, plus a new one i made.
I am a total technomoron, so if you still need help and want someone to keep saying 'I don't understand that', then I am your woman...
PM on it's way...
Regards.
German.
If you want to join the help squad, follow the directions here: http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=275357.0
I've read the document on this and I'm interested in helping the documentation team out and maybe long down the road become one myself, I'm sending an email to tell you what username and EMAIL I signed up with I hope to hear from you soon.
-[Hurricane]
Yes it's the same Username & Email as I signed p with on here, I just sent you a PM though with both my Username & Email there, Going to go take a big long look over the Documents and see if I can find anything.
-[Hurricane]
So, I could and would love to be a proofreader! AWESOME!
That depends. When I ran it, it was work at your own pace step by step.....but it IS time consuming considering the progress. I won't lie to you.
I got a lot of free time anyway, so I can handle any workload
edit: I just registered and my username is legend
My knowledge of SMF are small, however, I converted my site with your help so as comfortable for me.
I am ready to write it in a manual (untill I have not forgotten how I did it), if you are interested in.
"Use <p></p> instead of <br /><br />" - Full replace, full solution - nowhere <br /> in posts !
"How insert picture on left of topics names and subforums instead of icons ?" - I have insert pictures in forum descriptrion and replace it left - instead of the icon, that show new topics, and icon replace to forun name line
: "Remove linktree from front page", Word "Category" in LinkTree to be more popular
My e-mail is
zakaz (0) vveb.ws
Does it deal with the other issues I raised in that thread, such as inside code tags? Or users wanting to put multiple blank lines in for visual effect?
Probably should be moved to Tips/Tricks.
That tip is not suitable to be put into the manual, it breaks one of the code rules for SMF, which I was fully aware of when I wrote it, but was suitable for your forum.
I don't run the Help Squad anymore since I quit SMF though
Who runs it now, Trekkie or B?
I sent a message akaburgers but i havent gotten a message back yet.
Dam, I want to start finishing and writing them again, just finished school for 11 weeks!
But their are no doc writers to check the squads documents.
If you could in your message let me know a few things it may help me figure out how to make best use of these resources. Those things are:
Education (High School/College/Etc and/or proficiency with English language)
Availability (For instance, are you particularly more available for a certain number of weeks because you are on vacation?)
Location (or just your time zone)
Experience with SMF (do you know a lot or are you just getting started?)
All of this is optional, but it may be helpful for me to know.
Thank you.
Have installed SMF from 1.1 upwards, installed Mods, dB's and some programming, though not much with PHP until I got into SMF.
Have registered at the doc forum.
Chas aka Hal9K
B