User talk:Aquadrizzt/Sandbox/GW2W:Helper Page/Archive 1

I like it!--Neil • 18:01, 27 June 2010 (UTC)

I figured u would...Aquadrizzt Main Page Designer 20:49, 27 June 2010 (UTC)

I approve this table, and just want to point out that as of this post, the only Canadian Venom20 01:27, 29 June 2010 (UTC)

Second Version

I really like the second version. I think it would be really helpful so people know who to go to for what :-). --hnzdvn 02:06, 29 June 2010 (UTC)

Although I would need to hunt everyone down to get the information. >.< Aquadrizzt Main Page Designer 02:46, 29 June 2010 (UTC)

I dislike these listing as a helper list because of its unfriendly appearance. The list style was made to offer pure information about administrators and as much as possible quick links related to them. For example having things like contributions, logs or email for helpers makes not too much sense. Using a friendly and simple, categorized listing as we have on GWW makes much more sense for this. poke | talk 07:06, 29 June 2010 (UTC)

I prefer the first version. I'm sure many people on this list have many disciplines so as to assist a new person to the wiki. Also it would just be unnecessary groupings, IMO Venom20 13:49, 29 June 2010 (UTC)

How about 4 columns? 1 being the users 2 being the location, 3 being whatever they do (be it policy, etc.) and 4 being the timezone. It'd be shorter to scroll through... And the titles would be Helpers / Location / Type / Time zone. Ariyen 17:44, 29 June 2010 (UTC)

We had a simple list on GWW before, and it was completely useless. Not only was the list very huge but also users needing help asked anyone. So we came up with a way to split the list into groups of what helpers want to specialize on. Initially, I wanted to have an exclusive list, so that one helper can only be in one category (to not end up with the same mess as the first list), but somehow people ignored that. Anyway, the idea was that user seeking help could simply go on that page, look for what category they are seeking help for and then select a helper from the list.

However having just one list makes that quite difficult. For comparison: try to find a user in the first list with a UTC+3 timezone; it's very hard, and finding the correct category is similar to that. poke | talk 21:24, 29 June 2010 (UTC)

"For comparison: try to find a user in the first list with a UTC+3 timezone; it's very hard," Ctrl+F? Or did I just completely miss the point? --Naoroji 21:38, 29 June 2010 (UTC)

You did. Because a user looking for help, probably wont CTRL+F for "user page helper" or something... poke | talk 21:44, 29 June 2010 (UTC)

Determining activity

I'm curious as to how you determine whether a person is active/semi-active/inactive, care to shed some light on that for little ol' me? --Sirrush 10:14, 29 June 2010 (UTC)

I think it's based on whether they've edited in the past ? months. --Odal talk 11:00, 29 June 2010 (UTC)

Seems likely, but I enjoy knowledge of random, not really important things, such as this. ;D --Sirrush 11:54, 29 June 2010 (UTC)

If they have an edit in the past (1) monthm their active. Past 3 months is semiactive. Of they created their account 1-2 years ago and haven't contributed since, their inactive. Aquadrizzt Main Page Designer 13:42, 29 June 2010 (UTC)

An idea

Since I feel like I may have been "over looked" here's a suggestion or few... or whatever. :-) -) How about 4 columns? 1 being the users 2 being the location, 3 being whatever they do (be it policy, etc.) and 4 being the timezone. It'd be shorter to scroll through... And the titles would be Helpers / Location / Type / Time zone. --Ariyen 05:47, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

I think Aquadrizzt made it that way because some helpers may want to appear in several sections (or "Type"s as you call them). Chriskang 08:52, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Well, I think it'd be easier on the user to not have to scroll through sections just to find certain users as most users (new ones more than anything) may seem to pick the users in the first section. Hence, I would think it'd be easier just to have beside each user name of who would help with what , etc. and not such a long list to scroll through when doing sections... Ariyen 04:57, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

I was thinking along the lines of...

