Doc Team/2008-04-04

You: Hello samedi. Welcome to Documentation Office Hours. We'll be starting in a few minutes.
samedi Lyles: hello
samedi Lyles: a friend of mine is coming here
You: Cool.
You: Welcome back, Arawn.
samedi Lyles: :)
Arawn Spitteler: I'd been here earlier, but someone was having trouble with students not showing up for a class.
You: Is everyone enjoying the new viewer, now that WindLight is standard? :-)
You: Hi Becky, welcome back!
Arawn Spitteler: This isn't the office, to complain about not being able to check what our class announcemnets actually said, when nobody showed up. Does that qualify as WEB Meta Issue?
Becky Pippen: Hi guys
Arawn Spitteler: Hello, Becky Pippin.
You: Not sure what exactly you're talking about, Arawn...
samedi Lyles: cy later guys have a good day
You: Thanks for coming, samedi.
Arawn Spitteler: Nobody had shown up for a class, and I couldn't look what Events had been posting. It sometimes screws up, but past events are invisible
Arawn Spitteler: Is this the proper pose, for this couch, or has H4 borked it?
You: Ah. I think that's intentional, but you could make a feature suggestion in the public issue tracker. SVC, VWR, or WEB, I'm not sure.
You: Looks right, you just don't have peoples' shoulders to your left and right.
Arawn Spitteler: WEB Meta Feature Request... Events Posting should be visible to poster, in case students are misrouted by Usual System.
You: Anyway, Jon's going to be late or absent today, so you guys are stuck with me :-)
Becky Pippen: :-)
You: Hi Nicki, welcome to Documentation Office Hours.
Arawn Spitteler: What we remember clicking isn't always what the system remembers us clicking, though it seems to've been better lately
You: Feel free to have a seat!
Nicki Reisler: hello
You: I don't have an agenda planned for today, so feel free to jump in with any concerns or comments you have regarding the Knowledge Base :-)
You: (or anything remotely related to the Knowledge Base!)
Arawn Spitteler: We had Sidewinder at CG Hour, this morning, and a thought occured to me. Jira's part of the Documentation of SL. Ultimately, SL is all documentation.
Becky Pippen: Have you been working on any new ideas you want to share?
You: Hmm...
Arawn Spitteler: The Clients all have to be instructed what to show.
You: Well, coming up next quarter, I'll be working on a Second Life quick start guide... something in the range of 10 pages, to get people familiar with Second Life's controls and environment.
Becky Pippen: awesome! That will be popular.
Arawn Spitteler: Oh, I heard something about that supplanting OI
You: I hadn't heard that! :-)
You: But I think the guide will be a worthwhile project... something to get people on their feet quickly enough to keep them from losing interest.
Becky Pippen: oh -- I've heard people say you still can't easily link to KB articles, they get a "session expired" error or something... what's up with that?
You: Oh... heh. You can't use the link directly from your browser's address bar. You need to use a specific link format:
You: http://support.secondlife.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4417&task=knowledge&questionID=[last4digitsofarticleID]
You: I've started using a macro program called AutoHotkey to quickly paste that link format :-0
Arawn Spitteler: Because it's all in Frames?
You: I'll keep my personal opinion on that topic to myself... Parature, the company that provides our Knowledge Base software and hosting, is working on it.
Becky Pippen: that's still not intuitive enough for some people. One of my business partners said she tried to link to a KB article after the login requirement was lifted, then when the link didn't work as expected, she said she was fed up with non-intuitive behavior and that was the last time she would ever waste time on the KB. There might be others who are like that too.
You: Hi Ricken, welcome back!
Ricken Flow: hello all
Becky Pippen: Hi Ricken
Nicki Reisler: I like aol's keyword system. you should do something like that
You: Becky, I couldn't agree more. Unfortunately, Parature doesn't have an unlimited number of engineers, and they're currently working on issues with Live Chat. They'll get to the Frames and address issues eventually, and I've done my best to try to push that process along.
Becky Pippen: thanks :-)
You: Maybe your testimony will help me add even more weight to that argument :-)
Becky Pippen: :-)
You: In other news, my other big project next quarter will be to set up and oversee a new portal on the public wiki: The Resident Advice Portal.
Becky Pippen: sounds interesting....
You: It will be a place where Residents (and Lindens) can submit articles that are a little too subjective for the Knowledge Base, but contain useful information.
You: For instance, what's the best way to find land for sale?
You: How do I start a business?
You: How do I break into the live music scene?
