Current version by: Eric Doster
Text:
| == Four Responses: == | |
| === What would you like to see on a brand new Community page? === | |
| * Activities to promote on Community page (in order of importance). (''Even this might be too much for one page''): | |
| ## '''Guides in progress:''' For me, this is the whole point of the page. | |
| ## Guides needed | |
| ## Questions with no answers | |
| ## Unresolved questions | |
| === What would be most useful to you? === | |
| * For "guides in progress", I'd like a roadmap for how to make a guide awesome! Every guide should have a few key elements. Right now, if it's missing something we mark it with a flag that denotes what exactly is lacking (improper grammar, missing photos, etc...). I'd like to see something closer to [http://area51.stackexchange.com/|what Stack Exchange has done to stage it's community sites]. Each site has a goal, something that'll signify it has reached a certain level of adequacy. To get there, they point out all the areas where a fledgeling community site is deficient in order to encourage the site's core supporters to step up. A repair guide is analogous (in some ways) to that kind of community site. The iFixit community needs a '''''fun way ''''' to be encouraged to fix up a manual in need. | |
| * Here are some things Stack Exchange does well: | |
| ** [http://d.pr/i/dQ2s|A Percentage gives a clear sense of progress.] | |
| ** [http://d.pr/i/rejY|There is a defined roadmap to awesomeness.] | |
| ** You know [http://d.pr/i/63e3|who got the ball rolling] and [http://d.pr/i/BXiK|who the core community is] around the idea. | |
| === How can we best get new folks up to speed and earning reputation? === | |
| * '''Getting started''': I think there are three things needed to start contributing on iFixit. Here they are alongside some ways we could help people get started quicker: | |
| ## A knowledge of the software | |
| *** If your mother doesn't know what a summary is on a guide, how can she hope to add one? Each deficiency of a guide (i.e.: "no summary") should link directly to how to fix it. In the "no summary" example, clicking on a guide under the "no summary" section should link directly to the edit view where the potential contributor is asked to start typing a summary and is presented with a pop up tutorial about what a summary is. The [http://www.ifixit.com/help|help documentation] is amazing but we shouldn't expect new users to wade through it to understand the purpose for and how to edit simple things like summaries. | |
| ## An understanding of how to help | |
| *** More pointing fresh users to resources like the [http://www.dozuki.com/Tech_writing|Tech Writing Handbook], [http://www.dozuki.com/c/Photography|Photography guides] and other [http://www.ifixit.com/Device/Skills|skills-related guides] could be really helpful for getting people off their rock and into action. | |
| ## Recognition for their effort | |
| *** After every contribution, users should feel a sense of accomplishment. IFixit should celebrate user actions better through '''more''' event-triggered emails, site notifications and [http://d.pr/i/xHEp|user activity updates]. | |
| * '''Earning reputation''': What I'd like to see would require a more, over-arching change to the site. First, allow users to define areas of interest (I'm a fan of home improvement, carpentry, and furniture repair). Once that's in place, give them daily or weekly suggestions for questions, answers, guides and stories that fall into those interest categories. A major thing the site seems to be lacking is sticky transactional emails. A site that has great community engagement (Snapguide.com, for example) usually seems to excel at these. If I have to dive through a site to find areas where I can lend a hand, I'll be far less inclined to do it consistently; hence, feeding me a list of the most choice content ('''''geared to me''''') would be far-more encouraging. | |
| === Where should we be pointing people who want to pitch in? === | |
| * Getting started: Similar to my thought in the "earning reputation" part of question 3–- the site would be more encouraging if it better directed me to the areas of the site where I had existing interest or expertise. If I state that I have interest in "carpentry" or "soldering"––or alternatively-- if I have completed guides or answered questions in those areas, then I could: | |
| ** Have a dashboard of content relevant to my interests/experience | |
| ** Receive a daily/weekly email of items in those areas | |
| ** Be ranked as against other tinkerers in certain interests / areas of expertise (nothing motivates like a little competition) | |
| * Also, allowing users to post a [http://www.gdgt.com|GDGT]-like portfolio of the gadgets they own will present opportunities to encourage users to: | |
| - | ## Work together to document |
| + | ## Work together to document the gadgets they own |
| ## Ask other device owners when troubleshooting problems | |
| ## Check out the repair manuals for devices they own | |
| ## Share repair stories for their devices |
Status:
open
Original post by: Eric Doster
Text:
== Four Responses: ==
=== What would you like to see on a brand new Community page? ===
* Activities to promote on Community page (in order of importance). (''Even this might be too much for one page''):
