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Plain English Campaign help

  • Strat
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« Reply #16 on 06/04/2008, 21:02 »
<Speaks quietly/>

A router will not get you onto the Internet without a modem. It's a Modem/Router or a Gateway.

<sneaks away hoping no-one noticed/>


By the way. Why does the phrase 'can of worms' spring to mind Tongue

« Last Edit: 06/04/2008, 21:07 by Strat »

Plusnet Customer and Forum Moderator  Which gateway am I on and How is it Performing (Scroll down to your Gateway Graph)
Acronyms are a PITA
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« Reply #17 on 06/04/2008, 21:27 »
Quote from: Strat on 06/04/2008, 21:02
<Speaks quietly/>
By the way. Why does the phrase 'can of worms' spring to mind Tongue

because someone opened one here............................. Grin
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« Reply #18 on 06/04/2008, 21:29 »
Nice to get some help on putting this together, thanks Ben/All. A Glossary used to feature on our help pages a long time ago but was removed and never replaced for some reason (my hunch is that is was deemed by some as being a bit too 'techy').  Anyway whatever the reason we know that we need a good basic glossary back and because you'd mentioned that you'd like one (if I remember correctly Bob M & Midnight Caller were discussing forum use of technical terms) I'd put that item into our roadmap (http://community.plus.net...support-roadmap-for-2008/).  Running a bit behind whilst we get the team motoring but we'll definitely get the glossary up this month and add to it as we go.

All suggestions and contributions will be most welcomed.

« Last Edit: 07/04/2008, 09:00 by Peter J »

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  • Bob Milton
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« Reply #19 on 06/04/2008, 22:02 »
Peter J.
Please don't think I'm wanting to criticise you personally, but I somehow get the impression that some people are not very concerned with helping novices to understand what is to them something new. What has to be understood is that there are old folk like me who were not brought up with computers etc. I understand that schools teach the pupils about computers. When I left school in 1946, almost the only computer in existence was Colossus at Bletchley and you know we knew nothing of that.
There is a generation gap of more than one generation sometimes.
Don't feel sorry for us just understand.
Bob
Acluistic [adj.]
The state of being completely 'without a clue.'
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  • Jameseh
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« Reply #20 on 06/04/2008, 23:44 »
I don't think that anyone is suggesting that at all Bob, which has been pointed out on this very forum numerous times.

I think it's a case of deciding what is relevant for this glossary.

*notes shocking use of "definately" from the head of content team*

« Last Edit: 07/04/2008, 08:15 by Jameseh »

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  • Bob Milton
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« Reply #21 on 06/04/2008, 23:57 »
P J,
I read again your last contribution and followed the roadmap link. It led me to some more stuff I don't understand. I ask, what is Wordpress, CPE, TR-69 and AJAX.
You also mention putting 'ticket raising at the foot'. When I see a webpage, inevitably my display leaves the bottom out of sight. Is there any problem with putting the link elsewhere?
I wonder if we are doomed to having the years old system for ever, because it is too much trouble to start again from the beginning. I have seen better websites which are easier to navigate through.
regards,
Bob

« Last Edit: 07/04/2008, 00:12 by Bob Milton »

Acluistic [adj.]
The state of being completely 'without a clue.'
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  • Bob Milton
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« Reply #22 on 07/04/2008, 00:02 »
Jameseh,
The problem I have, is to be asked what needs to be altered, and then told that perhaps the existing system is OK after all.
regards,
Bob
Note 'ing ' seems to be missing from end of suggesting.

« Last Edit: 07/04/2008, 00:06 by Bob Milton »

Acluistic [adj.]
The state of being completely 'without a clue.'
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  • Jameseh
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« Reply #23 on 07/04/2008, 08:17 »
Duly noted. You have a comma preceeding "and" Tongue

We are not the Oxford English Dictionary.  It is not our responsibility to provide definitions for every single acronym or abbreviation in the England language.