You: etc. etc. :-)
Ricken Flow: hmmm I am gonna have to write some pages for that.
Arawn Spitteler: Live Music Scene, that would require a web-host for the stream?
Becky Pippen: Will there be overlap with the KB?
You: Overlap with the KB will be tricky for legal reasons, though the idea is that the advice articles should be a separate breed.
You: Jon will be overseeing a separate portal for the collaborative development of new KB articles... it has the same legal issues, but we're working with out legal department to see what we can do.
You: er, with OUR legal department
Becky Pippen: :-)
You: critical typo
Ricken Flow: whooo dish the legal stuff
Arawn Spitteler: Is there a diff?
Ricken Flow: lol
Jeremy Linden thinks our legal folks are great.
Arawn Spitteler wonders how to script Object Oriented Legal Advice...
Ricken Flow: Jeremy told me I could use the Second Life Logo on this article since we are writing it together
WidgetHUD v1.1: Ricken Flow has pinged you.
You: Uhh?
Ricken Flow: lol
You: Actually, I wasn't referring to the trademark issues as much as recent court rulings regarding ownership of collaborative online content.
Ricken Flow: I need to look that ruling up since I work on a lot Wiki's
Arawn Spitteler: Hi, Eire.
You: Indeed. I'm not deeply familiar with the issue, so I won't go into it any more than I have...
Jeremy Linden tries to think of what else is going on in Documentation World.
You: Oh!
You: We've enlisted all of Support to help with a technical review of the KB.
You: You may recall I've been working on a technical review myself... It turned out to be a much bigger job than I'd anticipated.
You: We actually have just over 500 articles in the KB. That's a lot of checking :-)
Becky Pippen: wow that'll take all day
You: More than all day, if you're reading every word, correcting poor grammar, updating screenshots, and manually checking each instruction.
Becky Pippen: :-)
Ricken Flow: whew i am tired of just thinking about it
You: Heheh. It's what I do naturally, though, so I'm ok with it :-)
Arawn Spitteler: One minute to read each, would take all day, one minute to rewrite each would take another day. One minute to use the feature described should take a third day... Waiting on Lag, Agelesss.
You: I'll also soon be updating all the screenshots in the KB with Dazzle replacements.
You: (Dazzle is currently in First Look. It's the new look-and-feel of the viewer.)
Ricken Flow: I am surprised we dont have more people here talking about that
Arawn Spitteler: The Blue is lighter. I don't know what's meant by Skinnable
Arawn Spitteler: We should mention, Dazzle hasn't got Windlaugh
You: Well, there's not much to document... pretty much none of the controls will change, so I'm off the hook there :-)
You: Arawn, "skinnable" would mean you could create your own look-and-feel for all the controls, buttons, and colors.
You: I'm not sure that's what Dazzle is, just yet, though.
Ricken Flow: I logged on using Dazzle and I couldnt find nothing
Ricken Flow: lol
You: Heh. Ricken, it should all be in the same place it always was... though personally I miss the white text on dark backgrounds in SL windows.
Arawn Spitteler: Dazzle is supposed to be Skinnable, so it's not really First-Look until Skinnable can be seen
You: I dont' really understand what you just said, Arawn... if you download the First Look viewer now, it will be a Dazzle viewer.
Ricken Flow: yes windlight is gone
Arawn Spitteler is soaking in it: I just don't see what Skinnable is.
You: WindLight was the Release Candidate for a few weeks... now it's the main viewer :-)
Ricken Flow: as a first look viewer
Arawn Spitteler: Windlaugh is out of RC, so Dazzle First Look is now the prefered viewer
You: Arawn, "skinnable" would be the ability for -you- to change all the buttons in the viewer to be red and square, for instance.
Arawn Spitteler: Could I stack them in pretty pyramids?
You: Visual themes, would maybe be another term.
You: I'm no expert... you'd probably have to attend Dazzle office hours to find out more directly :-)
Arawn Spitteler: I should look in the KB, so I have something to talk about, there
You: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Dazzle
Arawn Spitteler: It's not in KB,m yet?
You: There's a "What is Dazzle?" article, but otherwise there's nothing to really talk about.
You: Do you disagree? I imagine maybe there could be some sort of transitional document, but Dazzle doesn't change the way you use Second Life.
Ricken Flow: no it just changes the look of buttons basically
You: Exactly :-)
You: Nicki, any input? You've been quiet :-)
Nicki Reisler: I don't have any thoughts on it at the moment
You: Well, we're not limited to Dazzle, of course... Arawn, did you have any more questions on it?