## '''Guides in progress:''' For me, this is the whole point of the page.
## Guides needed
## Questions with no answers
## Unresolved questions
=== What would be most useful to you? ===
* For "guides in progress", I'd like a roadmap for how to make a guide awesome! Every guide should have a few key elements. Right now, if it's missing something we mark it with a flag that denotes what exactly is lacking (improper grammar, missing photos, etc...). I'd like to see something closer to [http://area51.stackexchange.com/|what Stack Exchange has done to stage it's community sites]. Each site has a goal, something that'll signify it has reached a certain level of adequacy. To get there, they point out all the areas where a fledgeling community site is deficient in order to encourage the site's core supporters to step up. A repair guide is analogous (in some ways) to that kind of community site. The iFixit community needs a '''''fun way ''''' to be encouraged to fix up a manual in need.
* Here are some things Stack Exchange does well:
** [http://d.pr/i/dQ2s|A Percentage gives a clear sense of progress.]
** [http://d.pr/i/rejY|There is a defined roadmap to awesomeness.]
** You know [http://d.pr/i/63e3|who got the ball rolling] and [http://d.pr/i/BXiK|who the core community is] around the idea.
=== How can we best get new folks up to speed and earning reputation? ===
* '''Getting started''': I think there are three things needed to start contributing on iFixit. Here they are alongside some ways we could help people get started quicker:
## A knowledge of the software
*** If your mother doesn't know what a summary is on a guide, how can she hope to add one? Each deficiency of a guide (i.e.: "no summary") should link directly to how to fix it. In the "no summary" example, clicking on a guide under the "no summary" section should link directly to the edit view where the potential contributor is asked to start typing a summary and is presented with a pop up tutorial about what a summary is. The [http://www.ifixit.com/help|help documentation] is amazing but we shouldn't expect new users to wade through it to understand the purpose for and how to edit simple things like summaries.
## An understanding of how to help
*** More pointing fresh users to resources like the [http://www.dozuki.com/Tech_writing|Tech Writing Handbook], [http://www.dozuki.com/c/Photography|Photography guides] and other [http://www.ifixit.com/Device/Skills|skills-related guides] could be really helpful for getting people off their rock and into action.
## Recognition for their effort
*** After every contribution, users should feel a sense of accomplishment. IFixit should celebrate user actions better through '''more''' event-triggered emails, site notifications and [http://d.pr/i/xHEp|user activity updates].
* '''Earning reputation''': What I'd like to see would require a more, over-arching change to the site. First, allow users to define areas of interest (I'm a fan of home improvement, carpentry, and furniture repair). Once that's in place, give them daily or weekly suggestions for questions, answers, guides and stories that fall into those interest categories. A major thing the site seems to be lacking is sticky transactional emails. A site that has great community engagement (Snapguide.com, for example) usually seems to excel at these. If I have to dive through a site to find areas where I can lend a hand, I'll be far less inclined to do it consistently; hence, feeding me a list of the most choice content ('''''geared to me''''') would be far-more encouraging.
=== Where should we be pointing people who want to pitch in? ===
* Getting started: Similar to my thought in the "earning reputation" part of question 3–- the site would be more encouraging if it better directed me to the areas of the site where I had existing interest or expertise. If I state that I have interest in "carpentry" or "soldering"––or alternatively-- if I have completed guides or answered questions in those areas, then I could:
** Have a dashboard of content relevant to my interests/experience
** Receive a daily/weekly email of items in those areas
** Be ranked as against other tinkerers in certain interests / areas of expertise (nothing motivates like a little competition)
* Also, allowing users to post a [http://www.gdgt.com|GDGT]-like portfolio of the gadgets they own will present opportunities to encourage users to:
## Work together to document certain gadgets
## Ask other device owners when troubleshooting problems
## Check out the repair manuals for devices they own
## Share repair stories for their devices
Status:
open