Bob - Bookmark http://wikipedia.org

Or in simpler terms, "Google It".
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  • Bob Milton
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« Reply #24 on 07/04/2008, 08:34 »
Jameseh,
The topic is about the use of plain English and I beleive it was started to get some idea of what the customers wanted clarification on.
It seems that when they tell Ben and Pete Jackson what they would like, someone else says 'you don't want that' or 'we've tried that'.
The real issue for me is that the website is not easy to navigate and there is a large amount of jargon and too many obscure abbreviations.
regards,
Bob
Acluistic [adj.]
The state of being completely 'without a clue.'
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  • Jameseh
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« Reply #25 on 07/04/2008, 08:37 »
Bob,

Certainly, if our website is confusing and you feel that there may be too much jargon, then that is certainly an issue which the content team will be looking into.

What my point was surrounding is that normally if people find something they they're not sure of, they can look it up, in the same manner that they would look up a word in a dictionary.  Often, avoiding putting a detailed explanation on a same page, can save the page from becoming too long, which would also discourage people from reading it.

Please note, I'm just being opinionated, for a change.
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« Reply #26 on 07/04/2008, 09:10 »
Quote from: Bob Milton on 06/04/2008, 22:02
Please don't think I'm wanting to criticise you personally, but I somehow get the impression that some people are not very concerned with helping novices..

Eh?  I must admit you've got me puzzled there.  I just said that I'd remembered your conversation about this topic and had made sure that the return of the glossary was on my roadmap when I was putting it together in Dec/Jan.  When it comes to our focus on website content and supporting materials I like to think we place as much, if not more, emphasis on getting new customers up and running.  If you read through the roadmap you'll see it littered with work directed towards the new starter.  I don't think you could have got me any more wrong with what you said Bob..
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  • Bob Milton
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« Reply #27 on 07/04/2008, 11:03 »
Peter J,
I said that because in other previous topics I have (with other people) commented on difficulties etc and the use of abbreviations.
It seems that those comments have never reached you. At one stage I believe I recall Neil Armstrong was fleetingly involved, but I may be confused.
I will try to find those comments if I can but it will take a little time. I am well known to believe that these forums are not the best way to talk to folk, but they seem to be highly thought of. maybe I'm an old fuddy duddy who cherishes face to face talk, preferably without interruption.
regards,
Bob
Acluistic [adj.]
The state of being completely 'without a clue.'
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  • James_H
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« Reply #28 on 07/04/2008, 11:05 »
But if you don't want interruption, you can use a private method for your communications - eg telephone or tickets as two examples.

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« Reply #29 on 07/04/2008, 11:38 »
Quote from: Bob Milton on 07/04/2008, 11:03
It seems that those comments have never reached you.

Oh, they reached me, you don't need to worry about that.  When it comes to building a glossary clearly we'll need to start somewhere.. it is not our intention to build a wikipedia, nor is our intention to launch with anything other than a foundation that we can build on.  Otherwise we'd never get the thing off the ground.  Bob, I think your highlighting my use of terms such as Wordpress, AJAX and so forth in the roadmap is fair game and I recognise that there is an expectation of knowledge in the way I wrote that.  My point in directing you towards it was simply to point out that I'm directing resource at materials for new starters.

I'd be happy to provide a basic overview of particular areas of that document if you'd like me to, although that would probably be best in another forum/thread.
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  • Penny
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« Reply #30 on 07/04/2008, 11:46 »
Quote from: BenTrimble on 06/04/2008, 10:00
My name's Ben, I'm one of the Technical Support guys in the CSC but I'm helping our products team with a project for the Plain English Campaign. I'd really like your input on creating a glossary of technical terms to be integrated into our website - thanks in advance for any help that you can give!

We like to keep our website simple, but inevitably it contains a lot of technical terms that some of our customers don't understand. To try to get around this, we'd like to collate a list of terms and their corresponding explanations to make understanding our website easier

PUG started a Glossary some long while back at http://usergroup.plus.net...dex.php/topic,2990.0.html - I don't think it was ever linked to from the PN help pages, but it does include a lot of terms that non-techy customers might find useful, and used to link to relevant help pages on all the PN vISP sites.

The PUG glossary hasn't been updated for a fair while now (not since the vISPs were amalgamated, I don't think, and the PUG people have their hands full with things like PUGIT) but perhaps some of the content might be useful for the PN Glossary that's now being put together.  I think it probably includes the bulk of the acronyms etc. that you might want to include.

Regards,

Penny.
Penny Rollo
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  • Jameseh
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« Reply #31 on 07/04/2008, 11:52 »
It's okay Penny.

I've linked to that a few times in here Smiley
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