A vBulletin For USERS Tutorial?

[jcccf]

I have found an absence of a vBulletin tutorial for users. There is one for administrators, but none for users. Some of my non-tech-savvy users have complained that the interface is very confusing, and they have no idea what they are doing. Is there such a thing that anyone has created other than the FAQ. The FAQ is medium-level. Some people don't even know what are cookies!

Hope you will take this suggestion and add a vBulletin User's manual to your list of manuals.

Many mention that vBulletin takes time to learn, and the interface is a bit clunky. a sitepoint review even mentions vBulletin having a "learning curve". I hope this spurs someone on to develop a manual for vBulletin users, complete with screenshots

[Floris]

It is hard to make a basic "How do I forum" tutorial for the end-user. Because each board of vBulletin has optional options and features which can be turned on and off. Beside that, each board can alter the template to put stuff in different places. Which makes it harder to make a compliant tutor. All the basic stuff that can't change, it already in the FAQ, available through the top menu, on every page. Users should learn that :)

[jcccf]

maybe someone should make a vB hack, then like the FAQ, make users search for buttons which are displayed as images from the images folders, because custom buttons usually overwrite the normal ones, so these will appear even with template changes.

Anyway, I haven't seen anyone modify the whole thing drastically and turn it into a flash application or something. Everything is basically in the same location, maybe a shifted to the left or right, or some extra images here and there, but that's about it.

[Floris]

Originally posted by jcccf
maybe someone should make a vB hack, then like the FAQ, make users search for buttons which are displayed as images from the images folders, because custom buttons usually overwrite the normal ones, so these will appear even with template changes.

Anyway, I haven't seen anyone modify the whole thing drastically and turn it into a flash application or something. Everything is basically in the same location, maybe a shifted to the left or right, or some extra images here and there, but that's about it.
I have seen enough boards that have been changed drasticly. But sure, there are enough 'default' boards.

It is just hard to make a "and at the bottom of the post you created, you will find [search]".. while some might have removed that, or placed it somewhere else. My guess is, that there will be too many complaints that it isn't 'right', just because a board got modified.

[jcccf]

what do you mean by "drastically"?

www.yaxay.com is still by my standards not "drastically" modified.

you can still make out the vb elements here and there.

i'm suggesting a "hack" that will update the FAQ section with tons more stuff, and allowing the admin to change parts to suit his/her site.

or maybe
look on the page for a button that bears semblance to the word "members" or has a picture of members...

maybe you're right.

but how about for those with default boards with just a color-scheme change?

(i'm an in-between)

[Floris]

For them, I think the FAQ will do just fine. How hard is it to understand that a site has some categories (subjects about something) devided and split up in some boards for specific topics and in them, threads where users can reply or start new ones. Pressing on submit will post their thread or reply to one. Reading the forum rules, finding out about a feature in a faq, will do just enough. And if not, they can ask in the forum board. if any. I doubt that users who can't think of that by themselv, really bother reading a bunch of pages about how to click on 'read this private msg' to read a pm. But that is just my oppinion, and that is why I am sharing it :)

[Wayne Luke]

We decided on a "train the trainer" approach to learning vBulletin a long time ago. Not only does this make handling the changes easier but it actually fosters community on our customers sites.

Basically the way it works is this: We train you and answer your questions. You then in turn train your Moderators and your Moderators help the end users. It is basically a pyramid but you get more and more help the lower you go and everyone benefits.

While I can't say that it will always remain this way, we feel the current approach has actually worked very well.

[bigmattyh]

I would actually be very insterested in creating an end-user tutorial. Some of my users, including one of my most critical-yet-supportive site-testers I have (my girlfriend) have said that the board can be somewhat intimidating for the uninitiated.

I am swamped at the moment with a new site launch, but in about two weeks, I could begin work on just such a tutuorial. I've done my share of tech writing, and I know vB inside and out (at least in the most relevant areas), so I would probably be able to complete it in a relatively short amount of time. When I start the project, I'll post an announcement at vB.org.

