2011-09-07, 18:58
For those of you who don't know I've been recently working on the XBMC Wiki and trying to bring it up to shape. There's been lots of really old pages, spam, technical issues, and so on. It's been in such a mess that we tend to just ignore it and use the forums more often for the cutting edge info.
However, for the iOS forum we've gotten to a weird point where we now have two FAQs. One on the forums and one on the wiki. The one on the forums is actually much easier to read, in big part to procrastinator writing such a good FAQ. It's also not such a huge WALL-OF-TEXT as the one on the wiki. At the same time the wiki FAQ might have some stuff the forum wiki doesn't since anyone can edit it. Having two FAQs is also very confusing to newcomers, who are supposed to benefit the most from an FAQ.
And so.. I think we should look at merging the two FAQs. Take the good, throw out the bad, and maybe make some brand new improvements.
One of the things we are able to do on the wiki is spread ourselves out. We can make a very basic FAQ at first rather than a huge wall of text, and then dive deeper. Or we can just categorize the FAQ completely like how it's done on the forum. Or both. There are a ton of formatting options available (show/hide sections, multiple pages, jump to sections), and anyone can edit it at the same time (which could lead to chaos, but hopefully not. Most small wiki's like ours tend to be very stable and people tend to work together better).
So basically this is a brainstorm thread. How should we merge the two FAQs? What questions are we not answering? What questions are we answering but not needing to? Should we tier and/or categorize questions/answers? Should we include pictures of kittens doing cute things?
I find the best way to think about it is to just pretend you are a brand new user and put yourself through the steps. Look at either FAQ and ask yourself how well does it do, or what could have been changed to make a new user more informed or less confused. Also don't just note the negative, but note the positive! Find where the FAQs shine so we can apply that even more.
If anyone wants access on the wiki (anyone with an account can edit, but new pages can only be made with access granted) to make their own draft page to play with let me know. Just PM me with your wiki username (make one if you haven't already).
Alternatively, if you just want to make a mock up in a PDF or even a table napkin, throw a link to that as well. It's pretty easy to adapt formatting for a wiki, so if you want to try some ideas out in a program you are more familiar with then go for it.
And of course don't forget to also just throw ideas out in this thread as well. Feed off of each other's ideas and such. When one example shows up don't be afraid to make your own implementation of their example.
At the same time don't let it overwhelm you. An FAQ doesn't have to answer every possible question or be perfect. Nor do you have to create an example if you just want to throw out some ideas. If anything it's the formatting and organization that needs the most attention right now, but any and all ideas are welcome.
EDIT: Here's a link to all our ATV2 related wiki pages, including the FAQ. Feel free to dive right and and even test ideas out as we discuss them. It's a wiki after all and any mistakes are easily undone by the click of a button, so don't be afraid. Feel free to dive into any of the pages if you have an idea or see something you can improve. On Wikipedia they have a phrase that works well here: Be Bold!
wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Category:IOS
wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=XBMC_for_iOS_specific_FAQ
However, for the iOS forum we've gotten to a weird point where we now have two FAQs. One on the forums and one on the wiki. The one on the forums is actually much easier to read, in big part to procrastinator writing such a good FAQ. It's also not such a huge WALL-OF-TEXT as the one on the wiki. At the same time the wiki FAQ might have some stuff the forum wiki doesn't since anyone can edit it. Having two FAQs is also very confusing to newcomers, who are supposed to benefit the most from an FAQ.
And so.. I think we should look at merging the two FAQs. Take the good, throw out the bad, and maybe make some brand new improvements.
One of the things we are able to do on the wiki is spread ourselves out. We can make a very basic FAQ at first rather than a huge wall of text, and then dive deeper. Or we can just categorize the FAQ completely like how it's done on the forum. Or both. There are a ton of formatting options available (show/hide sections, multiple pages, jump to sections), and anyone can edit it at the same time (which could lead to chaos, but hopefully not. Most small wiki's like ours tend to be very stable and people tend to work together better).
So basically this is a brainstorm thread. How should we merge the two FAQs? What questions are we not answering? What questions are we answering but not needing to? Should we tier and/or categorize questions/answers? Should we include pictures of kittens doing cute things?
I find the best way to think about it is to just pretend you are a brand new user and put yourself through the steps. Look at either FAQ and ask yourself how well does it do, or what could have been changed to make a new user more informed or less confused. Also don't just note the negative, but note the positive! Find where the FAQs shine so we can apply that even more.
If anyone wants access on the wiki (anyone with an account can edit, but new pages can only be made with access granted) to make their own draft page to play with let me know. Just PM me with your wiki username (make one if you haven't already).
Alternatively, if you just want to make a mock up in a PDF or even a table napkin, throw a link to that as well. It's pretty easy to adapt formatting for a wiki, so if you want to try some ideas out in a program you are more familiar with then go for it.
And of course don't forget to also just throw ideas out in this thread as well. Feed off of each other's ideas and such. When one example shows up don't be afraid to make your own implementation of their example.
At the same time don't let it overwhelm you. An FAQ doesn't have to answer every possible question or be perfect. Nor do you have to create an example if you just want to throw out some ideas. If anything it's the formatting and organization that needs the most attention right now, but any and all ideas are welcome.
EDIT: Here's a link to all our ATV2 related wiki pages, including the FAQ. Feel free to dive right and and even test ideas out as we discuss them. It's a wiki after all and any mistakes are easily undone by the click of a button, so don't be afraid. Feel free to dive into any of the pages if you have an idea or see something you can improve. On Wikipedia they have a phrase that works well here: Be Bold!
wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Category:IOS
wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=XBMC_for_iOS_specific_FAQ