User talk:Jaszon Maynard

Got a question for me?

Fire away. The wiki is supposed to notify me when someone changes my discussion page. Or just email me via the wiki.

My proposed help portal (especially for newbies)

Please see my page
https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/User:Jaszon_Maynard/Proposed_Second_Life_Help_Portal
and my posts at
https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Talk:Main_Page#What_is_this_wiki_for_.3F and
https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Talk:Volunteer_Portal#Volunteer_portal_not_good_for_newbies

There are a substantial number of Help articles already[1], so it's just a matter of making the appropriate article in Help:Portal

SignpostMarv Martin 05:17, 26 February 2008 (PST)

Well it's then a matter of improving the quality of sufficient content, and finding others to create and update content.

A portal is just an article with content arranged in a certain way. Nothing special behind the scenes, just a bunch of normal wiki code.

SignpostMarv Martin 13:07, 26 February 2008 (PST)

I was just looking at it. Looks to me like something it might be called the Guide Portal or something, which could be seperate than the Help Portal... in which case a Help portal page could also be written. --JetZep Zabelin 20:14, 29 February 2008 (PST)

• --I was talking to Jon, Jeremy, & Rob Linden today. Sounds like the plan is, I can work up stuff, they're going to create an Advice portal in a month or 2 that will be for user-to-user advice & help, and all my stuff can be integrated into there.

--The consensus so far also was that separate namespaces are not desirable. More discussion about that here: https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Project:Editing_Discussion#Creating_a_Help_portal

--So you were thinking Guide vs Help...I understand you say my stuff is "guide" oriented...what would you envision belongs in a Help portal? SL Help? On what topics? Or wiki help?

--Hey, on the Google calendar thing, do you have a wiki watch on all the Linden pages so you see when they change their hours and then know to update Google? Can the calendar be shared-out so several people can update it?

--Jaszon Maynard 21:12, 29 February 2008 (PST)

I think the "Help Portal" page should reflect acticles already written under the Help namespace. Your proposal is more than just a help portal which is why I suggested maybe a Guide portal. But these aren't my expertise, just my 2cents. Maybe the new user guide can be part of the Help portal. --JetZep Zabelin 12:44, 4 March 2008 (PST)

• --The direction things are headed in, unless someone speaks up pushing for something different is...the Help namespace ends up only containing help about the wiki in general, not about SL in particular (just like Help at wikipedia is about editing wikipedia in general), and everything about SL goes in 1, main namespace. And there'll be a new portal probably called "Advice" that is for all kinds of stuff...the articles you currently see in this wiki's Help namespace, guides & overviews like you see me proposing, etc.

--Jaszon Maynard 17:47, 4 March 2008 (PST)

1. The only argument I can think of against using the Help namespace for Help topics related to SL and not the Wiki (which is what we're doing already) is that the Help namespace isn't searchable by default. This is a very, very, very weak argument as the default search preferences can be modified.
2. The other is that "ZOMG IT IS FOR TEH WIKI ITSELF", I respond "does the MediaWiki software itself give a crap what the content is? Of course not. So why bother making the distinction ? The range of topics for the wiki itself that require help articles is miniscule compared to the range of topics for Second Life that help articles."

The first argument is a weak technical one. The second argument is a weak bureaucrat one.

SignpostMarv Martin 17:58, 5 March 2008 (PST)

• --The thinking so far has been...1 namespace is better because then article topics do collide & people see that & improve the organization of things. And when a general SL user comes to the wiki and types, for instance, wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Notecard, the wiki should be predisposed towards offering up a general help article on the topic, and not require the general user to come here and have to type Help:Notecard.

--So, in that vein, the help articles come out of Help, and Help: is only for wiki help, not SL help.

--Jaszon Maynard 15:01, 6 March 2008 (PST)

I've always said that be best option would be to get the date issues surrounding Template:hCalendar event fixed so we don't even have to bother with an external google calendar.

SignpostMarv Martin 07:32, 1 March 2008 (PST)

Yes I have each the Lindens office hour user pages on watch and I scan the Office Hours page for new Linden listings and then add them to my watch list. Google Calendars do allow sharing, but mine is only temporary until we get the hCalendar template working. . --JetZep Zabelin 12:44, 4 March 2008 (PST)

New Help Portal projet

Hello Jaszon, I'm currently working (with Zai Lynch) on the following help portal feel free to join us :)
Gally Young 15:11, 5 August 2008 (PDT)