Docs suggestions post

[rho]

Have any suggestions for things that you think should be documented but aren't, things about the current documentation that you think need improving, or any "hey, wouldn't it be neat if..." ideas that pertain to docs? Comment here with them, and I'll either fix them, put them in zilla, or explain why I don't want to do them.

Comments

[jadelennox]

The accessibility team started a doc wishlist a ways back.

[rho]

Have just created these:

http://bugs.dwscoalition.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2709
http://bugs.dwscoalition.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2710

If you want to point dw_accessibility at them, that would be fantastic.

I've not done anything about the other two points on the list, because I'm not entirely sure what sort of thing you have in mind for them. If you want to elaborate and explain to me, I'd happily put them in zilla (or you can put them in yourself, of course).

[qilin]

There probably need to be a lot more documents about maintaining a community, perhaps even a guide. I know that there's no FAQ on changing the adult/NSFW warning on a post in a community, for instance.

[qilin]

This one is kind of relevant, but doesn't include anything about changing warnings!

[rho]

I've put a couple of items about this into zilla:

http://bugs.dwscoalition.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2707
http://bugs.dwscoalition.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2708

[adalger]

S2

[rho]

Do you have any specific thoughts on what needs to be documented or how it should be organised? I know that our S2 documentation is woefully inadequate, but I suck at S2 and all things styles related, so I don't really have a firm grasp of what needs doing.

[adalger]

s/woefully inadequate/nonexistent/

Everything from how to get to the "developer area" to what the available language is. First in importance, I think, is a list of what the backend supplies and what each thing means. If I had to point fingers, I'd point 'em at afuna, foxfirefey, and branchandroot to have good answers to this question. Meantime, I'm thinking a post over in style_system and dw_styles asking for a wishlist might be very productive.

[rho]

I'm going to do a bit of asking around of people who know more S2 than I do, and see what sort of plans we can come up with.

[foxfirefey]

http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse?faqid=87&view=full

Needs to be changed to mention that if you're trying to link to a Dreamwidth user from another site (or even on the site), you can find a handy copy-paste code at the bottom of that journal's profile!

[jazzfish]

One thing that's not mentioned in the "tags" FAQ and ought to be (or possibly as its own separate FAQ?) is how to do those neat multilevel tags that people have. (It's tag:subtag, tag:othersubtag, etc etc.)

[erika]

I agree with this comment, and furthermore volunteer to write it. Now if I can only find that helpful support question that someone answered when I asked how to do multilevel tags.

[denise]

This one?

[erika]

I've already told you that you rock once today! Stop trying to get compliments! :P

[domtheknight]

In Support, we had a question from a user, "what happens if I delete my access filters, do the entries become public, or private, etc?" and the answer did not appear to be in any FAQ.

[erika]

Agreed--perhaps that could be added to the How do I set up Access Filters FAQ?

[yvi]

http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/see_request?id=6617 tag FAQ needs some information on merging.

[domtheknight]

http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/see_request?id=6629

No FAQ for the cut tag expander (which would ideally mention nested cut tags, and also how some of the html isn't carried over... Azz had some suggestions in that req, which I'm copying over).

If someone is reading your entry on Dreamwidth, in your journal, on their Reading page, or on their Network page, and they have (er, scripts?) turned on (are there any styles that does not make this happen?) they can expand the contents of the cut without leaving the page they are on.

To expand the contents of a cut, select the Expand control:

Any HTML tags that have been opened within the cut and have not been closed in your entry before the cut tag is closed will be automatically closed by the expander.

[ninetydegrees]

For previous suggestions:
-- http://dw-docs.dreamwidth.org/25864.html?thread=213000&style=mine#cmt213000: linking to http://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/emailmanage.bml from FAQ#48.

-- http://dw-docs.dreamwidth.org/25864.html?thread=220936&style=mine#cmt220936: using consistent terminology for community administration.

-- http://dw-docs.dreamwidth.org/27255.html?thread=229239&style=mine#cmt229239: renaming Manage Userpics to Manage Icons and using the new URL in all FAQs.

-- http://dw-docs.dreamwidth.org/27255.html?thread=229751&style=mine#cmt229751: nitpick about the Site Map.

