Topic

Help channel

Here's what the Wiki says about the help channel:
Help Channel - is there to help people out. Developers and experienced testers scan the Help Channel to answer any question you might have.
Question: when is this going to be implemented? If testers don't model this behaviour now, and Glitch is launched with the help channel being in fact not help but a social chitchat space for a clique of testers, the help channel may never fulfil its stated purpose.

Posted 21 months ago by Emu Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • As far as i'm aware the help channel will not be there by the time we go live. I'm sure someone else will point out if I'm wrong about that :)
    Posted 21 months ago by Misha Subscriber! | Permalink
  • although it can get chit-chatty, in my experience, people are pretty good about answering questions now.  and also, yeah, what misha said.
    Posted 21 months ago by katlazam Subscriber! | Permalink
  • We do actually answer questions in there, but when no one's asking them, the conversation naturally widens.  A lot of the discussion stems from questions, and helpful information usually emerges.  We also have a lot of "bug or feature?" conversations, and staff members and experienced players do often start private conversations with players who need further assistance.

    As Misha said, we've been told that the help channel won't actually be there in its current state for much longer, but I don't know what will replace it.
    Posted 21 months ago by glum pudding Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Personally, I think it would be better to have a separate chat channel so people looking for advice can more easily scan through the recent help posts. I was a bit irritated with the huge number of chit-chats flowing by when I needed to ask a question (which, admittedly, was answered eventually by someone, but for awhile there I thought I was being ignored). There's zero possibility of just scrolling up to see if someone else has already answered a question you're thinking of asking right now (too much other stuff to sift through).
    Posted 21 months ago by Shepherdmoon Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I have no problem with the chit-chat. I think that if it weren't for it then I would not have progressed as far in the game as I have. For instance, I never realized that you could buy houses until I saw someone chatting about the garden at their house. I think it is great if it is kept to chatting about the game, which so far it seems to be. 
    Posted 21 months ago by Leafpaw Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I do agree with Misha partly because shes scary - my only comment is that sometimes the help channel helps out to easily with solving in game problems.  One example is the rook quest - i saw quite a few people saying "how do you do it?" actually the answer is "keep tryimg until ypu work it out" help should be last resort not a quick in game peoblem fix
    Posted 21 months ago by Bob Apple Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I would like to be able to mute the help channel/chat. I like having  it open, but the constant clicks are really annoying.
    Posted 21 months ago by shhexy corin Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I have to agree with Shepherdmoon, it is difficult to know if your question has been seen amid the flood of chit chat in the help window and then sometimes the reply when its given is scrolled up so fast you have barely enough time to read it. I think having a Glitch Chat and a Help Channel might be the answer,  whereby if you are looking for in game tips, hints or general game news you would look at Glitch Chat, whereas Help would be solely for those with definite in game problems /bugs to report.
    Posted 21 months ago by Faereluth Subscriber! | Permalink
  • You make good points, many of which are reasons there won't be a Help Channel or Global Chat in the future. Perhaps the most relevant is that, "it is difficult to know if your question has been seen amid the flood of chit chat in the help window and then sometimes the reply when its given is scrolled up so fast you have barely enough time to read it."

    As we continue to invite more players, a global chat just doesn't scale.  It's bad enough now, but imagine what it would be like with another 100, 1000, 10000+ players trying to chat.  Just too tough to follow the conversation.

    Groups and group chat are part of the solution and we'll be implementing a different help system at some point in the future.  Not 100% sure what it will look like at the moment, but we'll make it good!
    Posted 21 months ago by jdawg Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Right now there is Help, plus a chat channel for every group a player belongs to.   Several times groups have been created specifically to be a place for chit chat only and nobody goes to them.  I think the max attendance I have seen in the busiest one was four. And they were all chatting concurrently in Help.

    People want to chat AND they want to provide answers to questions (I know that best describes me), and the Help channel appears to be rising to the top among the chat choices for that, and it always has.  And I don't think it will ever change.  

    The only way to fix Help is to make it so that only two people can be in it at any given time: the asker and the answerer.  

    Maybe instead of more chat channels that no one uses, we need another Help channel called the No Chat Help Channel.   Or an actual information desk in game that people have to queue up to.  There would be chat there too, from people in line, but at least the chat on screen would be spread out in little bubbles and thereby be easier to ignore.  It could be staffed by a bureaucroc, so someone's avatar would not be pulled out of the game, but its responses would be coming from a real person assigned to spend time in Help, or from anyone (dev or volunteer) hooked into it.
    Posted 21 months ago by Nanookie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Emu - please keep in mind... the wiki is written by testers, players... people who have no affiliation with Tiny Speck whatsoever, other than testing Glitch. The wiki is not written in stone, it does change as more information is gathered.

