CES.com suggestion - more examples of WIKI styles.

[InformationNirvana]

I think many potential customers would be able to say ... "Hey, vaultwiki could work on my site" if they were shown many many more examples how vaultwiki could be implemented on their site.

Vaultwiki as a simple manual.

Including some screenshots of "the look" of vaultwiki in other themes and usages is a good idea.

Seeing is believing.

Ideally, more customers would show their site as a "Live vaultwiki" site.
Second best, would be showing more examples how vaultwiki could be used.

Ultimately I'd like to see vaultwiki skins .... something people would likely pay for.

I've also suggested that endusers like things like:

Make a manual ... look like a manual

I think currently vaultwiki is targeted for "Hard Core" wiki needs ... which is how I want to use it .... but I think it should target a larger audience of people who want simple editable manuals. I think there is a much larger audience that has simple wants. I think complicated things like "Namespace" and these things might turn off the site with simpler perceived needs.

HTH.

[pegasus]

Yes, we recently added a screenshots page to show some of VaultWiki's features. I agree that some more styles need to be shown, and I also agree that we need some sort of link directory here for our clients to list their sites in. I'm sure you've noticed that quite a few users have asked for "example" sites already running the software. So far, it's been hard to get the company to find and invest in a link directory that appropriately suits this need.

With respect to making "manuals look like manuals," we're working on a more graphical layout for VaultWiki 3 over the next several betas. This first release was pushed out without most of the planned features in the interest of getting a vBulletin 4 compatible release as soon as possible. Now that it's out (and hopefully stable enough) we can start reworking presentation in other areas.

I know in the past we've turned off many potential clients with the complicated prospects of "the namespace" and configuring said namespaces. In 1.0.0 there wasn't even an interface for doing this. I believe we made huge strides in making it seem friendlier when we rewrote our manual - and when we combined all the settings on one page in the AdminCP last May. We are constantly brainstorming ways to improve this interface further to avoid admin frustration and make it seem less forboding to the novice wiki admin.

[InformationNirvana]

I'm sure you've noticed that quite a few users have asked for "example" sites already running the software .... Link Directory ....

You certainly don't need a link directory ! That's overkill.
How about a thread called: Show off your vaultwiki.
How about links to 3-4 sample sites on this page: http://www.vaultwiki.org/ . I think Nuwiki gave you $5 off if you agreed to have your site listed on their site. Not sure if that is worth it but. Or maybe it was just a dollar off.

I've already said it, but if you are serious about vaultwiki ... it needs it's own site. This CES/vaultWiki site doesn't reassure the endusers and it sort of makes things confusing ... and I am sure potential customers are fickle !

brainstorming ways to improve this interface further to avoid admin frustration and make it seem less forboding to the novice wiki admin.

I am thinking there should be a stripped down product called: vBManual - with the key feature being wiki style editing. Actually don't use the word wiki ... use the term multi-user editable documentation !

That being said, vaultWiki is the best Forum/Wiki combo product bar none. Believe me I know.

[pegasus]

Opening a new site is certainly a prospect that we have considered, and that I particularly think would allow the CES portion of the site more focus and satisfy some of our core investors.

Since whenever you last suggested it, it has been discussed frequently.

That said, I know we have been hesitant to take this approach for two basic reasons:

• Existing backlinks - this could be corrected using 301 Redirects
• Startup cost - $$$

We currently own the domain vaultwiki.org, but have yet to see any significant analytics that a move would result in any profitable changes. Because of the significant cost of opening and maintaining a separate site, the company must first be convinced that such a change would bring at least a comparable increase in revenue.

Not only that, but a change in this direction would likely slow development on the product during the transition process from one domain to another, even if we were to hire more programmers.

A move would be risky. The question is, would it be riskier than leaving the site as is? Do we really lose so many potential clients over something like this? It's possible that we lose some, who believe that a company's attention may seem divided - but this is what departments are for and why companies assign different teams to different tasks. It's also very likely that some customers who purchased realized this and some who didn't didn't.

I suppose that a new year is as good a time as any to launch a new site - most companies would have more room in a fresh annual budget at that time. The problem is, that our fiscal year actually begins in June, so we'll see how soon I get a response about this.

Another good reason why now's a good time: we are launching a new iteration in VaultWiki with version 3. The problem would be doing it now that the beta has already started, when users are likely to need more support than usual - and when support staff would be distracted by the changeover.

[InformationNirvana]

I suppose the easier and less expensive option would be to do a better job of presenting vaultwiki in the current locale.

However, cramming vaultwiki into one tab - http://www.crackedeggstudios.com/vaultwiki/ is not going to be optimal ever. I would say vaultwiki is probably at a turning point with the release of vBulletin 4 .... it's a go hard or go home time for vaultwiki.

Hanging around on CES.com is not going hard.

Plus, vBulletin is not that expensive to host !

[pegasus]

I brought up the idea of a separate site at our weekly budget meeting this morning, with most of the points you and I discussed here. As such, the idea went over much better this time around.

In the hours since then, I've been informed that we can expect a new dedicated site to be launched at some point during VaultWiki 3's beta period.

[InformationNirvana]

Yea for vaultwiki !


I am sure you are happy too

[InformationNirvana]

Love the Wiki Tab.
A tab called Manual would be good too.
One Called Demo.

Don't forget some good YouTube videos about Vaultwiki. Think of it as a 45 second chance to sell someone about vaultwiki. Videos for Support issues / Training would be useful.

Need a forum (ahem .. and a wiki) dealing with Tips and discussion how to get your community using the wiki / manual !

Exciting times.

FYI I just bought a vB4 license. I gotta get Joomla / Jfusion running as a CMS .... maybe add wordpress. And then I wanna starting vaulting ahead !

[InformationNirvana]

Love the Wiki Tab.
A tab called Manual would be good too.
One Called Demo.

Like the new Documentation Tab !
/books/VaultWiki-Manual

[InformationNirvana]

FYI I just bought a vB4 license. I gotta get Joomla / Jfusion running as a CMS .... maybe add wordpress. And then I wanna starting vaulting ahead !

I was planning on using Joomla as a CMS with vBulletin ... maybe I should buy the vBulletin CMS instead ?
Can I make my own vBulletin Tabs like Home and Documenation on vaultwiki.org if I don't have the CMS ?
Is it much harder to make my own tabs without the CMS ?
Are there advantages to using vB 4 CMS with vaultwiki.

[pegasus]

You can make your own vBulletin tabs, but you don't need the CMS for this - there's no specific option for it. Our Home and Documentation tabs were essentially template edits. We are planning a feature in VaultWiki where you can promote wiki pages or books to tabs similar to what we have here, but currently this was an in-house solution and that feature won't be added until at least Beta 4 or 5.

vBulletin's CMS, at this point in time, is mainly for article publishing - like our news feed here. We opted to go with the CMS so we didn't have to update and maintain our in-house news script for vBulletin 4 - we already had to do that with Project Tools, I think this is the only site (not even vBulletin) that has Project Tools running in vB4 with the look and feel of vB4. vB CMS also offers some widget / sidebar management, but it was a bit annoying for us to figure out since we were trying to design a single-column layout.

[InformationNirvana]

Well ... I think it would be good to Even include instructions on how to "add tabs" with vW documentation.
I have been researching the new "Add Tabs" mods ...
I think the newest one is the best.

Tabs Add System for vBulletin 4 (sstab advanced)
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=245

Lowering the bar to using vW for all vB admins is a good idea. (ie. like newbies, me !).

As well, making vWiki independent of the CMS will obviously keep the potential customer base larger