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Save the documentation
Jeff Kelley
Registered User
Join date: 8 Nov 2006
Posts: 223
06-14-2007 21:17
I love documentation. I read documentation. I read again documentation and still find new things to learn. I love reference manuals. I eat reference manuals.

You may have noticed that F1 is broken. WE NEED DOCUMENTATION. Every user of every software needs documentation. Data Dumps (a.k.a. Knowledge Bases) are NOT a replacement for a logically, hierarchically-organized collection of documents one can browse like a book. Search is the last chance when organization fails. Organization is intelligence. Search is dumbness.

Here are some links to the valuable information previousely avalaible under F1. WARNING. Some information may be outdated. Outdated information is better than no information. WARNING. These links are expected to be Lindenized once support outsourcing will be completed. Mirror!

http://secondlife.com/app/help/commonterms.php
http://secondlife.com/app/help/rules/
http://secondlife.com/app/help/basic/
http://secondlife.com/app/help/menus/
http://secondlife.com/app/help/technical/
http://secondlife.com/app/help/avatar/
http://secondlife.com/app/help/building/
http://secondlife.com/app/help/guides/
http://secondlife.com/app/help/groups/
http://secondlife.com/app/help/land/
http://secondlife.com/app/help/new/
http://secondlife.com/app/help/islands/
http://secondlife.com/app/help/thingstodo/
Avacea Fasching
Certified
Join date: 23 Dec 2005
Posts: 481
06-14-2007 22:24
Yes, Agreed, there can never be enough.......
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Alderic LeShelle
Registered User
Join date: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 104
06-14-2007 23:22
I remember an insightful article about a phenomenon named 'digital dementia'. Said article outlines a study showing that during the last years the performance of human's memory is on the decline and being replaced by the prowess to look up and search for something.

The theory behind that change is that with all those nifty electronic gadgets like cell phones and PDA's as well as computer programs like password safes and the Web, knowledge is more and more stored externally from the human brain as well - why remembering something in itself if one just knows how and where to look up?

So I think the shift from ordered documentations to a searchable index like a knowledgebase just fits into that trend.

A trend I watch with quite a bad feeling, I must add.
Jeff Kelley
Registered User
Join date: 8 Nov 2006
Posts: 223
06-15-2007 01:46
Human memory has something to remember in a structured document collection : spatial relationship. The same way you map a chapter in a book and a book on a bookshelf.

I've browsed the SL software reference and remembered something said about 24-bit or 32-bit TGA files in the Menu>File>Upload section. I was not interested in TGA at that moment, but when I had to retreive the information, I knew where it was and could find it in a second. The knowledge is as much in the structure as in the data.

Data dumps (Google, Knowledge Bases) destroy structure. So yes, the trend to data dumps leads to an intellectual disaster.
Porky Gorky
Temperamentalalistical
Join date: 25 May 2004
Posts: 1,414
06-15-2007 04:47
Bah! Im a man and refuse to read any documentation or instructions. I wisely trust my own immense intellect when learning something new and would never lower myself to reading the instructions of lesser mortals.

This may explain why I am still trying to get my Betamax VCR to work but I will get there one day!!
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AWM Mars
Scarey Dude :¬)
Join date: 10 Apr 2004
Posts: 3,398
06-15-2007 06:58
LOL.. it's true...
When I got into media in SL and began selling media players/screens etc.. I would spend probably 75% of my ingame time tping to people, that were quick to slander our equipment, only to discover they had done something very wrong.... the reply to the question 'Did you not read this in the short but detailed manual that comes with EVERY player?'.... would almost always be 'manual?'.

One guy frustrated me so much, I reached a point whereby I told him the setup would not work because he had no electrical outlets in his sim... paid him his money back and left him to argue with the brick walls. He IM'd me several times over the following 3-4 days, asking where he could buy some outlets from.... :rolleyes:
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bilbo99 Emu
Garrett's No.1 fan
Join date: 27 Oct 2006
Posts: 3,468
06-15-2007 07:08
Aww c'mon guys! those manuals look soo neat and tidy in their little polythene jackets .. it'd be a shame to get them out and all dirty ;)

I'm a technician and therefore not allowed to read manuals ... it would destroy my image ... pulling and twisting at wires with an occasional 'hmmm' is so much more macho!
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Be polite .. that newbie could be your next ex-partner.
Sonia Nagy
Registered User
Join date: 25 Mar 2007
Posts: 364
06-15-2007 07:33
From: Porky Gorky
Bah! Im a man and refuse to read any documentation or instructions. I wisely trust my own immense intellect when learning something new and would never lower myself to reading the instructions of lesser mortals.