    Until there's a different system offered, I don't see the Help Channel as having any more of a specific function then serving as a global chat, despite the name. Given that when you enter the world, it automatically opens (yes, it auto-loads, have screen shots from my husbands tutorial if it helps)... the Help Channel (or whatever the function gets renamed to) will probably always be cluttered, busy, and contain non-specific chatter. It's the curse of being the ONLY way for new people to communicate. As for the volume, more than a few times I thought I'd been disconnected or Flash was fouling up because there was NO chatter in the Help Channel, so we're only 'saturated' at busy times. Don't believe me, pull an all-nighter next time.

    Some of the Groups actually use their chat function when the world is running. It's handy, it's fun, and there's usually a handful of people scanning the Help Channel for any important information and relaying it back. As the world continues to expand, more people will naturally rely on Group chatter to get away from the insanity of the Help Channel. I don't think we need someone directing traffic, and if we do the responsibility sits with the developers and Tiny Speck employees to do it - not a player. I'd hate to think we're already building some sort of proprietary elitist nanny state culture where we're comfortable ordering others around... there are Employees to do that. I think if it was getting too noisy, the developers would have no issues telling people to shut up so they can see what's going on.

    Several Groups have been established over the months with the express purpose of giving people a place to chatter other than the Help Channel. Few people use them. The Glitch Strategy Group has over 1,000 players and is fully capable of taking the load of social chatter, and there's at least 4 groups called Global Chat, Social Chat, or any other variation. The Groups are poorly introduced, and only started being functionally useful to people about a month ago. Any 'fix' to the Help Channel needs coupled with introducing The Other Ways To Communicate.

    The topic has been debated to death in the Ideas Forum. Have a look to see the variety of things that have been suggested already. As for the audio, when I'm tired of hearing it, I open an IM. It sends the Channels to the background and shuts them up. A little counter appears letting you know how many messages you've not read.
    Posted 21 months ago by Travinara Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I enjoyed the chat yesterday in the FS refugees group which I belong to. I went there rather than the help channel since I mostly knew what I was doing. When I had a question I asked in the group and got a helpful response. When I did the Firefly quest I was told to keep trying. That was good advice because it was soo funny to experience the whole thing. (I don't want to give it away myself). I also trolled the help channel briefly here and there to see if I could offer any assistance to others. Things do move quickly but I'm sure it will all be ironed out eventually :)
    Posted 21 months ago by Holly Waterfall Subscriber! | Permalink
  • A lot of the chat we get is discussing the stuff in the help channel. After a question on powders the discussion evolves, I have used groups to chat but it is hard to watch the help channel and my own groups.

    I did actually write that quote at the top and it is true, if there is a question we do try to answer it but the help channel is also very convenient in announcing projects, parties and events. It is also the only place to talk to the devs since they don't join groups (for the most part).


    I shall update the wiki
    Posted 21 months ago by Ani Laurel Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Next test, I'm going to start pestering members of the Free Lovin' Glitches to get into the FLG group channel and at least check in every now and again.  We had some awesome special events planned for last test that flopped because nobody was watching the FLG channel.
    Posted 21 months ago by Doc Oblongata Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Originally, the channel was purely for help.  After a few months, it got chit chatty, but still mostly sticks to game topics.
    Posted 21 months ago by Tingly Claus Subscriber! | Permalink
  • It's interesting reading all the parts about people not using the group chat channels because that is the chat feature I have used nearly exclusively since I started testing (about four tests ago). I think I looked at the Help Channel once and thought, eh, this is too busy and my friends are in the group chat; I'll just stay in there. And I LOVE the group chat box. We are also helping each other out in our group chat window (we're not nearly as knowledgeable as the devs and longtime players but we usually manage to at least point people in the right direction). But because the group is much smaller than the total game population, our chat goes by slower and is less cluttered. So I guess I'm plugging the group chat idea! And, Doc, I'm sorry about that w/ the FLG channel...I'm in that group too and forgot to check that channel as I got busy in the other group channel (abashed).
    Posted 21 months ago by RM Subscriber! | Permalink