Add help page

Sounds reasonable. I just have to disagree in one point: I think that we should also help signing up. The help pages are visible to everyone (not only signed up users) so we could add a link to the sign-up page.

Oh men, I agree with you both... @steffenvanbergerem your 3 points are perfect. @goob the sign up tutorial is cleary better placed on diasporafoundation than on a pod...

So yeah, I think we should have a help page on diaspora itself, but only about the most asked questions. A FAQ is perfect. Besides, tutorials explain "how-to", not always "why". The explanation of the 3 "bugs" I pointed in my article explaining the federation surely should be present in diaspora* itself. But only with a very short sentence. After that, we're free to add a link to tutorials, blogs, everywhere there are explanations.

Would https://wiki.diasporafoundation.org/FAQ_for_users be a good starting point for this?

I used FAQ for Users so it would be nice if some of you could help reading it again, correct errors and add missing things. If there is anything which should be on the help page but not in the FAQ or vice versa I'd be open for suggestions.

I left out "Is there a directory that lists public pods (servers) that I can join? " and "How can I join Diaspora?". I also changed the answer to "Where else can I get support?" because I wanted to link to the upcoming official tutorials instead of diasporial.

If anyone wants to check out the code: you can do that on github

@goob Are your tutorials going to be online on diasporafoundation.org for the next release? Do you already know some URL where I will find those? I added some links on the help pages and linked to the tutorial main page and to the formatting tutorial (and will have to change those links)

@steffenvanbergerem I've finished my work on the tutorials pages, and am trying to commit them right now. Having a bit of trouble. But they should be on Github by the end of today, all being well.

On the diasporafoundationdomain, the main tutorials menu will be at /tutorials and the formatting one at /formatting (original, eh?).

Now on Github - PR here.

Hi guys, about the tips @goob talked, I think the content of the right side bar should be moved to a tips page inside diaspora* (follow #newHere, need help, bookmarklet...) everything is not needed on the main page.

We merged translations in develop today and I started reviewing the french one. I think many sentences in english are not clear, so translators often made mistakes. A FAQ is for newbies, we have to improve it, make it as concise and simple as we can.

There is also a place for other improvements than formulation. For example, pod is the fifth element in the left menu, but we talk about it a lot in the previous element. A newbie is going to think "what's the hell is a pod?". We should think about the order of the concepts.

Last idea, only about design: the other questions should retract when you click a new one.

@goob and @steffenvanbergerem if you have some time to accord to this topic ;)

Why not create a diaspora Wikibook?

Why create one? What does it do that our wiki can't do?

@jonnehass The only things I can think of, are:
- It requires that you leave the domain of your chosen pod
- It doesn't allow for per pod customizations such as listing rules and TOS.

Other than that, the wiki is just fine :D

@starblessed that was in reply to @karthikeyanak, not to the general topic.

Oh, my bad @jonnehass . I thought it was a question. LOL!

@flaburgan Sorry for my late response, I had some exams.

Last idea, only about design: the other questions should retract when you click a new one.

I disagree. I think the user should be able to open/close answers according to his/her own needs.

We should think about the order of the concepts.

This wasn't intended to be a tutorial so I don't think that the order is that important. Nevertheless I wouldn't mind concrete suggestions.

Nevertheless I wouldn't mind concrete suggestions.

So, put the pod related questions first in the list ;)

I'm not sure that this is such an issue, Fla. After all, in order to see these help pages someone is going to have to have already found and signed up to a pod. Especially now that the Google 'diaspora' -> click joindiaspora.com -> no thinking -> sign up route has been closed off, it would be very unlikely that someone would get to these help pages without knowing even what a pod is.

At the moment, the sections are, I notice, in alphabetical order - in English at least). This makes sense from the point of view of finding a section easily, but doesn't allow for hierarchical ordering.

Steffen, given that help sections in translation won't appear in alphabetical order unless they automatically reorder themselves in alphabetical order, what would you say is the best solution? Perhaps it should be reverted to a logical order of things you need to find out about first at the top.

If someone is such a newbie that they don't even know what a pod is, I really think we would be better off directing them to the step-by-step 'Getting started' tutorial series at https://diasporafoundation.org/getting_started/sign_up - there could be an item 'Getting started' at the top of the list of sections in the help pages.

@goob anyway, it's still more logic to put the global concepts first and then go to the more precise topics, so, pod definition first :D

+1 for the button but IMHO Help button should link to the (localized?) wiki. I don’t think that every pod should have their own help.