You: Hi Petege, welcome to Documentation Office Hours.
You: Feel free to have a seat anywhere!
Nicki Reisler: It's good that the articles are being checked for accuracy and clarity
Arawn Spitteler: The wiki has a link to the UI Roadmap
You: I thought so, too, Nicki... Some important ones just aren't worded very clearly.
Arawn Spitteler: I heard somewhere, about KB being too technical. I think it was at this morning's CG Hour, where complaints were made of Jiras not being technical enough
You: Which one is CG hour? Or is that CG Linden's office hour? :-)
Arawn Spitteler: Yeah, 8AM, Tue&Fri
Arawn Spitteler: I think the problem with Jira, is that they're largely support issues, not handled by Support.
You: Ah. Hm. Did anyone mention which articles in particular might be too technical?
Jeremy Linden wishes he could just telepathically transmit all hsi knowledge of SL to people so they could learn it with no effort.
Becky Pippen: :-)
Arawn Spitteler: I dont recall. We might check if CG posts his transcripts.
Ricken Flow: LOL Jeremy
WidgetHUD v1.1: Ricken Flow has pinged you.
Ricken Flow: Then they would say there brains are too big and do not know how to access the data
Ricken Flow: lol
You: I think that might be a long-term project. We don't have the proper hardware for that sort of thing.
Arawn Spitteler: The problem with TelePsyche is User Interface. We play at Reality from different perspectives, so while we might call the same color blue, it might not really look the same
Arawn Spitteler is working on the Telepathic Interface
You: Let me know when it comes out of beta!
Becky Pippen: gives a whole new meaning to alpha test
You: Heh.
Arawn Spitteler: It's been out of Beta since before Dinosaur Park was retooled for this prison, but the Learning Curve is a bit steep
Ricken Flow: Can you hear my brain waves now good
Arawn Spitteler checks his cell: Can you hear me Know?
Ricken Flow: I see random pictures of dazzle buttons is that coming from you Jeremy
WidgetHUD v1.1: Ricken Flow has pinged you.
You: Hello Jon, welcome to Documentation Office Hours.
Ricken Flow: lol
You: Feel free to have a seat.
Jon Linden: hahaha, very funny
Jon Linden: ^______^
You: Why the long face?
Becky Pippen: Hi Jon
Ricken Flow: ouch
Ricken Flow: lol
You: Ricken, you see random Dazzle buttons?
You: I'm not sending anything...
Jon Linden: (hello everybody)
Ricken Flow: hello Jeremy
WidgetHUD v1.1: Ricken Flow has pinged you.
Jeremy Linden redirects to Jon.
Ricken Flow: bye everyone have to go and check real mail
Arawn Spitteler wonders if someone's using Voice.
You: Thanks for coming!
Jon Linden: have a good one, Ricken!
Jon Linden: i don't see any random pictures coming from anybody, for what it's worth
You: Jon, to bring you up to speed:
Arawn Spitteler: Are you using Windlaugh, Ricken? I think that one's been kicked back to Alph
Jon Linden waits for Jeremy's update
You: We've flown over the upcoming technical review, the new wiki portals, the upcoming quickstart guide, Dazzle, and telepathy.
Jon Linden: that sounds like an exciting office hour indeed!
You: Yep!
You: We should hire ourselves some developers to work on telepathy as a delivery medium for the KB.
Jon Linden: i imagine it would have a great many uses
Arawn Spitteler: It would more save on those connection bottlenecks
Jon Linden: do we have any questions we haven't gone over?
You: Actually, we'd just hit a lull when you arrived.
You: following a lol.
Jon Linden: heh
Jon Linden: i don't know if i have anything to ask that i haven't already
Jon Linden: and that seems like a good list of topics to have already gone over
Jon Linden: that's it! this is the last office hour ever
You: !
Jon Linden: JK
You: Wanna chat about the Resident Knowledge Summit?
Jon Linden: oooh yes, actually
Jon Linden: so about a month ago, Kate Linden had an excellent notion
Jon Linden: which is that the groups responsible for presenting information to Residents should get together and talk to each other
Jon Linden: to see if there are areas in which our various projects overlap or don't
Jon Linden: trying to avoid duplication of effort, but also seeing if there were places we could help each other be more awesome
Jon Linden: this proposed summit meeting has become large
Jon Linden: there are a lot of different groups being represented, which i'm excited for
Arawn Spitteler: NCI, Shelter, Mentors, SLexicographers, Torley...
