Tutorial Video Link Visibility In Vortex

[nt5raham]

Tannin42, on 30 Nov 2020 - 07:51 AM, said:

 

We do link to gophers videos as tutorials inside Vortex which do explain this quite explicitly plus there is also an explanation text attached to the checkbox where you enable Profile Management in the first place that also explicitly says "All profiles for a game share the set of "available" mods, but each has its own list of "enabled" mods."

If a new user is about to enable Profiles, then clicks on the information link next to the slider to go to the Knowledge Base, where would the link to Gopher's video be found? I could not find anything about videos in the "Setting up profiles in Vortex" article by Pickysaurus from 2018. I don't doubt that the videos are there, but if one is using the provided entry point next to the option, where along that path would one find them?

[HadToRegister]

Those videos need to be updated, they were made two years ago, and a lot has changed with Vortex, such as installing Script Extenders.

[nt5raham]

Understood (I noticed that you gave the same response in the Profiles thread). But this is not a question of are they up to date, it is a question of where are they along the path? They need to be easily found when learning about a topic, now and after they are updated. Unless I am missing something, when a person goes to enable Profiles for the first time, they see an information link there, and it does not lead to any videos.

 

Edit: From @Tannin's response, he seems to be relying on these videos as a primary means of providing details, and it is not working (even with "senior" Vortex users). I think lack of visibility is a key issue here.

 

Edit 2: Even if they are not up to date, @Tannin says Gopher's video contains the information needed by @Zanderat. It could have saved a lot of heartache. It doesn't do any good to have a fire extinguisher hidden away in a closet. It needs to be out in the open, easily seen by those not intimately familiar with the layout of the area.

[HadToRegister]

Understood (I noticed that you gave the same response in the Profiles thread). But this is not a question of are they up to date, it is a question of where are they along the path? They need to be easily found when learning about a topic, now and after they are updated. Unless I am missing something, when a person goes to enable Profiles for the first time, they see an information link there, and it does not lead to any videos.

 

Edit: From @Tannin's response, he seems to be relying on these videos as a primary means of providing details, and it is not working (even with "senior" Vortex users). I think lack of visibility is a key issue here.

 

Edit 2: Even if they are not up to date, @Tannin says Gopher's video contains the information needed by @Zanderat. It could have saved a lot of heartache. It doesn't do any good to have a fire extinguisher hidden away in a closet. It needs to be out in the open, easily seen by those not intimately familiar with the layout of the area.

 

Well the TUTORIALS Button with the Video Symbol up in the menu bar in the Mods tab, is there, but it only contains 3 topics.

 

I don't know if there are any more.

I've asked for better documentation but was told by Tannin that he doesn't believe in Manuals.

[nt5raham]

From a visibility standpoint, it seems that the most common place that a user would look for videos would be in the KNOWLEDGE BASE, yet I could not find a Tutorials button there, only as you said with MODS and PLUGINS. Another important place would be in SETTINGS (thus my quote of Tannin from the Profiles thread) where the INFORMATION links are placed. Where there are bright red flags waving that say "look here for help" there are no video links.

[Tannin42]

Just to clarify something here: Everything Zanderat had a problem with is very explicitly explained in the documentation that exists - Vortex has a manual integrated. Part of it even had a bright red "Warning" box around it.

 

When a large part of the community isn't reading or understanding the documentation, what good will having more of it do?

And Zanderat speaks english as his native language, now imagine how much a long manual doesn't help our chinese users? Or our French users?

[nt5raham]

@Tannin42, thanks for your reply! I really am trying to help address the problem you mentioned of the existing documentation not being utilized. That is why I started a separate thread, to single out a specific aspect. If the videos were referenced in the Knowledge Base and at the Information link where Profiles are enabled, I think they would be used more. I'm not suggesting more content to make it longer, I'm suggesting we make it more visible by presenting it in the places where it is more likely to be needed.

 

Also, I reviewed Gopher's Vortex video 6 about profiles twice yesterday (I had not looked at it in a while). I could not find any information about how Install/Uninstall affects all profiles. So if we are counting on the video to address the issue, that is a problem as well.

[Zanderat]

From a visibility standpoint, it seems that the most common place that a user would look for videos would be in the KNOWLEDGE BASE, yet I could not find a Tutorials button there, only as you said with MODS and PLUGINS. Another important place would be in SETTINGS (thus my quote of Tannin from the Profiles thread) where the INFORMATION links are placed. Where there are bright red flags waving that say "look here for help" there are no video links.

 

 

Just to clarify something here: Everything Zanderat had a problem with is very explicitly explained in the documentation that exists - Vortex has a manual integrated. Part of it even had a bright red "Warning" box around it.

 

When a large part of the community isn't reading or understanding the documentation, what good will having more of it do?

And Zanderat speaks english as his native language, now imagine how much a long manual doesn't help our chinese users? Or our French users?

I will make my mea culpa for not reading the documentation. But @nt5raham is correct. I am guilty of making certain assumptions about how profiles worked (that they were truly independent). But, perhaps a pop-up tool tip type warning (that could be disabled once read) might be an easy to implement solution for some of Vortex's functions?

 

The other side issue, is the backup function. Vortex desperately needs some sort of backup so a user can easily recover their load order and rules in case of something catastrophic happening.

[Tannin42]

https://youtu.be/wX7bf48jYFw?t=143 is where Gopher shows and explains that - switch to a different Profile - you have the same mods, just the enabled/disabled changes.

 

Look, documentation and tutorials can only be "constructive". They can explain to you how the tool works and what features it has. It can't explain everything it is not. If Gopher went and addressed any possible expectation people may have and tell how that is *not* how it works, the video would be around 21 years long instead of 21 minutes.

Its completely impractical documenting everything Vortex is not.

 

The Backup feature as well: It explains very explicitly what it backs up. It can't list everything it doesn't back up. We have third party game extensions, the person doing the documentation can't possible know what files may make sense to be backed up for each game but aren't.

 

You want a reliable backup feature? That would mean that every game extension third party devs contribute would have to specify every single file that might possible require backup.

The consequence is that game extensions are harder to develop and thus we get fewer and thus fewer games are supported in total.

There is always a trade-off and this would be a horrible one because there are plenty of windows backup solutions out there, you don't need one integrated into Vortex.

Just get something like https://personal-backup.rathlev-home.de/persback.html and set it up to back up the files you need backed up.

[AugustaCalidia]

In regard to a full backup feature in Vortex, I agree with Tannin42 that it's not needed. As he states, there are Windows backup solutions aplenty. Many of these solutions are easy to implement. In my case I regularly back up "AppData\Roaming\Vortex" to an internal backup 4TB HDD using Macrium Reflect. That Vortex folder contains all of my downloads and mods, as well as profiles, etc. Being paranoid, I even back up the folder to two external HDD's!