New suggestion:
On Manage Userpics, the main text says "To upload a new one, use the form at the top of the page." Visually, the form is on the left, not at the top. Also, it's not displayed when you've reached your limit.

[nonethefewer]

I'd like a FAQ, or walkthrough, or something, on how (as a user) to use the support page, but I'm not sure where exactly that would go.  I'd envision, were I writing something for my workplace, something that took a user through the steps of supportification.  Possibly broken into chunks?, like "How do I close a support request if I ate the email?" or "I've submitted my request; what can I expect now?" or things, or stuff.

(This came about because it took me a good 5 minutes to figure out how to close a support request I'd opened with credit.)

Missing in FAQ 103

[pauamma]

FAQ 103 doesn't mention <del> in the list of allowed tags. It also doesn't mention that some tags (such as <del>) can be used in the entry body but not the subject. (I couldn't find another FAQ that did, and if there's one, they should IMO link to each other.)

(First commented on the wrong entry because I went straight to the tags list.)

OpenID Faqs

[ninetydegrees]

The topic of OpenID came up in my Circle as someone didn't understand how it worked and I've realized that FAQ#145 and #62 don't really explain what an OpenID is (that's it's generally a URL such as your blog's URL for blogging sites) or how to log in with it. It says you need to create an OpenID account (which seems to defeat the purpose of logging with an OpenID in the first place so why mention it so soon?) instead of telling you how to do that: copy the URL and paste it into the log in box. It doesn't tell you either that you need to be logged out of DW to be able to use it (not that obvious, imo).

FAQ#123 is a bit better but doesn't explicitly said what your LJ OpenID is and is, of course, meant for LJ users only.

Come to think of it, I think a FAQ telling you how to log in with OpenID is missing. The account thing should be secondary.

[cesy]

In case you haven't spotted it: the latest news post has some suggested improvements for the Guide for LJ users.

[yvi]

http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse?faqid=77&q=access+filter needs info on what happens if you delete a filter (the entries become private - I actually looked that up in the code)

[cesy]

Apparently "How do I make a sticky post" is not easy to find in the FAQs (discussion here). Could it also be added to the Guide for LJ users, please?

[rosiewinter]

It would be cool to have a list of things you can add to the entry URL, like ?style=mine, ?view=flat, ?style=light etc. :)

[cesy]

http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse?faqid=80 doesn't mention you can also file a ToS report via Support.

[azurelunatic]

http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse?faqid=87 doesn't mention that the user link works for any remote site that has its users in /users/, and its user profiles in /users/USERNAME/profile.

[azurelunatic]

This link format will work with some other sites that are not LiveJournal-based. Adding "site=sitename" in the tag will create a link to sitename/users/username and sitename/users/username/profile. If Dreamwidth does not already have an icon for the site, the generic remote site icon will be used.

(examples:)

archiveofourown.org
example.com

Notifications

[ninetydegrees]

Prompted by a recent request. There's no FAQ on how to control who you can get private messages from (and that banning also works for this). It's one sentence buried in "How do I protect my privacy on Dreamwidth?". I think it deserves its own FAQ to make it easier for users to find.

[ninetydegrees]

http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse?faqid=138 needs to be updated to include new styles (Compartmentalize and Practicality I think).

[melannen]

There seems to be a steady trickle of people in Support who are trying to add OpenID accounts to their access lists and can't, because the OpenID accounts have not yet been used on DW, and therefore can only be added through the importer. If this fact is documented anywhere, I can't find it, and it probably should be.

[zvi]

Is this still the correct method to suggest a faq/documentation?

It would be very nice if the new poll tags were listed in the faqs, I'd like to write polls in my journals, but since I always forget the tags, I'm always writing half an entry, realizing I want to include a poll, opening a second update page to start the pollbot, and then copying and pasting that code into the original entry. If I just had a faq with the poll code listed, I would not have to bother.

[rho]

Last I knew, Denise was in charge of docs stuff. Don't know if she follows comments on this entry or not, but it's probably worth your while to poke at her when you get a chance.

[denise]

I do indeed have all comments to this journal tracked!