Better Help

We consider documentation one might expect from a project that intends to touch so many people.

Needs

Many people want a short answer to "what is federated wiki?" All of our answers ramble and leave readers confused. In the past we've pointed them to videos.

New users need step-by-step advice for joining communities and behaving within them.

New community managers need step-by-step advice for launching a farm and then recruiting participants.

New developers need to understand where, how and why they might contribute.

All users need situational advice for operating the tools, authoring in the environment, and, cooperating with others.

Ideas

How-to pages should explain one thing clearly. How that thing relates to similar things should be clear in the first paragraph, as returned by search.

How-to pages should include a 10 to 20 second silent video that shows the context and then the operation performed. Following text should narrate the video such that it is informative while watching or as an alternative to watching the video.

How-to pages provide a tutorial introduction to important and universal Workflows

See Learn Wiki by Doing Wiki for possible page topics.

A series of goal-oriented tutorials should address the skill level and ultimate purpose of readers. Five to ten paragraphs should purposely outline the progression to the goal. Each of these should be followed by single line citations of the How-to pages required of the purpose.

See Launch a Site for a Purpose where I write in this style.

See First Write Who & What written as reflection.