More Documentation please?

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Tai'lahr
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More Documentation please?

Post by Tai'lahr »

I really wish we were much farther along in getting this project set up here. It would have been great to have documented the process by which the build that is being unveiled today came about. I hope I'm not giving too much away here by saying that it's a statue everyone will recognize. It's such an exciting and important addition to the sim and it would have been a perfect example to show others how our builds take shape. The initial idea, the decision to go through with it, the brainstorming among team members, and the cooperation in executing the idea were all indicative of how we operate at Eder D'Uru. It's a real shame that it wasn't documented.
JeffLewis
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Re: More Documentation please?

Post by JeffLewis »

I think this could be a good example of how to do such things. We should work on putting something together to get some practice in.
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JWPlatt
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Re: More Documentation please?

Post by JWPlatt »

At the risk of being seen giving advice (I really don't want to steer projects here), please consider two concise points:

1. Agree who will be responsible on a schedule and hold yourselves to it. GoMe does this fairly well.

2. Find a motivated observer to take on the job of doing what a documentary crew might do on PBS so that your creativity and productivity is not distracted and compromised by the overhead.

"I will" works faster than "we should."

Just a suggestion.
Perfect speed is being there.
JeffLewis
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Re: More Documentation please?

Post by JeffLewis »

O.o Advice?! WHERE?! I didn't see JWPlatt steering projects into trees and in directions unknown to mankind!

But, I do see your point. I'll work on finding someone to do such a thing. It sounds like a good plan. You should give more advice :)
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Nalates
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Re: More Documentation please?

Post by Nalates »

One of the interesting things with documentation is Devokan.

There is a bulletin board in Devokan. Anyone can add a note to it. We recently found out anyone can remove them too, as accidentily happened. It makes it easy for me to copy those to a Word doc and keep track of the story. It gives me a history.

Also there are diaries people write and leave laying around Devokan. When reading them a click sends one a note card. Those are easily filed and referred back to in SL inventory. I copy those to a word document for offline reference when I get around to it.

Thend tried a different style of bulletin board with some for diaries/journals and others for LM's and others for business advertising and others for events. It was a short term experiment. Some started journals. I think Thend's experiment did not have all the necessary parts needed to make that experiment a success... well used...

Devokan has more of the parts. One aspect is the follow up on the forums. Each diary in Devokan has an individuals experiences. On the forum there is more of discussion and sharing of events. The two are not yet well integrated. The forum does lead to Devokan and the diaries. The diaries don't do much to lead people to the forum. I'll have to start including links in my diary. That is a little awkward. But there are new HTTP tools coming to SL, some already in use, that will give us new options.

The idea of some one person having to do all of the writing puts a load on an individual. It can quickly become unfun. The Journal/diaries reduce the work load on a single person. Plus they open lots of new RP directions.

The update of Channelwood to a new build arriving in January is leading to a detailed history. I think much of that is happening on the forums. At least my part is because Dot and Paislee are on European time and I'm west coast USA. Sharing the time lines and builders' ideas allows us to shape an RP that fits with what they want to do.

The virtual worlds shared interactive building is allowing us to do more than would be possible with the Blue Mars - Myst Uru style of building. I can't visit your Blender (I have heard there are some tools that allow that but I'm not hearing of it getting much use) while you build. The use of OSGrid to build and then move things into SL and build in SL and move them to OSGrid allows lots of interaction. I can visit the builds in both places.

The RP in SL is acknowledging the connection. For now pictures of OSGrid as used in SL. These provide more of the history with images and commentary about the images. I first saw this used in Land of NoR, a dark combat RPG.

Image
Here a large panel is used to display a view of Earth. That is just an image pasted in. No reason we could not use it.

The incentive to share fun in the Uru community is strong. So, providing a way to share seems to be helping document the story and history of building Devokan.

Eventually that story will get too big for people to read. The diaries will be too long. The bulletin board scrolls older stuff off and writing is lost. I am thinking of creating something that will allow information to be automatically archived in SL and still be accessible to players.

Whatever, we have learned somethings from the Devokan and D'Uru builds/experiments. How those might be adopted for future builds on the VW grids or Myst-Uru, we'll have wait and see.

I do think that naming the books journals rather than diaries would help. At least in US culture, one of the great sins is reading another's diaries. So, that may make some hesitant to read them.
Nalates
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Dot
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Re: More Documentation please?

Post by Dot »

Nalates wrote:I do think that naming the books journals rather than diaries would help. At least in US culture, one of the great sins is reading another's diaries. So, that may make some hesitant to read them.
Alas, the lure of alliteration with Devokan Diary was too great!

I like the idea of pulling together past documentation. It is one of the things I have had in mind (but no time or energy for) for some time.

Would some form of shared blog work? It might also make it easier to pool photos. (Note that I have registered the domain name devokan.net with the intention of doing something along these lines -- just not got around to it.)
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JWPlatt
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Re: More Documentation please?

Post by JWPlatt »

I have successfully resisted (until now) the strong urge to offer Devokan resources here only becauese I knew it had a good home at GoMa and did not want to rudely intrude on your choices or preferences. And depite the obvious preference for your own domain, I'd like to still offer you a subdomain here at devokan.openuru.org. It's here for you if you ever decide to go this way. And there's blog space already available here as well. ;)
Last edited by JWPlatt on Thu Dec 24, 2009 5:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Correct spelling of Devokan
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Dot
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Re: More Documentation please?

