The Great Documentation Dilemma

[Nighthawk]

Greetings, everyone.
All of us have mentioned at some point to you about the need to hire people to carry out several non-coding tasks to keep Ares progress flowing nice and calmly. Well, take a guess what I'm here to talk about again...

Please note, for those of you who are bound to read this, and send fifty-thousand PMs to my inbox saying "I want to be Ares tester!!!11", this is not a call for testers, this is for other Ares-related activities.

Specifically, we're looking for a Documentation Maintainer.

What this entails is updating our ever-inflating Ares Manual with entries for new features, tags, and options introduced into the game by Ares, and correcting old ones to reflect new information.

What is required is a time commitment (i.e., you need to be active), the ability to work to a tight schedule, the ability to use IRC, basic HTML knowledge, and a good command of the English language.

We're looking for one because the documentation as it stands is currently being updated on-the-fly by the developers. This is not a stable arrangement, as it takes time away from coding, and also results in gaps and holes where features haven't been documented. Basically, Ares will take much longer to release under these circumstances, and without such a documentation maintainer, will likely stop development at the 0.2 release.

And while you're still reading this, please note we are also looking for Project Ambassadors (to handle PR work), Promo Material Creators (description is pretty self explanatory), and User Support Agents (to respond to members with difficulties using Ares).

If you're interested, please send me a PM. Ares' continued existence beyond version 0.2 will depend on people filling these posts.

Thanks.

Nighthawk.
Ares Project Manager.

[secondwtq]

No any comment... Well, I have very silly English, so I may not be qualified for a Documentation Editor, but I will try my best helping Chinese Ares useres with their problems while using Ares.

[Zero.Zone]

Passing..

[~Guest~]

I know its not matter now, but I will say it: I am disappointed! And this is shame! Totally shame!
You all want stable Ares, you all want to have tool for awesome modding, but you do not want to talk! At least to post something.
Guy said ten days ago ,,Ares' continued existence beyond version 0.2 will depend on people filling these posts."
And nobody even wants to write something like: ,,Sorry guys, its exam time now, I will see about future, maybe I can help about this in future!"
But no, nobody is even pretend to be interested. Everyone is just searching for these forums hopping about new news update, and even more hopping about new release for Ares, just as me.
At least my English sucks, so I cant help, but for sure here are people whose English is good.
~MasterHaosis

[Steel Mirage]

If you're interested, please send me a PM.

What about that is hard to get?
He didn't say reply to or spam the thread.
He didn't say leave useless admonished replies.

[~Guest~]

He said that many times over about testers too. And be sure, he will say this again about ,,Ares-related" activities. Just wait until he opens new thread about this again. (in case that he is not serious about Ares-depending of it). I think I am using 0.1.960, and I am satisfied with it, even it is for testers only, so I don't really care about this, but I still care about Ares, in case that he is serious. But really, is he serious that this project depends of this?

[Professor_Tesla]

What, do you think he said that for fun? The reason he said that many times about testers was that we would have periods of good testing, and periods of no testing (or not much). People would sign up to test, and then hardly do any testing, so he had to make other threads requesting new testers. I believe he is serious about the lack of documentation slowing or halting Ares development.

[DCoder]

But really, is he serious that this project depends of this?

Seriously?
How did you learn what new functionality is in .960? By reading either the commit messages or the bugtracker discussions, I bet.

How do you think a hundred new users will learn about new functionality and how to use it? 5 will browse the bugtracker or the forums, 5 will get on IRC and ask us, 10 will decide that they have better things to do than hunt around for a decent manual and give up, and the remaining 80 will create 2500 new threads asking the same questions over and over.
If there's a decent manual, like for 0.1, 60 people will find it sufficient, 5 will get on IRC to clarify something, 5 will find typos in it, and the remaining 30 will create 500 new threads at PPM complaining about how the manual is too difficult to read.

[Nighthawk]

@Irritating Guest / MasterHaosis / <insert name here>:
Firstly. I have specifically said for people to PM me so as to avoid filling a topic with replies.
Secondly. I am serious. (and don't call me Shirley)
Thirdly. Unlike yourself, I am not in the habit of posting paragraphs of pointlessness. As the project manager, it's safe to assume that when I say the team needs something done, we damn well need it done.

That is all.

[~Guest~]

What, do you think he said that for fun?

Not for fun, but to scare people to sign faster. I did not think he is serious about closing whole project because of this.
Well true that, Ares will most likely stay ,,stuck in place" because of this.

How did you learn what new functionality is in .960? By reading either the commit messages or the bugtracker discussions, I bet.

What, do you think he said that for fun?

Profesor_Tesla, no, I though he said that only to scare people to sign, I did not though he is serious that Ares project will be closed because of that.

[quote='DCoder' pid='18563' dateline='1308312329']How did you learn what new functionality is in .960? By reading either the commit messages or the bugtracker discussions, I bet.

DCoder, I learn it because I read manual. I never read bug tracker or such... I am probably one moder who is not visiting forums and bug tracker. very rarely, but even when I visit, I do not read codes from there. In documentation folder there is manual, you wrote it for reason, and I am reading it. Its always opened when I am modding, in case that I forget some code.

80 will create 2500 new threads asking the same questions over and over.

I did not know about that. Most probably because I do not check out forums and bug tracker, this version is enough for me.

remaining 30 will create 500 new threads at PPM complaining about how the manual is too difficult to read.

DCoder, people are always complain on something, and they WILL complain on something. They will rather complain than trying better to read or understand.
As just random person and modder who is using Ares, I see no difficult n manual. Everything is explained as should be.

DCoder, you forgot one important thing: Prism Forwarding. With that stable functionality in next release,this will be pain in ass to implement for people. That will be subject to open new threads in PPM. Expect that. But I think that many people will ignore this feature because its more complex than standard feature.

[MasterHaosis]

Ah, those were my posts. I should register before, not posting as guest...

[DCoder]

DCoder, I learn it because I read manual.

And you don't understand why we want to continue having decent documentation?

[MasterHaosis]

And you don't understand why we want to continue having decent documentation?

I understand that. And documentation is not decent. it is good, if you ask me. Everything is placed on its place, everything is listed as it should be, simply, and readable... My English is not perfect and yet again I never had trouble no read manual.
I only did not understand if new release of Ares will not happen IN ANY WAY without man who can handle documentation (documentation manager). Now I understand: Basically no guy for this, no new Ares.

[Steel Mirage]

Thank you for restating the original post, your input so far has been invaluable. Really. Now can we just let this thread go?

[Renegade]

Had you not posted, Steel Mirage, this thread's "last modified" time would have been 5 hours earlier...part of letting a thread go is letting a thread go.

I don't think comments in this thread will be helpful anymore. Those who are interested should PM NH anyway.

Administrative Notice:

Closed.