The Knowledge Base?

Do you find it useful? Is it updated? Is it user friendly? What could be improved?




I was looking at the section that explains why they changed the knowledge base. I have underlined something in red in the following picture. Someone confirm whether this is a grammatical error or not.

http://i22.tinypic.com/2q035g9.jpg

There is too many of you?

There are too many of you?

Contractions are appropriate?

Every time I have tried to find something in the Knowledge Base, it has given me the runaround and told me nothing about what I wanted to need and know.

HOW CAN A F____ MACHINE BE SUCH AN EFFECTIVE F_______ BUREAUCRAT?!

It has been absolutely useless to me. KILL IT TO SAVE STORAGE SPACE!!!

Strong uncomplimentary note follows.

I find the SL Knowledge base about as useful as Microsoft Help.

Thumbs down for me. I've so far been able to find what I have been looking for, but often have to jump hoops to get there. Some entries are better than others.

The concierge chatline, on the other hand, gets a big thumbs up.

I've seen politicians that were more usefull.

~Jessy

A far better option (by far) if you need to know something is to do a search in the forums....Whatever you want to know is almost certain to have been discussed there at some point.

And if it hasn't? Just start a new thread with your question as the title and you're bound to have the answer before long.

'The Knowledge Base" is rather a misnomer IMO!



PS: It's "there are too many of you"..

I think it can be helpful for very, very basic info...stuff like, how high are ban lines? Beyond that, no. But I'd rather have pie.

I don't believe it's a misnomer at all. Someone can know something and refuse to tell you. They wouldn't be helpful but they'd still know what they know. If the Knowledge Base were helpful it would be called something like Help Base or Useful Base.

When I first started SL last December I did do a lot of reading there. I don't believe I've been back to it since I discovered the forums and the KB changed. And as for searching the forums, that's really true up to a point. If what you're looking for is a three-letter word, such as a file extension or "pie", you're pretty much out of luck.

They should can the KB, direct everyone to the forums for info and use the storage space for backups of our inventory items that keep disappearing.

I haven't been there for info since I found the forums. The forums are much easier to get information out of -- and a lot more fun.

Yeah that.

As useful as tits on a boar hog,

As useful as an ashtray on a motorcycle.

As useful as a chocolate tea pot.

Well... you get the idea. LOL

Chocolate tea pot - now THAT sounds like a pretty good idea....

It's better than nothing.

Thumbs down only because it has now been hidden down in the Support page mess and can't be accessed directly. The support page as it stands now is confusing and somewhat intimidating to people without premium accounts.

Hmm so maybe it should be renamed the Knowledge Vault...

I still look at it now and then, and have even found it to be useful, on occasion. However, I enjoyed it a lot more and consulted it a lot more, when it wasn't sealed off and hidden behind a login portal that can't get my name right every (always repeats the last name twice).

It's further crippled by the fact that you can't directly link to any of the articles... the difference in usefulness is amazing, between "It's in the knowledge base -- just click this link right to the article..." and "It's in the knowledge base. Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."

-Atashi

While LL has always been helpful, that KB is a vicious jargon cycle

I tend to offer 'concierge service' through me to my residents (as they can't get it themselves if renting).

And in practical, on-the-grid terms, the Knowledgebase does work. Not kidding. I always check it before checking concierge, cut and paste, and it's *rare* that anything ever actually makes it to concierge that I can't answer or isn't in the Knowledgebase.

Particularly, billing issues. Might surprise you.

So this may be the practical boring side of things, but for day-to-day questions I'm asked, it works.

It is absolutely useless, it is also the link for F1 Help inworld, you have to open up SL's main website in a separate window while still logged into SL.
and then you have to log in to the Support Portal and choose either Knowledge Base or Solution Finder which looked identical to each other.
Without using search you have the list of menus to the left which then open up sub menus which relate to FAQ's then you have to find an FAQ that relates to your question.

It is time consuming, unhelpful and about as knowledgeable as a 3 year old kid.

As somebody already mentioned a Chocolate Teapot, I think the saying is " A Chocolate Teapot on a hot Summers Day" that is how good it is.

Also, cause the procedure takes so damn long you get logged out of SL.

I find the Knowledge Base very very useful, and I often find that it answers questions asked here in Resident Answers (in which case I cut and paste the info).

I should probably mention, though, that I am a professional database searcher. I have training, experience, and a natural talent for finding the desired piece of information. Still, the SL Knowledge Base is one of the easier ones that I've used.

On the other hand, I completely agree that hiding it inside the support portal was a bad thing to do because it prevents linking directly to a specific article. (When they first put it there, you could view just the KB frame and get the URL, but I think they now forward those URLs to the support portal login page.) Without the ability to link directly to an article, I have to cut and paste the info here in the forums... which of course have BBCode turned off, and so can't display most of the formatting.

Knowledgebase material is not indexed by Google, is it, since it requires logging in to get to it.

Can't find the data in search engines, can't give links to it. It seems kind of , well, not really just kind of, more, umm, incredibly mind bogglingly stupid to go to the bother of making the information and then making it hard to access and share on purpose.

I pesonally do not find it useful.

It really depends on how complex a query you have, for new people it's probably a lot more relevant. For MORE complex things then the Forum and/or the Wiki are better.

However, I have to maintain the Knowledge Base at my workplace. I constantly get asked things and then when I ask if they have looked on the KB (which has the info) I get told that it is rubbish and never has the answer. I know for a fact that it does, with a gazillion search terms including ones with typos I know they make from monitoring their emails every day for quality!

So I guess whilst I think it could be improved, I have some empathy.

*edit* Personally. PERSONALLY. I can't type either, it seems!

You forgot - Handbrake on an airship or canoe....

Knowledge base is for those that like to read.. read.. read, forums are for those that like to 'participate'. If reading made everyone knowlegable alone, why have schools? Just send out the books...