Author Topic: COMING SOON: Site tour section w/ screencasts (Read 16389 times)

Josh · « **on:** August 05, 2006, 07:00 PM »

Friends, users, countrymen, lend me your ears.
I come to you tonight to announce an upcoming feature of the donationcoder.com website!

What is it you ask? What could it be? What mysteries and nicities will this feature add to enhance your daily lives?

oh wait, its in the subject, so much for being dramatic.

The new feature coming soon will be a site tour section of donationcoder.com. This feature will be comprised of a series of screencasts demonstrating the various areas of the website. From registering on the forums, to donating, to connecting to the IRC channel, to entering a drawing.

We come to you tonight for help. We have generated a list of features we will be screencasting, but we want your input on what areas YOU, the users, would like to see. Since you are the most valued part of donationcoder, and you make the site the success it is, we feel it only right.

Here is a list of what we have thus far, along with a brief description of what each section will contain.

1. Exclusive Software
Show where the software exclusive to donationcoder.com is, the dif pages and dif authors.
Explain about software keys required for some
COMPLETED - 11AUG2006

2. How to Get a License Key
how to get a license key

3. Coding Snacks Requests
Discuss what coding snacks are
COMPLETED - 12AUG2006

4. Reviews
Talk about reviews and minireviews and where they are, how to comment
COMPLETED - 15AUG2006

5. Links page and Blog page
Show links page and blog page and how each is organized
COMPLETED - 13AUG2006

6. Donating
Show the process of donating and activating
COMPLETED - 11AUG2006

7. DonationCredits
Show how to use and receive donation credits
COMPLETED - 12AUG2006

8. Podcast Radio Show
Intro to the podcast radio show, and explain to users how to submit entries for it
COMPLETED - 13AUG2006

9. Discounts
Discuss the discounts and how to utilize them
COMPLETED - 12AUG2006

10. Software drawings
Explain software drawings and how they are organized
COMPLETED - 12AUG2006

11. Member kit
Show the member kit page and what you get in each kit
COMPLETED - 12AUG2006

12. Programming School
Explain about programming school

13. Contests
Explain about our programming contests. Show the page for these contests.
COMPLETED - 13AUG2006

14. The newsletter
What it is, how to subscribe, unsubscribe
COMPLETED - 11AUG2006

15. How to help DonationCoder.com
Explain the following areas: donating, writing a review or minireview, telling your friends
COMPLETED - 15AUG2006

16. Irc chat channel
Show how to connect view web or irc client
COMPLETED - 18AUG2006

17. RSS
Describe what it is and how it is useful
COMPLETED - 12AUG2006

18. Forum Signup process
Signing up at the forum and activating your account
COMPLETED - 07AUG2006

19. The Forums
This will be a hodgepodge of the following broken up into smaller casts. This will be the LAST tour page put up as it will take the most work.
Show how to set a biography, signature, yearbook qupte, webpage, set avatar
Intro to the different forum sections, and ways of reading the forum
a) how to post images as attachments and refer to them
b) how to use the preset text templates
c) posting features (bold, italics, images, urls, etc)

Anyways, thats what we have so far. Now, give us your input. I will give this post until Friday (11AUG2006) before it is finalized and we begin work on the various casts. Your input is valuable, so dont hold back!

LETS ROCK!

mouser · « **Reply #1 on:** August 05, 2006, 07:16 PM »

i just want to say this would be sooooo incredibliy useful to the site, to have a Tour Page like this that people could visit to discover features of the site.

nudone · « **Reply #2 on:** August 06, 2006, 12:54 AM »

great idea.

JavaJones · « **Reply #3 on:** August 06, 2006, 02:01 AM »

Very cool and ambitious feature/project. This inspires me to do the same at work.

- Oshyan

Josh · « **Reply #4 on:** August 11, 2006, 02:52 PM »

The tours page is shaping up nicely, 3 down. I just completed the 2 casts for donations (donating and activating). Gonna do the newsletter and exclusive software next. Tomorrow will come the donationcredits tours. After that, who knows whats next

I do know that the forum stuff will be last as its going to be a huge project.

vegas · « **Reply #5 on:** August 11, 2006, 08:30 PM »

nice work with this huge undertaking. see, things like this make me check how many donation credits i have saved up

Josh · « **Reply #6 on:** August 11, 2006, 08:54 PM »

The newsletter tour is now done and awaiting mouser's approval before it is posted.

Josh · « **Reply #7 on:** August 11, 2006, 09:44 PM »

Ditto for the Exclusive Software tour. It is now done and awaiting final authorization! WAKE UP MOUSER!!!!

mouser · « **Reply #8 on:** August 12, 2006, 12:34 AM »

http://tour.donationcoder.com

the page is really shaping up nicely!

Josh · « **Reply #9 on:** August 12, 2006, 03:40 PM »

Donationcredits are done now. WOOHOO!! How many more to go! GOOD LORD MOUSER!

Josh · « **Reply #10 on:** August 12, 2006, 04:24 PM »

The member kit tour is done now too and will be posted tonight after I complete 5 others that I have planned to record.

Tonight, expect tours on the following areas

Discounts
Software Drawings
Podcast Show
RSS
Coding Snacks

Josh · « **Reply #11 on:** August 12, 2006, 10:20 PM »

Deals and discounts, Software drawings and RSS have now been completed and are awaiting our the final approval from the next Kathy Lee Gifford aka Mouser.

Josh · « **Reply #12 on:** August 12, 2006, 10:41 PM »

Ditto for the coding snacks tour

Josh · « **Reply #13 on:** August 14, 2006, 07:45 AM »

6 more to go!

The following were completed last night

Donationcoder.com contests
The links page
The Blog page
The podcasts

mouser · « **Reply #14 on:** August 14, 2006, 07:47 AM »

Josh you are doing an amazing job

(i think even hardcore members are going to find some new stuff on that tour page soon that they didn't know about).

Josh · « **Reply #15 on:** August 15, 2006, 01:19 PM »

The reviews screencast is now done! WOOHOO! 5 more to go!

Josh · « **Reply #16 on:** August 15, 2006, 01:59 PM »

How to help the site is now done too! YEAY! 4 MORE!

Josh · « **Reply #17 on:** August 18, 2006, 06:25 PM »

Alright folks, 3 to go. I just did the IRC Chat applet and now its time for the last 3 (License keys, programming school and forums (series)). Enjoy all!

Josh · « **Reply #18 on:** August 20, 2006, 07:03 PM »

Now there are three to go

Just did mini-reviews! Programming school will come tomorrow, and possibly license keys. And then the forums series will be my last thing to tackle (unless mouser comes up with more ;-) ).

Josh · « **Reply #19 on:** August 21, 2006, 10:36 PM »

I would like to request some user feedback on these tours. If you can, please post what you like about these tour casts, what you dont like, what you think could be improved, and what you think could be done to make them better. Also, post any areas you would like to see covered about the site. One area I am particularly interested in is the volume level for these. I have had a few reports of the volume being a bit low on them. If you could, please post how the volume sounds to you when you reply. I am trying to gather feedback to aid me in creating better casts in the future for donationcoder.com. Thanks for your help!