Helpfile Review Guidelines

From FiranMUX

In the coming weeks, the Information group is going to begin to prepare the game files for the eventually change. One of the first things we did was freeze non-essential changes to the help files so that we can review them and try to standardize them a little more. The PlayerHelpers are going to play an integral part in this process as they are going to be the first line in reviewing the help files for this project.

Community Points (CP) will be awarded for participation in the project as well as completion of file reviews:

• Significant Participation in the Project: 5-20 CP (I have not yet decided what significant is...but I imagine at least 10 reviews is probably significant)
• All reviews will earn 1 CP per 10 reviews.

The following are the guidelines to follow for the project:

• All files will be added the the helpreq queue as a request. PlayerHelpers may have three of these requests claimed at a time. Since this is considered a high priority, these should not take longer than 7 days to complete. We will not enforce this until we've run out of help files to review or until we get close to the conversion time.
• Once your helpreq is claimed, you should locate the link that shows the format for your file. Here are the links for your convenience:

Help Commands: Help file syntax for commands

Help Functions: Help file syntax for functions

Help Policy: Help file syntax for policies

Help General: Help file syntax for files that do not fit anything else

• Using the syntax file, check over the basic syntax of the file and make sure that it is correct according to the guidelines.
• Files should normally have one file per helpfile unless they use similar syntax. For example, help eat has bot eat <food> and eat <food> from <container> because they use the same command. But @helpreq/add and @helpreq/toss would be separate files. Some of the files have multiple syntax in one and should be split out and an index made. If you notice any of these, note them for the change.
• Review the information in the file. Does it make sense? Is it correct for what we do today on Firan? Is there something you think you can add? Any information you can provide in this area will be used as part of the review.
• Review the information in the file. Is it grammatically correct? Is everything spelled properly?
• Review the cross references in the file. Are they all correct? Do they all lead to decent files? Are there more x-refs that can be added? Cross references can be existing files or files that simply reference to the file but where players might look.
• Select Catagories for the file. Here is an example:

Say you have the review of the file for 'clanmil/enlist'. Some obvious catagories might be: clanmil|clan military There are probably some catagories that would expand the ability to find the file: military|military enlistment|clan military commands|clanmil commands|clan commands

• When you are finished reviewing the file, submit the information via @request (unless it is a really long piece of information then please email to firan-admin and reference in the request. The @request should be ATTN: Leia as I am going to filter through the finished reviews, make any final decisions on changes, add jobs and award CP.
• When I finish the @request, you can finish out the @helpreq and take a new one.

Helpful Tips:

• If you don't understand the guidelines, ask a mentor or another PHer. If the guidelines are unclear that they can't be explained by any PHers, please @request as they probably need updated to be more clear.
• If you don't know what a help file is for or what a command should do, ask around on the PHer channel. If nobody can answer, feel free to page Leia or @mail. I generally turn around questions I can answer in 2 seconds in no more than 2 days.
• If you're bewildered right now, so is Information. We are completely bewildered. It's okay to feel that way. Help files are scary but they will not bite.