Just a few discussion starting points…
@mgr:
I see some problems in "10 Commandments of GayTorrent.ru"
- the different parts (accounts, forum, torrents …) are mixed together.
You are correct, but I think that if the guides are fully in depth and integrated enough, the guides should make the process reletively seamless. It would really all depend on the nature of how these guides are put together. Perhaps establishing a guideline on the nature in which the guides need to be constructed would be beneficial to addressing this potential problem.
@mgr:
- If someone is able (and, more important: willing) to create a structured plan how this page (and the linked follow-up pages) have to be structured: I'm open for discussions but I need active help beside my daily work load on the site to manage such an ambitious task.
I am willing to volunteer for such a project upon completion of my current to do list. I believe I may have some ideas that could be applied to the subject at hand, bringing it from a subject to reality.
@mgr:
- as much as I like guides with pictures: those guides (for example creating a torrent) are rather problematic: I can't create such a pictured guide for Vuze because I use uTorrent myself (and installed Azureus (now Vuze) only once because I had to reformat my hard drive to remove all remnants of Azureus after un-installing the software
) - and another question has to be answered too: for which clients have we to write such guides?
I have a solution that I use, and perhaps I could upload to the tracker for just this very thing. Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 will enable you to create a "Virtual PC" within your current PC. If I (or whoever is creating such a guide, providing the availability of the hardware) were to create a virtual PC file, I could use it for the purpose of creating these tutorials, knowing that in order to remove remnant of the programs, I can simply just delete the Virtual PC file, and replace it with the image of the fresh to go version. This solution may also be useful in other applications, aside from just the creation of such tutorials. As for the question pertaining to the clients supported, statistics may be able to offer a good idea on where the best place to start may be. For example: If the statistics show that Torrent Clients X, Y, and Z seem to be the most commonly used, it would be logical to say those clients may be the best place to start. If other clients become in demand, or are requested, perhaps at that time using the magic of Virtual PC (or through other means), staff and users alike could submit the guides when there is a request placed for them as well.
@mgr:
- The number of users who have a look at our offered help files is more than discouraging! (Take as an example the pictured guide how to search for duplicate torrents before uploading only 39 out of currently 268 members with auto approval privilege really read that guide :cry2: )
While you are quite correct on the statistics of the matter, I believe there is more to that statistic than it just the statistic itself. After a brief scan of the number of users on the site with active contribution vs the number of users that visit the forum, it would appear that a portion of this could be caused by the users simply not opening the forum period. While the reasons for users not entering the forum vary from technical problems (such as PEBKAC) to users just not being interested in forums, there is another observation that I've made, which perhaps could be useful if implemented as part of the process of creating such guides. Research conducted by the Microsoft customer experience improvement program suggests that most users are more inclined to read content such as guides, help files, tutorials, etc. when they are more easily accessible. Based on this observation, it seems it would be logical and more effective implement such a system where for example the FAQ section contained reference to these guides, and the option(s) for the guides/tutorials were somehow made easily available directly from the upload page. From my personal experience, the "easy" integration so to speak has always proven to be quite effective.