Key:

Active

Semi-active

Inactive

Helpers		Type	Location	Time zone
A F K When Needed	talk			UTC
Aquadrizzt	talk		United States of America	EST (UTC-5)
Ariyen	talk	Formatting, User Page, Wiki Coding	United States of America	EST (UTC-5)
Balistic	talk		United States of America	PST (UTC-8)
Cyan Light	talk		The Netherlands	CEST (UTC+2)
Eive Windgrace	talk		United States of America	CST (UTC-6)
Emmett	talk		United States of America	EST (UTC-5)
Felix Omni	talk		United States of America	CST (UTC-6)
IcyyyBlue	talk		United States of America	EST (UTC-5)
Infinite	talk		The Netherlands	CEST (UTC+2)
Lacky	talk		Australia	AEST (UTC+10)
Loquay	talk		Czech Republic	CEST (UTC+2)
Mat Cauthorn	talk		United States of America	EST (UTC-5)
Naoroji	talk		The Netherlands	CEST (UTC+2)
Neil2250	talk		United Kingdom	BST (UTC+1)
PheNaxKian	talk		United Kingdom	BST (UTC+1)
Phnzdvn	talk		United States of America	EST (UTC-5)
Pling	talk		United Kingdom	BST (UTC+1)
Poke	talk		Germany	CEST (UTC+2)
Randomtime	talk		United Kingdom	BST (UTC+1)
Salome	talk		United Kingdom	BST (UTC+1)
Santax	talk		United Kingdom	BST (UTC+1)
Shadow Runner	talk		United Kingdom	BST (UTC+1)
Shewmake	talk		United States of America	CST (UTC-6)
Sirrush	talk		The Netherlands	CEST (UTC+2)
Super Igor	talk		Russia	MSK (UTC+3)
Unendingfear	talk		United States of America	EST (UTC-5)
Venom20	talk		Canada	EST (UTC-5)
Ab.er.rant	talk		Malaysia	MST (UTC+8)
Indochine	talk		United Kingdom	BST (UTC+1)
Karate Jesus	talk		United States of America	CST (UTC-6)
Silverleaf	talk		The Netherlands	CEST (UTC+2)
Cress Arvein	talk		United States of America	EST (UTC-5)
Defiant Elements	talk		United States of America	EST (UTC-5)
Drago	talk		United States of America	EST (UTC-5)
Frekyelf	talk
Gimmethegepgun	talk		United States of America	EST (UTC-5)
People of Antioch	talk
Sktbrd341	talk
Snograt	talk		United Kingdom	BST (UTC+1)
Vili	talk		United States of America
Wei Ness	talk		China	UTC + 8
Wizardboy777	talk
Y0 ich halt	talk		Germany	CEST (UTC+2)

This. Ariyen 21:42, 26 July 2010 (UTC)

You've more space to talk about what it is you can help with if you remove the locations. A F K When Needed 17:10, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

You don't need more space for type. Just there's only four types. The fourth I didn't mention is Policy. Not that it'd take up a lot of room, but maybe six spaces? Ariyen 17:26, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Common sense

Remove the locations. Remove the time zone.

Give in UTC the approximate times you're likely to be found on the Wiki. A F K When Needed 17:13, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

I don't think that'd help someone who may not be that familiar with a helper's times and timezones, compared to ther times and timezones... Just saying as I feel the locations and timezones might help, like perhaps a bilingual? Ariyen 17:24, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Could you please repeat / reword that?

"I don't think that'd help someone who may not be that familiar with a helper's times and timezones, compared to ther times and timezones"

^huh? A F K When Needed 18:01, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Scenario: See if I was new and I spoke German... Despite this is mostly English and I understood and could write both. I'd want to converse with someone who I could understand better... Having the location would help with that or say I wanted to speak to someone right away and I wanted them to answer, not knowing their times and expect it asap. Getting mad, getting myself banned, because I didn't know their time/timezone.. See? It's more so about what's helpful and good for the users in all, not about how much easier a page would look and it be on the contributor. It's more about user friendly, not contributor friendly. I've learned this from owning websites, helping with many websites, even wikis, forums, etc. Also, it was told by another webmaster as my first one (site) use to be more what I wanted, instead of being browser/user friendly... I've given a scenario and a reason for what I said.