This may explain why I am still trying to get my Betamax VCR to work but I will get there one day!!

Don't be sexist :) I don't read documentation or instructions either. Unless I have to do so (after I've set the vcr on fire, or the like; or when I can't get a jukebox to work in SL and then realize that the very short uninformative notecard doesn't actually help - heck most documentation looks like it was written in Dutch, translated to Greek, translated to Japanese, translated to Russian and then translated back to Dutch . . . and then translated to English).
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bilbo99 Emu
Garrett's No.1 fan
Join date: 27 Oct 2006
Posts: 3,468
06-15-2007 07:44
From: Sonia Nagy
Don't be sexist :) I don't read documentation or instructions either. Unless I have to do so (after I've set the vcr on fire, or the like; or when I can't get a jukebox to work in SL and then realize that the very short uninformative notecard doesn't actually help - heck most documentation looks like it was written in Dutch, translated to Greek, translated to Japanese, translated to Russian and then translated back to Dutch . . . and then translated to English).


Don't upset the Dutch ... or she'll have you slopping out the horses too!
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Be polite .. that newbie could be your next ex-partner.
Dnali Anabuki
Still Crazy
Join date: 17 Oct 2006
Posts: 1,633
06-15-2007 08:19
From: Porky Gorky
Bah! Im a man and refuse to read any documentation or instructions. I wisely trust my own immense intellect when learning something new and would never lower myself to reading the instructions of lesser mortals.

This may explain why I am still trying to get my Betamax VCR to work but I will get there one day!!



I'm a woman and also refuse to read documentation preferring hands on and seeing how the thing really works. Only read manuals if I have a problem. Most are so badly written and inaccurate, they do more harm than good. Look at all the sorrow caused by SL's written documentation and the expectations it raised! In blissful ignorance, I just wander around and experience how it actually is. A lot like RL.
Porky Gorky
Temperamentalalistical
Join date: 25 May 2004
Posts: 1,414
06-15-2007 08:22
Sorry, I seem to have offended a couple of the ladies by implying they are not as useless as men. If any of you ladies have an aversion to reading instructions, asking for directions or cleaning your pubes out of the shower, then join my club!

:D
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Jeff Kelley
Registered User
Join date: 8 Nov 2006
Posts: 223
06-15-2007 08:57
So fun! Thanks AWM Mars for the laugh :)

When I began my career as an IT engineer, i've been told to administrate a PDP-11. "Where is the documentation?" i asked. "Here" they told, pointing to a closet packed with red binders. I started at row 0, binder 0 (IT people count from 0, not 1, don't ask why). That was how I started learning english. Thanks, Digital!

Exercise 1: log in the KB and tell me the maximum number of prims and maximum distance for a linked set. What says the stopwatch?

Exercise 2: click on http://secondlife.com/app/help/rules/index.php and tell me the maximum number of prims and maximum distance for a linked set. What says the stopwatch?

Hint: exercise 2 is easier with Firefox + Linkification
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/190
Sonia Nagy
Registered User
Join date: 25 Mar 2007
Posts: 364
06-15-2007 14:30
From: bilbo99 Emu
Don't upset the Dutch ... or she'll have you slopping out the horses too!

Oh sorry. Had nothing to do with the Dutch, but about documents that looked like they had been translated many times before getting to me :) (one of the fun games I've tried is getting a translation of something from English to something else, and then back to English, and then adding steps and then seeing the results - good for a laugh :)).
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Sonia Nagy
Registered User
Join date: 25 Mar 2007
Posts: 364
06-15-2007 14:32
From: Porky Gorky
Sorry, I seem to have offended a couple of the ladies by implying they are not as useless as men. If any of you ladies have an aversion to reading instructions, asking for directions or cleaning your pubes out of the shower, then join my club!

:D

Oh I see, it was about uselessness. Thought it was about digging in an experimenting without first reading the documents available :) . So, have you named your club? Where is it located? Why do you want to catch a monkey? What are you going to do to the monkey? Is the monkey evil?
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Winter Phoenix
Voyager of Experiences
Join date: 15 Nov 2004
Posts: 683
so its not just me
06-15-2007 14:42
From: Porky Gorky
Bah! Im a man and refuse to read any documentation or instructions. I wisely trust my own immense intellect when learning something new and would never lower myself to reading the instructions of lesser mortals.

