RE: FLASH: The Evolution of this Mailing List

[Rusty Worden]

Umm... Bill Wagner, I am a Tech Writer who has graduated to multimedia in the form of online documentation. I have read the Flash manual and, quite honestly, it is not one of the better documents I've ever read. For example, how many people here were able to figure out Tell Target without going to some other means of assistance? How many people here were able to pick apart MM's example of the pop up menu using the documentation or the .fla file they provided? I had myself and my mentor working on trying to figure that one out for two weeks when we finally went to Seybold and bullied one of the MM guys into showing it to us as part of his demo. Once he showed it to us we went back and made one of our own. We then wrote a process and compared it to MM's manual. We never would have been able to do it had we kept on looking at the manual.


No question is a dumb question unless you already know the answer.

Rusty


At 06:51 PM 11/4/98 +0000, you wrote:

>It is a strong mail, but I cannot avoid to agree with whats written in

>it.

>

>My Vote is:

>	In favor.

>

>Bernardo Antunes

>

>-----Original Message-----

>

From: Bill Wagner [billpwrtst [dot] com (mailto:billpwrtst [dot] com)]

>Sent: Quarta-feira, 4 de Novembro de 1998 18:31

>

To: flashershocker [dot] com

>Subject: FLASH: The Evolution of this Mailing List

>

>

>I've noticed a definite shift in the tone and content of the messages

>being

>posted to this list recently and I don't find it very encouraging. I've

>read

>a great number of postings that could have been avoided had the poster

>read

>the manual included with Flash. As a technical writer, I can give my

>endorsement to Macromedia's manual writing department. They have

>assembled

>an above average manual and an excellent on-line help system. Most

>people

>who pony up the $300 for Flash would do well to read it.

>I thought the main purpose of this mailing list (or any other developer

>list

>not labelled tech support) was for developers who are excited about this

>emerging standard to get together and discuss ideas, review each other's

>work and talk about the dissemination of this exciting new technology.

>Don't get me wrong, I am all for helping each other out with tricky

>problems

>on a conceptual level, but it just isn't fair to the readers of this

>list or

>the people who always seem to be answering the tech support questions

>when

>people post frantic messages about problems that are easily avoidable.

>Maybe

>some of you shouldn't be making promises you can't keep to your clients

>and

>then expecting the developers on this list to bail you out in the

>eleventh

>hour. Everyone involved with this list would learn alot more if we could

>all

>achieve at least some minimal baseline working knowledge of this

>wonderful

>new tool. I am by no means at the level of, say, a John C. but I realize

>this when I send out a quote or embark on a new project. If I run into a

>sticky spot, I've found that I can usually figure it out myself if I

>step

>back, analyze the problem critically and, if necessary, review the

>support

>materials. I highly recommend this process to anyone who is having

>consistent problems using Flash.

>

>Bill Wagner

>Media Coordinator

>Power Test, Inc.

>

>

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