My thing is... would what you suggest Help several different kinds of users? or someone go to a helper and it not go anywhere (misunderstanding, miscommunication, etc.)? Sure, what you say would be easier for a coder to do... but is it better for a typical user? (who contributes or not...) I'm curious of your response. :-) Ariyen 03:39, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Whoops. Forgot this place and all you guys existed. No offense, or anything.

As far as your scenario goes... interesting idea, we could mention languages we're fluent(ish) in? I dislike the Location idea because people expect anything present to be helpful, and that is unreliable. Here's my scenario. I move to Italy. So, being important as it is to me, I immediately log on and change my location in the table so that it is once again accurate. The next day (during which time I've learned how to say hello, and accidentally insulted my new neighbour's mother) some Italian dude winds up on my talk page with a load of Italian I can't understand. What's that? A failure of the system.

Moar scenarios. I know someone in America. He works night shifts. So, listing in UTC or whatever time zone, the times he can be expected to be online is helpful. His timezone or location is not, as due to working nights people will guess and be wrong. He's just an extreme example. For a host of reasons, people are active at different times of the day - so simply mentioning time zone or location is meaningless. What's listing either / both of those and not being more specific? A failure of the system.

It's all a matter of listing information people need. What country you live in, etc., is meaningless. However, the - approx - times people can expect you to be around at with appropriate time zone is not. Languages you speak is not. As a final example, I could live in Germany and speak French, English, German and Spanish with reasonable competancy. And people from your version of the table would only guess German.

And I think that example is a very telling point. List the information people are after. Do not leave clues and get them to guess. It really is that simple. A F K When Needed 18:35, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

Good ideas. Language instead of Location and the timezone for when the person wants to be contacted. Right? Ariyen 19:42, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

Aye. e.g. 01:00 - 07:00 (UTC) | English, French, Italian A F K When Needed 23:04, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

Alright. I like that a good deal and I think it's a good idea. Ariyen 23:25, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

(Reset indent) You can make your own choice as to whether or not you want to provide your location/timezone. In addition, some people have irregular hours, which may or may not, but will generally reflect their timezone. In addition, including "Times when you wish to be contacted" has the potential to scare new people, as if I was new, I knew I was scared of contacting anyone because I didn't to pick a bad time. Besides, contacting on the wiki is a process that IS NOT SUPPOSED to be instantaneous; the nature of a wiki reflects this.Aquadrizzt (talk)(contribs) 00:44, 10 September 2010 (UTC)

I think having the word "Time" would be better than "times when you wish to be contacted". It'd show when someone gets on and when they're available. Ariyen 03:16, 10 September 2010 (UTC)

NOOB QUESTION!

Whats a formatting helper do lol lotz of ppl are on that.--Icyyy Blue 03:43, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Formatting is actually towards pages like consistency of pages of like say Armor, Skills, Missions, etc. Ariyen 04:13, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

OH! lol ty ^_^--Icyyy Blue 04:14, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Activity

Non- and semi-active Helpers should not be listed. The response time for questions might be tremendously limited in case they're contacted. (Throwing it out here, as it seems to be a main discussion page, regardless of it being in Aqua's userspace.) - Infinite - talk 05:21, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

As long as they're listed appropriately, I see no harm in it. If you contact someone semi-inactive (or worse) you should expect the kind of waiting time you get. If you don't... it's not the table with the problem, frankly. If nobody else can help, it's worth listing those who may be able to help, even if they can't do so in a punctual manner. (As long as poke is active this'll be redundant, but still.)

As far as I'm concerned options are always good. You don't have to contact such people, but you can. A F K When Needed 18:35, 9 September 2010 (UTC)