Post by Dot »

Thanks, JW -- the offer is appreciated. I think I'd like to take you up on it, if I may. It would be a way of keeping the link going with the wider Uru community.

The Devokan project (note spelling ;) ) is currently at a crossroads. It may well be timely to think about how best to proceed.

Two strands might be documented and/or discussed, roughly dividing into IC and OOC.

The IC part is recording the storyline, and allowing different people to say what they are seeing. This would include both blogs (I guess, never having blogged myself) and photos/screenshots (is that possible?).

The OOC part is the organising of the project. Perhaps a forum would be best for that. As for underlying storyline development, that probably needs to be done in a private forum, which could be here or continue at GoMa.
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Nalates
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Re: More Documentation please?

Post by Nalates »

Independent or Aggregated Sites
In my perception the difference between doing an independent site or working within an existing site is mostly personal preference. The only real differences I see are in ownership and the ability to work on search position.

Whether a new Devokan site is a good thing or not, I think, depends on what Dot wants to do with the site. If attracting new players is import then being easy to find is important. Starting within an existing site gives one a boost starting up in being found. I think the Devokan thread at MOUL gets the most attention and gives that boost. It can be used to direct people to any new material. The stats at GoMa show a pretty good following even with the small number of posts. The GoMa thread does not place well. My article on Devokan places ahead of the GoMa section. (11th place SLUniverse – 19th Devokan, a Myst Style Build in Second Life


I don’t know the stats here, I suspect OU has a lower readership count. I imagine that will change when we get the licenses for OS.

I am considering moving my blog to Go Daddy where I have my other sites. If I move my blog I can put advertising on the site and with any luck get the hosting cost paid. The blog has 200 to 550 people per day visiting.

JWP, I don’t remember if I’ve read your position on advertising and income from this site and related resources. ?

Dot, as to blogs… I tried several different free blogs when starting. I had 3 blogs for Nalates’ Things & Stuff. The 2 more popular blogs are Google’s eBlogger and WordPress, both have free versions. I like WordPress best. It integrates with MS Word so I can write offline and upload, images and all.

Blogs are easy to use. WordPress has an amazing number of options, features, plug-ins, a good user interface, I think both have import & export features for moving a blog. One can think of a blog as a forum with a fancy opening post (and good editing tools). With comments turned on; a blog post can be very much like a forum thread.

I’ve been looking at various RPG’s in SL to see how they do things to draw and keep people. How successful they are I base on how many are playing. I’m not sure how well that information will transfer to MO:OU. I suspect things to be similar.

It seems the SL chat and announcements are where most information exchange takes place. That stuff is transitory. SL folks don’t seem to use forums that much, i.e., Eder D’Uru. There is a core of any RPG’s fans that use the forums. But, there are far more players than forum users for most SL RPG's. That seems true of Myst-Uru. I think that shows a failure to provide a benefit to players for using the forums, it just doesn’t add that much to the players’ enjoyment. It is more of a necessity than fun. I also think a large number of older players never thought to look for forum support. In game links to the forum/blog are important. Trolls and flames have given many a bad taste for forums. Plus finding information in a forum can be a pain.

SL folks seem to use and read blogs. I think SL related blogs out number every other type of blog going. However, most MMO’s have a large number of blogs . That tells us something.

World of Warcraft blogs has 38 million hits, forums 25.5 million. Second Life blogs yields 215 million hits, forums 183 million. Guild Wars blogs 4.6 million hits, forums 9 million. Entropia: 384k blogs, 331k forums, Myst: 530k blogs, 543k forums, Uru: 318 blogs, 369 forums… all hits not a count.

Why are blogs popular? I think blogs require less effort on the owner’s part. Blogs are indexed by Google and people can easily find what they are looking for. It is easier to go to specific information. Commenter’s do not need to sign up. Emerald Viewer Review is a term that many search on and how they find me. Players are going to search on various terms they feel relate to problems or interests they have. That gets people to the blog/forum and traffic and activity keeps writers and participants interested.

Devokan Tsahno has the #1 rated site on the term Devokan, actually Devokan Tsahno. I don’t count Devokan.com as there is nothing there… well a page with an image. In 7th place is the MOUL forum thread. My KOINUP is 9th. The Devokan.net yields a 403 error, probably a default page problem. A page there could funnel people to GoMa or here. With a little effort Devokan.net could hold a top 5 position. Wherever it points would get the majority of new visitors.

Whichever way Dot decides... lots to think about.
Nalates
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JWPlatt
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Re: More Documentation please?

Post by JWPlatt »

Nalates wrote:JWP, I don’t remember if I’ve read your position on advertising and income from this site and related resources. ?
I should probably take the Devokan discussion further in PM so to not distract from Eder D'Uru, but I'll answer this good question first because it could apply to Eder D'Uru or any project.

I have given such matters informal thought - read: incomplete. OpenURU.org should remain non-profit and on the side of free and open exchange. This is where open source work will happen and anything else that is open for the Uru community. It would be nice if the community can grow into something that can offer services to each other if there are many people who can't afford to always volunteer their talents. If there were commercial endeavors, I'd rather see that happen on OpenURU's .net (e.g. subscription shards or shard hosting services) or .com (e.g. age production, talent for hire, etc) TLDs. There's a very long road ahead and a lot we need to hear about from Cyan (licensing, etc) before considering anything like that.
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