This may explain why I am still trying to get my Betamax VCR to work but I will get there one day!!

I tend to dig into things right out of the box with a 'MANUALS BE DAMNED' attitude. However, once Ive gotten hands on with the thing and tried to figure it out, I do enjoy a huge three inch thick manual that covers every possibility I may encounter. Kinda like photoshop or something. You figure out what you can and then have tons of documentation to explore.
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~GIVEN FREE REIGN THE SYSTEM WILL TELL YOU,
WHAT TO DO,
WHEN AND HOW TO DO IT,
WHAT YOU CAN READ, VIEW, OR LISTEN TO,
WHAT YOU CAN SAY,
WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH YOUR OWN BODY,
AND SUCK ALL YOUR MONEY OUT OF YOUR POCKET WHILE IT DOES THIS!
QUESTION AUTHORITY!~ W.P
Sonia Nagy
Registered User
Join date: 25 Mar 2007
Posts: 364
06-15-2007 14:45
From: Winter Phoenix
I tend to dig into things right out of the box with a 'MANUALS BE DAMNED' attitude. However, once Ive gotten hands on with the thing and tried to figure it out, I do enjoy a huge three inch thick manual that covers every possibility I may encounter. Kinda like photoshop or something. You figure out what you can and then have tons of documentation to explore.

Oh, guess I should go ahead and add that I do read the manual while boredly watching the computer system move from "start file" to "you may play" . .. which can take a long while. Sid's Civilization takes a long time to load. Probably read most of the manual while waiting for it to load. Read most of the "Official" SL manual while SL was loading.
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SuezanneC Baskerville
Forums Rock!
Join date: 22 Dec 2003
Posts: 14,229
06-17-2007 02:01
I've had this up for a while, I already had it locally before they changed the link.

http://suezanne.fateback.com/help/index-2.html

suezanne.fateback.com/help/index-2.html
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So long to these forums, the vBulletin forums that used to be at forums.secondlife.com. I will miss them.

I can be found on the web by searching for "SuezanneC Baskerville", or go to

http://www.google.com/profiles/suezanne

-

http://lindenlab.tribe.net/ created on 11/19/03.

Members: Ben, Catherine, Colin, Cory, Dan, Doug, Jim, Philip, Phoenix, Richard,
Robin, and Ryan

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FD Spark
Prim & Texture Doodler
Join date: 30 Oct 2006
Posts: 4,697
06-17-2007 02:18
Has anyone got to point where there brain just overwhelmed and tired with all the information to learn?
Raudf Fox
(ra-ow-th)
Join date: 25 Feb 2005
Posts: 5,119
06-17-2007 09:34
From: FD Spark
Has anyone got to point where there brain just overwhelmed and tired with all the information to learn?


Shot glass theory! The brain can only hold so much, and then it must start forgetting something. Kinda like when you start overfilling a shot glass.

Actually, when I start hitting that point, I go find a nice MMORPG, start my slaughter of pixels and slowly forget whatever I learned. Works for anything!

*sighs* Yeah, my favorite call for repair was, "How do I program my TV remote to work the VCR?" My mental response, "There is a nice Spanish novel included in every box you buy.. it's called, La Manual. I hear it's a good read!" *note* We never had the manuals for all the freaking remotes. Do you realize how MANY different breeds of remote there are?!
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Charlene Trudeau
SkyBeam Architect
Join date: 23 Aug 2005
Posts: 318
06-17-2007 09:46
From: FD Spark
Has anyone got to point where there brain just overwhelmed and tired with all the information to learn?


When you stop learning, you are already dead... even if you're still breathing.

Char
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Charlene Trudeau
SkyBeam Estates
SkyBeam Architecture
Jeff Kelley
Registered User
Join date: 8 Nov 2006
Posts: 223
06-17-2007 20:33
From: SuezanneC Baskerville

http://suezanne.fateback.com/help/index-2.html
suezanne.fateback.com/help/index-2.html
CODE

default {
    touch_start(integer total_number) {
        llLoadURL(llDetectedKey(0) "Go to web page?",
        "http://suezanne.fateback.com/help/index-2.html");
    }
}