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Re: [wiki] Textbook Terms and Terminology
@Jsoo: I don’t have The Elements of Style (yet). Here’s another one I highly recommend to anyone writing anything for the web: Letting Go of the Words…
@saccade: I agree 100% with “beginning site administrators.” You have to be careful about the “widely thought” direction, though, because that’s just shooting in the dark and not really knowing what new site admins want to know, besides what they need to know, practically speaking.
A good approach to audience needs analysis in virtual, distributed situations like this is to assess the questions frequently made in the forum (and elsewhere) and then produce and promote wiki docs that address those inquiries. Indeed, it’s about one of the only ways you can do it without posting a questionnaire on .com or something. But it takes focus and commitment. It’s also made easier by having a wiki that is in pretty good shape to begin with, which is the stage I think we’re working at now — whittling it into shape.
@Stef: Yep, the images as they are designed currently is a real problem and I’ve voiced that before too. I’ll give them a go in the Write page when I do the comprehensive edit. Note: Your contributions, past and forward, are greatly appreciated.
@saccade: The photoshop file idea is an interesting one, and was even talked about before back in 2005. In fact, Andreas was even initiated in as the TextBook images manager (basically responsible for creating, naming, uploading and linking all images used in TextBook), but like any of us, his time availability was scarce and the role died.
Although interesting, I don’t know if the PS idea is a good idea or not because of the low-level of contribution/participation TxB has (and PS is expensive). I think the key is not with clever image creation and management, per se, but rather creating simple, low-maintenance images (nothing but cropped screenshots) to begin with, let the text do all the descriptive work (no red numbering/lettering in the images), and connect the two (contextually) with figure references. For example: “Blah, blah, blah-ditty-blah-blah (Figure 5).” It’s conventional use, readers know it, and easy to maintain.
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Clause:
Although no hidden secret, I should point out that much of the old content in the admin-side pages — verbose paragraphs and psychedelic images alike — was mine from 2005 (probably a lot of mistakes about Txp functionality too). A few people tinkered with it over time, but for the most part it didn’t really change. When it comes to wikis, there’s a curious phenomenon: people are afraid to edit the work of other people, even though that’s the whole point of a wiki (assuming you know what your doing and for the better). Needless to say, I have a stake to bury and must see those pages improved, with or without help. Please join me and don’t be afraid to cover my tracks. :)
Last edited by Destry (2009-01-19 14:10:53)
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#47 2009-01-19 14:12:46
- saccade
- Plugin Author
- From: Neubeuern, Germany
- Registered: 2004-11-05
- Posts: 521
Re: [wiki] Textbook Terms and Terminology
just a short line: I don’t stick to Photoshop, any software capable of layers is possible. It’s only the demand, that all needed pointers could be provided each on a single layer**, keeping hassle of creating such things. It should be only a job of moving things or making additional things visible. In this way also the consistency of pointer images would be garanteed. psd was only on my mind, because I use it. Any suggestion what is better for those tasks?
** That idea of course only pleases, if the pointer problem is solved reasonably. I’ll do my best to finish the proposal very quickly. I think it’s a reasonable one. At least a starting point. Give numbers a chance! ;-)Last edited by saccade (2009-01-19 16:27:13)
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