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Anne
MagicJack User
Joined: 08 Jan 2009
Posts: 42
Location: Arkansas
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 Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2009 9:20 am Post subject: Is there a novice thread? |
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Is there a novice thread where newbies could ask questions without fear of being told to research through lot of messages they don't understand?
Just asking.
Anne |
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Gregg
MagicJack User
Joined: 15 Nov 2007
Posts: 32
Location: New Mexico
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| Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2009 11:47 am Post subject: Re: Is there a novice thread? |
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| Anne wrote: | Is there a novice thread where newbies could ask questions without fear of being told to research through lot of messages they don't understand?
Just asking.
Anne |
This question is already answered in the forum. Try searching.
Gregg
P.S. Just joking. Go ahead and ask your question. I'll try to answer it.  |
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M_C
MagicJack Newbie
Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 5
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| Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2009 11:48 am Post subject: Re: Is there a novice thread? |
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| Anne wrote: | Is there a novice thread where newbies could ask questions without fear of being told to research through lot of messages they don't understand?
Just asking.
Anne |
No doubt, "use the search function" ranks right up there with "RTFM" in the rudeness factor, people shouldn't have to worry about that in any forum.
(joking doesn't count of course  ) |
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az2008
MagicJack Sensei
Joined: 20 Aug 2008
Posts: 1404
Location: Tempe, AZ
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| Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2009 1:07 pm Post subject: Re: Is there a novice thread? |
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| M_C wrote: | | No doubt, "use the search function" ranks right up there with "RTFM" in the rudeness factor, people shouldn't have to worry about that in any forum. |
That's why I'm a big advocate of using a wiki to augment a forum. There is lots of repeated information on a forum. People shouldn't have to worry about searching for that information. Or, having to repeat it umpteen times.
Wikis aren't good for carrying on conversations. But, forums aren't good for maintaining commonly-requested information.
Mark |
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Anne
MagicJack User
Joined: 08 Jan 2009
Posts: 42
Location: Arkansas
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| Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2009 1:28 pm Post subject: |
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One of the major unknowns for me is the most important - vocabulary.
What, for example, is wiki where there is easy-to-understand magic jack information?
Anne |
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az2008
MagicJack Sensei
Joined: 20 Aug 2008
Posts: 1404
Location: Tempe, AZ
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| Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2009 2:12 pm Post subject: |
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| Anne wrote: | One of the major unknowns for me is the most important - vocabulary.
What, for example, is wiki where there is easy-to-understand magic jack information? |
I wasn't trying to say your question should be answered by a wiki. Just that a lot of questions can be answered more easily by a wiki than historic discussions.
Another poster said you shouldn't have to worry about being told to "RTFM" (read the freaking manual, i.e., search historic discussions). My point was that that's a natural consequence of relying upon a forum for the dual purpose of facilitating discussions and capturing the knowledge that comes from those discussions.
My point was that if forums utilize wikis to capture and maintain useful information, there would be less fear of constantly being told to "RTFM" when the majority of information is right there, easy to find, and therefore discussion questions would be more likely to be less repetitive.
The other nice thing about a wiki (opposed to the stream of consciousness that discussions turn into) is that anyone can contribute. For example, you're complaint seems to be that information locked up in forum discussions (or, centralized on the wikibooks wiki) uses terms you don't understand. With the wiki, you could help with that shortcoming. You could create a glossary page. Document terms that aren't clear to less experienced individuals. And, link all occurrences of the term to the glossary.
You can't do that with a forum. You could start a discussion topic named "Anne's glossary." You (but nobody else) could edit it. It would roll off into oblivion like all other discussions. It could be made a "sticky." But, that just forces the importance of the topic onto everyone's display (when it may not be important to many). After a few months of other novices chiming in with "I think 'Inbound bandwidth' should be defined" (and you stopped updating the first post), it's just another stream of consciousness that new visitors are supposed to spend 2 hours memorizing. And always see it glued to the top of all discussions.
Discussions are not knowledge bases. Those are two entirely different domains, served by different tools. They contribute to each other. In the absence of one, it's guaranteed that the other will be bogged down serving a dual purpose. (Can you imagine using a wiki as a discussion forum? The "talk" page being used for multiple topics, with no pagination or grouping of topics?).
I hope that makes sense. I wasn't trying to answer your question or say a wiki could answer it. Just that, if forums make use of wikis to contain information which commonly occurs in a forum, there would be less repetitiveness. Less cause for someone to get exasperated and tell people "use the search function." If a wiki doesn't use the right vocabulary, that's something that's easily improved.
Mark |
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Anne
MagicJack User
Joined: 08 Jan 2009
Posts: 42
Location: Arkansas
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| Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2009 6:41 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks to everyone who responded; and Mark, thanks for the link to the MJ wiki.
Anne |
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