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Thread: Mamba Black user manual

  1. #11
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    Default

    The problem with doing it like that - having anyone edit it - means I could easily end up being very disjointed and hence no use to anyone. It would be better to have a single moderator that can keep the structure so that its easy for anyone to understand.

    As for the trademark - yes I agree with you about that but this is only an issue if we are trying to use the name for commercial purposes. We will be seeking Medialas aproval of what we publish - hence another reason why its improtant that it is not a free for all.

    Ultimately this should help Medialas sell the product as having lots of information and online help give people confidence in a product.

    Rob
    If you need to ask the question 'whats so good about a laser' - you won't understand the answer.
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Laserists do it by the nanometre.

    Stanwax Laser is a Corporate Member of Ilda

    Stanwax Laser main distributor of First Contact in UK - like us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/FirstContactPolymerCleaner
    www.photoniccleaning.co.uk

  2. #12
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    Cool

    I tend to agree with Rob re: moderation. If you allow just anyone to edit the document, you'll get spammed for sure and end up with a worthless document. Even without spammers, you'll probably get plenty of useless content posted by disgruntled customers or fanboys from other competitors. (You know the sort: long on complaints but short on details or solutions.)

    No, I think a moderator is a smart idea in this case. You're building a user's manual, so it's not like a forum... There really can be a "wrong opinion" when it comes to a user's manual, so censoring is warranted. (Forums, on the other hand, are supposed to promote discussion and bring new opinions to light, so some noise in the signal can be tolerated in the name of free expression...)

    As far as the trademark issue, I agree that it would be good to check with Medialas, but honestly I can't believe they didn't reserve the mambablack.com domain for themselves... That's really short-sighted of them. Maybe you could build a sucessful site and then sell it to them!

    Adam

  3. #13
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    well credit for the domain foresight has to go to Karl - and moreover credit for offering it to us - a very generous move indeed.
    Now I just have to make it live up to his expectations

    Rob
    If you need to ask the question 'whats so good about a laser' - you won't understand the answer.
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Laserists do it by the nanometre.

    Stanwax Laser is a Corporate Member of Ilda

    Stanwax Laser main distributor of First Contact in UK - like us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/FirstContactPolymerCleaner
    www.photoniccleaning.co.uk

  4. #14
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    Maybe you are right, yes. Just a small moderator.

    But I think its not right to write all the good ideas of changing some lines or parts of the manual to this moderator.

    It would be better to 'publish' these ideas, so that other people can 'fine tune' the idea until its a good story to implement into the manual.
    So , pick out the best lines to discribe an object or feature and than upload the manual. But than its becoming a forum-thing again.


    Be continued

  5. #15
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    as for the domain name ..... i aquired it a couple of years after Mamba was on the scene ..... the reason i bought it was that i wanted to set up a help forum for mamba users as everyone was complaining how non informative the manual that came with the software was .... unfortunately due to my work, i never had the time to do it

    the site will be solely for information for the Mamba usuer base and will not be a commercial site, if Dirk does not agree with the site then we will pull the domain .... but as you can see so far ... Rob has linked the site direct back to Medialas ...... it will hopefully be a great advert for them and i would hope that they will be proud of what we are doing and it will be nice if there will be some involvement with them on the site .....

    Most of the pangolin users tell me ( and that includes Bill ) how good the Pangolin forum is .... and it is a great community .... i often visit even though im not a pangolin user ..... that has always put in the back of my mind ... why is there not a Mamba forum ? .... im guessing because that medialas sell a wide range of products it would be difficult to have a forum that covers everything .... so hopefully we as customers can help other new and potential customers, it would be a good thing, it promotes a fantastic bit of software and also provides additional support


    all the best .... Karl

  6. #16
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
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    Leicestershire, UK
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    http://support.zero88.com/forum/index.php?showforum=93

    Maybe something like this? The frog range of lighting desks don't really have an up to date manual either but you can always find out what you need to know there. Might be something that should be done in collaboration with medialas on this kind of level though, or at least with Old Grumpy involved.


    -Matt.

  7. #17
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    I wonder if we are missing the point a little here.
    The manual itself is not open to interpretation - there is no one who will argue that in the frame editor the elipse tool makes elipses and the rectangle tool....you get the picture. The only thing with the manual is writing it in a clear, concise, gramatically correct fashion, without too many typos. As long as we cover all that needs covering why should anyone have a prob. What I would like to see is it done in the style of the dummies books - not as a rip off of these but just as a guide to how we can lay it out. Mamba for dummies . What I mean is to write it so it explains the various aspects of the interface and its controls but with relevant hints& tips, do's and don'ts in the same area so you can quickly look up a topic see what to do and learn any demon tweaks, all without too much work.
    So one moderator writes up the manual based on all of the knowledge of the people who are using it. It can be updated at regular intervals - monthly, bi monthly, quarterly, whatever - as the goodies come in. The document will therefore build into the greatest resource for Mamba users irrespective of thier experience.
    Then we can read it online or download as a PDF.

    Rob
    If you need to ask the question 'whats so good about a laser' - you won't understand the answer.
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Laserists do it by the nanometre.

    Stanwax Laser is a Corporate Member of Ilda

    Stanwax Laser main distributor of First Contact in UK - like us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/FirstContactPolymerCleaner
    www.photoniccleaning.co.uk

  8. #18
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    Cool

    Rob, I agree completely. And a manual is something that Mamba desperately needs.

    In fact, when I first purchased Mamba (a little over a year ago), I had thoughts of doing exactly the same thing as you are proposing. However, while I've still got a copy of Mamba Black, I must confess that I haven't used it very much since switching to Pangolin, so I don't know how much help I can offer.

    Still, I think it's a worthwhile goal. I'm sure there are plenty of Mamba users out there that would appreciate your efforts.

    Adam

  9. #19
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    Hi rob,

    Any news about 'our' new website www.mambablack.com ?

    Maybe it's a good start to convert the current PDF manual to a format that can be edited, like a DOC file.
    I think a lot of people can't wait to post theire input for this new manual...

  10. #20
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    Cool

    Audrey;

    To answer the question in your tagline, no - you're not the first. I believe Maxine (K-car) was the first. (Yeah, that's "the" Maxine, the one that Marconi named his famous Maxyz modules after.) However, she hasn't posted here in a while... There may be one or two other registered members that are female, but off the top of my head I can't think of another one.

    For the record, Maxine did attend the first two Florida Laser Enthusiast's Meetings, so she is active with the group. However, both her and Marconi missed the last one we had, and neither one of them has been to SELEM yet. (Maybe this year...)

    Apart from her, though, the only females that have been in attendance at *any* of our Laser Enthusiast Meetings have been spouses or girlfriends, and even those have been very few and far between.

    This is almost exclusively a guy's hobby. Not that women aren't welcome, mind you. It's just that most of them aren't interested. ("Who wants to hang out with a bunch of geeks?" is the standard excuse.) I imagine it's roughly the same in the UK...

    Adam

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