Help is at hand!

[Charlie Reams]

Matt Morrison has written an excellent and extremely comprehensive Help section for Apterous. We're still working on a few things, so please let us know if you spot anything strange from broken links and missing pages down to typos; all feedback gratefully received. Go read:

The Apterous Help pages.

Thanks also to Andrew Feist, who wrote an initial version of the section which inspired us to get to work on this.

[Matt Morrison]

This is my big apterous moment (yes, I'm still in help-guide-writing mode which means every instance of 'apterous' has to be italicised and lower case! ).

I hope it's useful, and enjoyable. It should offer a lot to new users, and at least a little something to old hands.

Don't forget, if you need any questions answered, e-mail me, or leave them in the FAQ thread.

I'd like to thank Charlie Reams, my loving and patient mother, and Jesus Christ, without whom none of this would have been possible.

[Rob Thomas]

"First".

Sorry, yuck, never done that before - feel dirty now.

Anyway, fantastic job on the help pages. Poos on it's peers. Will help new people to not feel too stupid as they blunder through their first few games, although it could be argued that was part of the fun...

Many thanks.

Rob.

<edit> "Second". Sigh.

[Jon O'Neill]

Excellent. Well done Matthew.

[Ben Wilson]

Just one nit to pick- http://www.apterous.org/help.php?page=8 Conundrums do change under Goatdown.

Otherwise, bloody awesome work.

[Matt Morrison]

Just one nit to pick- http://www.apterous.org/help.php?page=8 Conundrums do change under Goatdown.

Otherwise, bloody awesome work.

Thanks for that Ben, changed now! I did know this, as it's all accounted for in the how to play non-standard games bit, I'd just forgotten to change this reference. You're a star for spotting it, much appreesh.

[Andrew Feist]

Looks good, and more detailed than anything I had done. (I think I recognized a whole half-sentence of mine in the final product, so well done there.)

The tricky part of the help page is getting out, as most of the sidebar links don't seem to work (in Internet Explorer anyway -- works in Firefox here). Can't say why. Edit: More specifically, everything's fine up to and including "FAQ", but "Forums" and on down don't seem to actually be links.

[Matt Morrison]

The tricky part of the help page is getting out, as most of the sidebar links don't seem to work (in Internet Explorer anyway -- works in Firefox here). Can't say why. Edit: More specifically, everything's fine up to and including "FAQ", but "Forums" and on down don't seem to actually be links.

You're right Andrew, good spot. I think this is likely to be a case of Internet Explorer being The Shittest Browser Ever Made, but hopefully there's a way we can sort this.
Sadly it's not anything I can control, but I've let Charlie know...

[Michael Wallace]

Loving the other questions in the FAQs. Good stuff.

[Matt Morrison]

Loving the other questions in the FAQs. Good stuff.

Haha yeah. Funnyish. Enough to get away with anyway.

most of the sidebar links don't seem to work (in Internet Explorer)

FIXED As I suggested, it was entirely IE being shit. Get this - the single little thing causing all the links to not function was the breadcrumbs (the navigational progress bar) being in italic. That was it. Ridiculous!

[Kirk Bevins]

Awesome work lads. The graphics for examples with the annotations are just superb. You all continue to impress me with your computer skills and what one can do with one. Well done.

[Matt Morrison]

Awesome work lads. The graphics for examples with the annotations are just superb. You all continue to impress me with your computer skills and what one can do with one. Well done.

Kirk, you've given me a great, big, fat.... smile. Thanks mate.

[JimBentley]

You all continue to impress me with your computer skills and what one can do with one. Well done.

I thought Kirk sounded a bit like the Queen here, it's like something she might say at the opening of a computer factory in 1985 or something.

The help section is really impressive though, Matt, nice work.

[Andrew Feist]

One more thing: Also on page=8, you could note that numbers scoring changes in flat mode (10-difference, instead of 10/7/5).

[Matt Morrison]

One more thing: Also on page=8, you could note that numbers scoring changes in flat mode (10-difference, instead of 10/7/5).

Thank you Andrew, that is HUGELY useful. I had no idea as I don't play Flat. You're an utter star, and the Flat scoring section has now been rewritten.

[Matt Morrison]

Help section recent changes:

Welcome to apterous - registering and logging in - Updated: login cookies now shared between http://www.apterous.org and apterous.org.
Game variants, scoring systems, and custom games - Updated: Flat scoring points details more accurate.
Playing a game - Updated: Letters rounds section now includes letter-picking Patience Meter details.
Player list, User search and Head to head - Added: details of how to use the new interactive user search feature.
Inventory items - Updated: a couple more item descriptions, and description of new item notification system.
Rules and etiquette - Added: a whole new page covering cheating and etiquette issues.
Glossary - Added: another new page for providing explanations for jargon terms.

[Phil Collinge]

Rules and etiquette - Added: a whole new page covering cheating and etiquette issues.

I wonder if you could add something to the etiquette section about quitting and/or resuming games?

I had a couple of instances last week where I was playing newbies and the game froze on me. After refreshing page (no more than 2 mins max) my opponent in each case had started a new game and I had to wait until they had finished before resuming the adjourned games.

[Matt Morrison]

Rules and etiquette - Added: a whole new page covering cheating and etiquette issues.

I wonder if you could add something to the etiquette section about quitting and/or resuming games?

I had a couple of instances last week where I was playing newbies and the game froze on me. After refreshing page (no more than 2 mins max) my opponent in each case had started a new game and I had to wait until they had finished before resuming the adjourned games.

Good idea Phil. Done:

"If a game crashes and you notice your opponent has left the lobby, don't go and start another game straight away. Give them a minute or so to return - they've probably just logged out due to a connection problem, and are on their way back to log in."

[Maxine Silkstone]

Think one of them was me Phil, sorry! Not known for my patience!
Max

[Phil Collinge]

Maxine, neither of the two games I referred to involved you.

I would like to think we know each other well enough to be able to speak personally had that been the case.

[Matt Morrison]

A whole ton of stuff has been updated in the Help section.
http://www.apterous.org/help.php

About 15-20 new or updated screenshots, and about 5 or 6 pages with considerable text changes.
All new features have been documented, including: 9s in the chat panel, item tab in the game lobby, new numbers interface, and so on.