Documentation Is Hard to Find

[raindog308]

Documentation in IPB is hard to find.

Let's say you want some docs on IP.Content. I'm signed in to www.invisionpower.com so I go to

Support->Documentation

Some guides there...but the only thing for IPC is one brief guide on making it your home page. Absolutely nothing on blocks, articles, templates, etc.

Let's go back to the home page...oh, there's a "Documentation" link in the footer. Let's try that. Nope, same page.

Now if I go to that Guides page and click Documentation in that footer, I end up at a page with a lot more:

http://community.invisionpower.com/resources/documentation/index.html

...so the link in the footer seems to change.

I honestly think that a new user who wants to create something with IP.Content would have a hard time finding any documentation on it.

[lordi]

agree, IPS need to pay attention on this. really difficult to search documentation on IPS web, :sad:

[BombsAway]

I'm having the same problem, although to be fair I'm on a free trial account and I've barely begun looking around.

However, I've found absolutely no guidance on using the Visual Skin Editor, and it's frustrating to find myself at a dead end so soon.

[Michael]

We've been saying this for a long time now, I despair of ever seeing a good collection of documentation here.

[AndyF]

To be fair documentation has improved a lot lately.

I think if the staff know what area's need more documentation specifically and what is not easy to find / understand that will help too.

[TracyIsland]

I agree. It almost seems like [somebody] should create a wiki-like presentation of guides, documents, and faq's with links to the IPS community forum.

[bfarber]

The documentation that you found is intended to be moved over to the new Guides section, time permitting. Unfortunately, we've simply had other things pop up that need to be addressed first. Ultimately though, the plan is to move ALL of our documentation to the Guides area.

As we refer people to documentation day in and day out, we understand the frustrations you can face attempting to find the appropriate documentation, and it is definitely something we intend to address.

[Emissaries]

Yes, I would also like to see some improvment on this, there is topics created daily about the same question.

"Can I use one license on multiple websites?", "How do I convert from another board?", "I purchased IP.Board, 24 hours later, no download", etc etc.

[bfarber]

Yes, I would also like to see some improvment on this, there is topics created daily about the same question.

"Can I use one license on multiple websites?", "How do I convert from another board?", "I purchased IP.Board, 24 hours later, no download", etc etc.

Well, with regards to these specific examples - all of that data is already on our website (the first and last are in our terms of service, one central area). It is unlikely that if someone does not read the terms of service or read through the page on our site about converting (to which there is a link right on the homepage) that they are likely to search through and read documentation.

[saggsab]

There is no documentation, just a few pages with some stuff that really doesn't explain much or that glosses over a few things.

When I first started using IPB v 2.x.x there was a great guide to get the site put together - now there isn't anything you can depend on helping you get your site up and running. If you really want to keep from answering the same questions every 5 min or having to do everything for those of us that are not tech gurus you would have a solid guide - no excuses.

All "certified" users are paying a lot of money and not getting things done in a timely manner. Not something I would recommend to someone moving from another community forum or starting a new community.

I would much rather have the proper documentation and doing what I could by myself and not depending on someone else.

[ᴡᴅツ]

One suggestion would be to invest in in-house and online user testing to figure out the best design implementations rather than relying on developer intuition.

[bfarber]

One suggestion would be to invest in in-house and online user testing to figure out the best design implementations rather than relying on developer intuition.

I'm not discrediting the suggestion...but what does that have to do with documentation being difficult to find? :unsure:

[ᴡᴅツ]

I'm not discrediting the suggestion...but what does that have to do with documentation being difficult to find? :unsure:

User testing on the IPS' community page (and perhaps company page) focused on questions you want researchers to explain could reveal errors in design, information architecture, flow, and more. User testing is useful not just for the product being sold, but for the corporate site and offerings (e.g. community page) which affect brand image, trustability, etc.

[Chris Anderson]

The more features that IPB adds to their software suite and the more configuration options they add the more complex the product becomes. People interested in hosting a IPB site typically have a limited amount of time each day they can devote towards operating their site and have little time to spare to try to intuit their way to being able to understand how to setup their site correctly and to deal with various issues that crop up. I would strongly urge IPB to take a small break after they release v4 to work with the user and developer community to determine what areas could benefit from some documentation and then launch a community based documentation project who would work with the IPB developers to answer specific questions that crop up during the documentation process. If this project was broken down into small bit sized pieces the user community is more apt to be willing to lend a hand and a lot of useful content might end up being generated in a short span of time and IPB could then go back to devoting their time coming up with new features to dazzle us with.