When will the Xenforo 2 Manual be finished?

[jca]

As a new user, I'm learning how Xenforo 2 works. Obviously these public forums are a valuable resource and I appreciate all the info/help offered by other users here.

But I was surprised to see how incomplete and unfinished the Xenforo 2 Manual documentation seems to be. There are entire sections, areas, functions, etc. that have little to no mention in the manual.

For example, the Advertising section of the software isn't even mentioned once in the manual. That seems like an really important section of the website/admin area (it has it's own Advertising menu item in the Options menu section), but there is no description/text/guide on how it works. That seems like a critical area that needs to be covered in the manual.



I see a lot of threads in the forums asking how the Advertising section works, and several long-time users getting frustrated giving the same answer(s) over and over about it. It seems like Xenforo leans heavily on user generated help/documentation/etc.

Are there plans to update/improve the Xenforo manual?

 

[jca]

Just checking in from 2 years ago and still see there is no Advertising documentation in the Xenforo manual.

When will there be documentation for the Advertising function? (The option is right there at the top of the Admin left side menu, third option under Setup -- it's not some "buried" or minor section, it has it's own top-level menu item.)

Any help or information on this?

 

[FTL]

Good question. I've been thinking about how to add advertising and while I haven't properly looked into it, I did notice that it was missing from the manual, the one place where it should be.

Maybe there's something on it in this forum?

 

[Paul B]

The manual doesn't cover everything.

There's not really much to explain about the advertising system - it's a single page feature and the fields are self explanatory.

 

[FTL]

@Brogan With respect, I think in general, a manual should cover everything, even if it's just a very short explanation. The main reason is that these things aren't necessarily obvious to everybody. I'm generalising here to any product, not just XenForo.

Personally, I find the manual tending to lack detail and clarification that would make it easier to understand and fully grasp the complex product that is XenForo. I don't mean that it's a bad manual, not at all, but it could definitely be filled out more to make it more user friendly, especially so for first time forum admins.

I know people can ask in this forum if they're stuck or unsure, but it really does break one's flow and is frustrating to get stuck on something, so anything that eases this is to be welcomed.

I doubt my comment will change anything unfortunately, but I think this important point should be on record.

 

[Old Nick]

This forum is the complete manual.

 

[Forsaken]

I'm not exactly sure what issue you would have with the native advertising feature... You select a position, and add the code you want and then choose who can see it.

The only confusing things would be what position is which (but they are usually self explanatory) or what to add for code (if it is not just a copy/paste of AdSense).

 

[beerForo]

@jca let us know this issue you are facing and we will do our best to solve it.

 

[alternadiv]

@jca let us know this issue you are facing and we will do our best to solve it.

I'm not exactly sure what issue you would have with the native advertising feature

It sounds like @jca is not necessarily asking for help with the advertising system.

He's using the advertising system to make a point that the manual is:

tending to lack detail and clarification that would make it easier to understand and fully grasp the complex product that is XenForo. I don't mean that it's a bad manual, not at all, but it could definitely be filled out more to make it more user friendly, especially so for first time forum admins.

And unless the manual is meant to be for a specific part of XF, it probably:

should cover everything, even if it's just a very short explanation. The main reason is that these things aren't necessarily obvious to everybody. I'm generalising here to any product, not just XenForo.

This forum is the complete manual.

How can I get Toyota to make my forum the complete manual for the Tacoma? That would surely increase site traffic.

 

[Forsaken]

It sounds like @jca is not necessarily asking for help with the advertising system.

He's using the advertising system to make a point that the manual is:


And unless the manual is meant to be for a specific part of XF, it probably:

How can I get Toyota to make my forum the complete manual for the Tacoma? That would surely increase site traffic.

The problem is if it is something that isn't really something you can expand on, it is telling you nothing more than the configuration page itself does. And then you get people upset that you have a crappy manual regardless of having a page or not.

 

[alternadiv]

The problem is if it is something that isn't really something you can expand on, it is telling you nothing more than the configuration page itself does. And then you get people upset that you have a crappy manual regardless of having a page or not.

That would be reasonable but there are certainly things they could use the manual to elaborate in our advertising example.

From the perspective of someone brand new to XF and/or dev in general, the manual could answer:

How is "advertising" defined in the core? Are the positions literally just pre-placed widgets or are they special? If they are no different than regular widgets, having them in a separate menu labeled as "advertising" would be misleading. But if they are special widgets, that should be explained in the manual.

 

[jca]

Appreciate all the responses here -- I will certainly ask for help in the forum (as I have in the past) with any questions.

I revived this old thread because I was curious why the Xenforo team (still) has entire feature(s) not even mentioned in the manual. It just seems weird to me that there is a top-level menu item/section/function that doesn't even appear ANYWHERE in the manual for a paid piece of software. Considering it covers monetizing a user's forum, I imagine it would be an important thing to cover.

In my opinion, "self explanatory", with regards to documentation for commercial software, isn't a thing. There is a reason companies print "This page intentionally left blank". Just having a heading/section mentioning (in this case) Advertising with a simple blurb about the feature, that it does in fact, exist, would be better than nothing at all.

I'm sure Xenforo (the company) has a reason why it's not there, I just wondered what it might be.