[JamesUS]

Sounds great Matt :)

I recently had to set up a vBulletin for a large (~5000 user) group of people who were non-computer literate and had never used a forum before.

It was only then that I realised just how hard the interface can be to get used to ;) I had to spend a few days with the users giving basic training, and produced a 15 page printed manual to give them all. The manual is only suitable to that particular project so I can't reuse it, but we do need a user manual for non-computer literate users.

[JulianD]

Yeah, an user manual would be a great idea. Some of my users doesn't use 100% of the vBulletin available featuers because they doesn't know how to do use them, or they are afraid of click all the icons.

[Fusion]

Yep, yep, yep, a manual, even a cursory effort depicting the basic functions, would be most helpful. I daresay most normal board-users don't use more than a percentage of vBulletin, let alone know they're there. I agree the duty to enlighten them falls on the admins, but it's very easy to overlook the fact that vBulletin, while looking sleek and impressive to many, might look like a beast out of this world to others.

(sorry, caffeine-rush.. I hope that makes sense.)

[DWZ]

Yeah, this is a great idea :D

I have a friend who is thinking of getting a copy of vB for her drama site (school teachers pay a yearly fee to access information she publishes). She wanted something like a forum but is scared that most users won't know how to use it, and it wont be any good because no one uses it... lol

So yeah, something like this would be great :)

[bigmattyh]

I'll just reiterate that I'm committed to doing it within a few weeks time. :) I was planning doing this anyway, so I'll keep you all posted.

[JoshFink]

As an addition to the manual, I think maybe a walk through tutorial on a site might be a good way to get the users aquainted with vBulletin.

Something like taking them through the posting process or teaching them about the user cp. That kind of thing.

I was going to do something like this and instead of a live site to walk through, I was going to take some screen shots and give a brief description of the screens as they scroll through.

Just a thought

Josh

[DirectPixel]

Originally posted by jcccf
what do you mean by "drastically"?

www.yaxay.com is still by my standards not "drastically" modified....I always thought that UltraShock was one of the most, if not THE most template modded board.:D

Anyways, maybe there should be some basic 2 to 3 page manual with a few basic stuff (with 200 font-size for the section on using a board's search functions before asking questions.:p), where each section that explains the features can be turned on/off depending if that particular feature has been turned on/off in the admin cp.

As for dealing with template mods, a line in the manual that says something like "Your forum views may be different from that described in the preceeding sentences"...:D

[bigmattyh]

My idea is to have a tutorials section and a reference section. The tutorials section would deal with the major aspects of board acitivity, such as posting, searching, and changing avatars. The reference section would have a "How do I" section, a glossary for vB terms (and a hack to accomplish this has been made), and an indexed manual listing the major parts of the board, broken down into details.

There would be screenshots throughout, which webmasters can replace, to indicate their own boards. It would be run under a single PHP file, called manual.php, scripted to handle many sections (much like member.php does). Administration and changing of the material would be handled via the standard vB templates and the Admin CP.

That's how I'm planning on organizing it -- please post your ideas here, so I can keep track of them and integrate them!

[BustaCap]

A tutorial would be great. My users are orthodontists and well... they seem confused :) One thing that seems to confuse them is that if they go to the site from a different computer they need to login on that computer. They think if they login at one computer they can just start posting from any computer. This doesn't seem to be covered in the "faq".

A PRINTABLE user tuturial (2 pages covering only the basics, enough to get them up and posting) would be great.

[JoshFink]

Hey.. Did anyone ever take this a step further?

Josh

[bernard]

Since I just put up my site I decided to write a lesson of the day. Every day there will be a new/short blurb on features and how to use them. Not technical.

After using webboard for 5 years moving to VBulletin is a change.

I have found that small easily understood blurbs of information is about all the average user is able/willing to ingest.

So the old addage of keep it simple stupid would apply here.

:rolleyes: