Look ma! A FAQ!

[rho]

Thanks to the hard work of the FAQ team, the FAQ is now at a stage that's close to "completion". I use the scare quotes deliberately, because it's not anywhere near completion, and there's still a whole lot that needs adding and what have you. What's there at this point is pretty stable though, so I'm saying that we've now reached FAQ 1.0.

If you have time, go take a look at the FAQ and comment here to let me know what you think. We've done our best to make the FAQ clear and easy to read and to navigate, and I'd be especially interested to know how you think we've done with that. I'd like to know what you think we've got right, and I'd also like to hear any constructive criticism you have on things that you think we've got wrong.

This is also the place to comment if you find any typos or factual inaccuracies in the FAQ. We've had at least two pairs of eyes looking over every FAQ to try to cut down on errors, but it's inevitable that some will have slipped in. If you find any, comment here, and we'll get them fixed when we get a chance.

Comments

[7rin.livejournal.com]

Looking good. I like how easily accessible it is.

Minor error found (really really minor): How do I unsubscribe from or revoke Access for another journal? (http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=75) The 'Manage Circle' link has the underlining of the link continue over into the space after 'circle'.

What!? I did say it was minor. :p

[rho]

Fixed! Thanks.

Access lists/filters

[sollers]

I have now spent over five minutes hunting around in the FAQs and am unable to find out how to set up access filters. The best thing I could find was:

"When making a locked post, you can restrict its access to a subset of your access list."

I was unable to find anything at all on access lists.

Re: Access lists/filters

[rho]

Oh, hey, you're right. Not sure how that FAQ managed to get through in its unwritten state. I knew there were bound to be some errors though. I've very quickly edited the access filters FAQ to provide a link to the page.

We'll get a more complete version of the FAQ up at some point, but for now I just wanted to very quickly put something up.

Thanks for letting me know.

Re: Access lists/filters

[snakeling]

Sorry, I struggled for ages with this one. I had to ask for the accessibility team's help because it was a nightmare to write using non-sighted language. It's now complete :)

[ephemera]

do you want 'bigger than typos / less critical than missing sections' comments, that are more opinion than fact now, later, or not at all?

For example, I think http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=126 (Coming to DW from LJ: Naviagation bar) could usefully tell people coming to DW from LJ that the visibility of the nav bar is now something controlled by the logged in reader everywhere (with a link to the control tab for doing that)

- what's there isn't wrong or critically missing vital functions, and for all I know the faq writer went back and forth over that ten times already...

[rho]

You're welcome to comment with anything like that, but I can't say at the point when we're likely to get to them.

[ninetydegrees]

If I may make a suggestion: I think FAQ#2 and FAQ#12 should link to FAQ#105 somehow. For FAQ#105 it could be part of "The Invite Code system is designed to let Dreamwidth grow slowly and sustainably". For #2 I have no idea, sorry. FAQ #105 is awesome BTW.

[ninetydegrees]

On http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=125:

Archive: This replaces "Calendar" on LiveJournal, but like the LiveJournal Calendar, the Dreamwidth Archive displays past entries of a journal or community by year or by month

The page is called 'calendar' but on many layouts, it's called 'archive', not calendar. DW makes the same distinction. In the journal URL it's 'calendar'. In menus it's 'archive'. Also, you can display past entries by day.

Profile: On LiveJournal, it's User Info, on Dreamwidth, it's your Profile.

It's User Profile/Community Profile/Syndicated Feed Profile on LJ too.

[ninetydegrees]

On http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=133

Minor issue: someone correct me if I'm wrong but some of these icons are not used (yet?). For example 'remove access' is 'modify access' and has got the same icon as 'grant access'.

Actually, lots of these 'Hey! You're from LJ?' FAQs would be useful in a Guide to Newbies, not just to LJ users. My apologies if it's already been suggested/discussed.

[ninetydegrees]

In http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=47:

You can set the comment security level for each individual entry when you post it. You can make an entry where comments are not allowed, even if you have commenting turned on in general. When you're posting an entry, change the Allow comments? setting to Disabled. If you have commenting turned off in your journal, you can't set one entry to allow comments.

This is a bit confusing because the first sentence doesn't apply in all cases so it looks like we're said contradictory things. What about going straight to the point?

If you have commenting turned on in general, even with restrictions, you can still make entries where comments are not allowed. When you're posting... However, if you have commenting completely turned off in your journal,...

Another suggestion: could FAQ titles when viewed via ?faqcat be turned into links to each individual FAQs?

[ninetydegrees]

http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=58

You can ban someone by entering their account name on the Ban and Unban Accounts Page.

Lowercase p for page.

If you change your mind, you can use the Unban link on the same page to allow the person to comment again.

Assuming they mean the Ban and Unban Accounts page, there's no 'Unban link'. There are boxes you check and then a button to save your changes which says 'Ban and Unban Accounts'.

[ninetydegrees]

http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=59

You can protect your entries so that either only people on your access list can read the entries, or so that only people on your list can comment, even though everyone can read.

I think this sentence should link to http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=54 and http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=9.

You can also remove them from your access list (if they're on it).

Link to http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=75?

[ninetydegrees]

http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=138

Extra </ol> after Zesty.

[ninetydegrees]

http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=17

go to your "Manage Circle" page

The other FAQs don't use quotes when referencing page titles.

you may Enter the Dreamwidth account names or OpenID URLs of people you want to add to your Circle.

Lowercase e in enter, I think.

If the community administrator has chosen Moderated Membership when the community was created, you'll need to email the community's owner to be added to the community's membership list.

You can find out which type of community it is, or who to contact to be approved for membership if it's a Moderated Community, on the Community's Profile Page.

Aren't requests automatically e-mailed to the owners? It's what's said on http://www.dreamwidth.org/community/settings.bml. Are there any cases where that may not happen? Or was this actually meant for Closed communities?

[ninetydegrees]

http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=18

If the community's Posting Access is set for Non-Members May Post

I think it's 'set to' instead of 'set for'.

[ninetydegrees]

This just in. http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=4

Extra semi-colon in the table:

Number of icon slots:

[ninetydegrees]

http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=97

You can change the way the main site pages look with the Display tab of the Account Settings page.

From what I've seen on other FAQs it should be "in the Display section of the My Account Settings page".

[ninetydegrees]

http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=120

Added "random community" page, as well as the existing "random user" page, to help you find interesting active communities.

Random community is a link but random user isn't. :/

annoyed us. for instance:

Missing capital F, I think, or the punctuation isn't right.

[ninetydegrees]

I think http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=27 or http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=116 should mention that you can check whether a feed already exists by entering its URL in the Add Feed box as it automatically links you to the subscribe page if it does. The risk is that people create duplicates if the URL is different but the same risk exists already anyway as you can't search feeds.

[turlough]

http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=123

Should there perhaps be mentioned that OpenID accounts can't become members of communities?

[jamie]

http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=4

Needs to link to the page on the wiki that lists all the acct levels:
http://wiki.dwscoalition.org/notes/Account_levels

Suggest you add dates to the 'first six months' for people who don't track ambiguous time periods well (so Apr 30 to Oct 30, 2009), etc.

FAQ question

[cesy]

Is there a FAQ with a list of the features of paid accounts? Or an account type comparison?

Re: FAQ question

[forthwritten]

That's been included here.

Mmm, Memories

[kakashi]

This is from the Memories FAQ.

In the second paragraph, the sentence says, "If you enter a blank description the entry will be deleted.". Instead of "the entry will be deleted" it should be "the memory will be deleted.".

Re: Mmm, Memories

[forthwritten]

Fixed.

[zvi]

http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=133 None of these icons have alt text. :(

[ivorygates]

What the alt text would say in this case would be the exact same thing the line of text beside the icons says, since this is the FAQ where the new icons are labeled and defined. Since this is so, should these icons be alt-texted, or should we add a note at the top of the FAQ making this clear?

Thanks.