You: Heh. That's just the inworld side, Arawn, though that's a great idea too.
Jon Linden: i'm looking for my invite list
You: From our side we're talking more about Documentation, some wiki folks, some Support folks, frequent bloggers, Torley, Pathfinder, some people working on the Showcase....
Jon Linden: what jeremy said
WidgetHUD v1.1: Jon Linden has pinged you.
Jeremy Linden notes that Torley is on both sides.
You: Heh. Torley's definitely a Linden who communicates with Residents a lot :-)
Jon Linden: hopefully the ways in which we present information to Residents will be far better coordinated once this meeting starts
Time Minder: You have been online for 1 hours.
Jon Linden: it's going to be a monthly sort of thing
Arawn Spitteler: One problem is, Documentation is Communication, and SL is all IRC
You: Very true. For instance, Kate is working with the IWorld team to create an educational place called IWorld Island... she could easily work with Torley or Pastrami to incorporate some educational video tutorials.
Arawn Spitteler: You'd even have to invite the Witch of the Texture Tutorials
Jon Linden: there's a witch in our texture tutorials?
Jeremy Linden doesn't know any witches, but he does know Which Linden.
Arawn Spitteler: She's Grandmother in the Craft of a friend of mine
Jon Linden: the meeting i'm describing is internal, Arawn
Arawn Spitteler: those maintaining Tutorials should be included as Groups helping orient users
You: Though if the Resident organizations you mentioned wanted to get together and collaborate, I bet it would create fantastic results.
Jon Linden: torley's already coming to the meeting
Jon Linden: jeremy's got a good point, though
Jeremy Linden fondly remembers NCI show & tell when he was a newbie.
Becky Pippen: oh wow
Arawn Spitteler: Essentially, SL users groups should be compared to SL, which is somewhat of an Internet Users Group
You: That was a long time ago, though... three years, almost.
Jon Linden: i do enjoy having you on the team if nothing else than as a source of SL history, Jeremy
WidgetHUD v1.1: Jon Linden has pinged you.
You: Heh!
Jon Linden: though you are of course way more valuable than just that!
Arawn Spitteler: Oh, I've managed to upload pictures, to a Jira
Arawn Spitteler: http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-1981
Jeremy Linden is somewhat unsettled when he realizes that he's practically an oldbie now.
Jon Linden: that just means you are a vast well of collected experience
Jon Linden: okay, if we want to, we can totally call this early and start the weekend right now!
Jeremy Linden likes weekends.
Becky Pippen: yay weekend!
Arawn Spitteler sees Linden Labs as morphing into an SL Guild
Jon Linden: i think it's time, people
Nicki Reisler: http://www.sluniverse.com/pics/pic.aspx?id=267286
You: Heh. Then maybe we'll conduct raids.
Jon Linden: nice shot, Nicki
Nicki Reisler: I like what I've done with the water. I'll save this as a preset.
Arawn Spitteler: I show up in one more place!
Jon Linden: i think we're good for this week, folks
Arawn Spitteler: I just had an awful thought. Has someone started a Linden Labs RPG, yuet?
Jon Linden: i call that beyond the scope of my knowledge, arawn
You: Like... I'm a Level 2 tech writer?
You: With special ability "grammar nazi"
Arawn Spitteler: Essentially, you're responsible for part of the book on how to read
Jon Linden: i declare this office hour a success
You: Heh.
Becky Pippen: thanks guys! Have a wonderful weekend!
You: Likewise, Becky.
Jon Linden: you too!
Jon Linden: we'll be back next week (for the whole hour this time on my part)
You: Thanks for coming, folks. Nicki, I hope this was what you were expecting... these other guys come back every week no matter how boring we get :-P
Arawn Spitteler: CG ran overtime, with Sidewinder
You: Sidewinder deserves lots of love for getting Havok 4 out to the whole gird.
You: er, grid.
Jon Linden: heheh
Nicki Reisler: yeah this was very insightful
Jon Linden: outstanding!
Jon Linden: be well, everyone
You: I'm off, too... 6:00 EST and it's time for some dinner-- er, grocery shopping and THEN dinner!
Arawn Spitteler is getting an RSI from SL: It's been a pretty good day. Ben was looking for tourist attractions to keep people, but it's the dialogs that people take part in, with other people.
You: True enough, Arawn. I would put money on the concept that people stay in SL because of the friends they meet.
You: Anyhow, later all. See you next week!