02-23-2024, 06:13 PM
(02-06-2024, 07:26 PM)chriswest Wrote:(02-06-2024, 10:31 AM)XORadmin Wrote: I see your point and I do agree that the manual can be better. And with every new revision I do improve it.
On the other hand you are not talking with a big team of media designers, industrial designers, graphic designers, a big development team, a support team etc like most of the other companies are. I don't invest time for a fancy manual, influencer style videos etc for an average product.
This is a 1 man company and there I got to do everything. And the most important time I spend is to make a top product. The manual is surely not my strongest point and as you surely already found out, English is not my native language and even worse my English at school was very basic. And before you give the advice that I should find someone to do it... I did multiple times and it always failed big time with much time and money/hardware lost! And there is no budget to hire someone for this. Believe me, there is a reason that Eurorack/Music companies dying these days...
And you are not talking about a manual like every other you probably compare with where everything is said within 20 pages. This is much more complex.
I do not agree and it is definitely not correct that they are RTFM responses. The opposite actually, I always try to help people with a solution and often point additionally to the part of the manual (which I simply very often use the search function to get to the part where things are described) so people can gather more information about it. I can't always explain every functionality again and again since many questions do repeat or are at least similar to others. Doesn't matter I always try to help... So the fact about RTFM responses is definitely wrong. I don't see myself with that. Not to mention all the support contacts I get outside of this forum from every social and external sources which I also always try to satisfy 24/7 (well sometimes I do sleep in between).
Another thing, people are overwhelmed about (currently 188 pages) of the manual already (and the current preliminary version is not even formatted well yet...didn't find time yet to finish that including many small corrections and some more pictures). Adding loads of paragraphs would let the whole manual size increase to surely 250 pages. I don't think that this would make people more happy. I am not happy either about the current amount already, but there is just so much information and complexity.
A fact I can point you to is that the manual is always available as a document on github..
https://github.com/XORElectronics
Feel free to download it and edit it in your favorite word processor. That would make your current workflow easier. Maybe they are even functions where you can mark everything and just let the processor do its thing. Maybe you can share this then on the forum or so and maybe I can take over some improvements. (Not that I want to move any work to you! In the end it is of course my job to maintain the manual).
That said...I do agree that it can be better, I think adding many paragraphs is going to scare more people about the size of the manual, I do not agree about your 'RTFM' conclusion...support is given at any times even though this is a forum where people should help each other normally..but I often don't want to wait for someone to answer so I do that.
But, don't feel discouraged to suggest any improvements. If you follow it well then you can see that many many suggestions ended up in both the manual and the firmware and I tend to keep on doing this.
Cheers!
Firstly, I would like to extend my sincere apologies for the frankness in my previous communication regarding the RTFM paragraph in your forum posts. Upon reflection, I recognize that I may have inadvertently projected my own (easily annoyed) personality onto your communication, and for that, I am sorry.
However, I would like to respectfully express a differing perspective on the matter of keeping the manual concise. In my opinion, the advantages of having a manual with higher readability and clearer structure, even if it means adding a few extra pages, outweigh the potential drawbacks. I acknowledge that this is a subjective viewpoint, and I understand if it may not align with your priorities, particularly while you focus on perfecting the product.
Nevertheless, I truly appreciate the thorough response you provided. The insight you shared about the github document is invaluable and will undoubtedly save me a significant amount of work. If I find a moment to revise the manual in its entirety, I'll make sure to share it with the community.
Thank you again for your time and consideration. Keep up the excellent work!
Hey Chriswest as a thought… putting it with clear instructions section by section on chat gpt4. im sure that it can make a great job. It would be almost free and only take few hours to check that it doesnt change any stuff and finding the right promt to optimise the text consistently.