What is the Knowlwdge Base for?

[Pamela Galli]

I saw the link to the KB. https://community.secondlife.com/knowledgebase/english/

My question is, how do I use it?  Should I read there first and then come here for clarification?  Or should I first come here to ask someone to look my questions up for me in the KB?

Asking for a friend who used to teach the skills of self sufficiency.

Edited February 18, 2019 by Pamela Galli

[Cindy Evanier]

8 minutes ago, Pamela Galli said:

I saw the link to the KB. https://community.secondlife.com/knowledgebase/english/

My question is, how do I use it?  Should I read there first and then come here for clarification?  Or should I first come here to ask someone to look my questions up for me in the KB?

Asking for a friend who used to teach the skills of self sufficiency.

There's a knowledge base?  😮👼

[Lindal Kidd]

Well, MOST of the folks who ask questions here don't seem to have read it.  Which is why so many of our answers are links back to relevant Knowledgebase articles.

Self-sufficient people will read the KB first, and post here if they can't find the answer.

[Rolig Loon]

The KB is your primary source for basic articles on common topics. Access it directly from the tab at the top of any forum page, like this one. The articles are all written by Linden Lab, so they "official." If you still have questions or want to know how to interpret the info for your specific situation, ask the extremely talented SL residents who hang out in Answers. 😏

[LittleMe Jewell]

1 hour ago, Lindal Kidd said:

Well, MOST of the folks who ask questions here don't seem to have read it.

FIFY

[Pamela Galli]

Looking up things myself is so tedious, I really don’t like doing it. If it’s okay,  it would be easier for me ask all my questions here first. 

Thanks!

[Rolig Loon]

Sounds fine to me, Pam. We're a happy crew, and reasonably good at answers. And we read the Knowledge Base when we don't have them. 😎

[Nalates Urriah]

19 hours ago, Pamela Galli said:

Looking up things myself is so tedious, I really don’t like doing it. If it’s okay,  it would be easier for me ask all my questions here first. 

Thanks!

When you ask a question try to frame it in the fewest terms possible. Type those in SEARCH at the top of the Answers section page. The answer may popup and save you time. You can skim the titles and one may be exactly the answer you are looking for.

If I had a video problem I would search on GTX1060 as that is the model I have. Then I would skim the titles to see if someone else had asked my question. I hate waiting.

Big it isn't a big thing. Look up or not. I'm pretty sure no one here is that concerned.

[Pamela Galli]

1 hour ago, Nalates Urriah said:

When you ask a question try to frame it in the fewest terms possible. Type those in SEARCH at the top of the Answers section page. The answer may popup and save you time. You can skim the titles and one may be exactly the answer you are looking for.

If I had a video problem I would search on GTX1060 as that is the model I have. Then I would skim the titles to see if someone else had asked my question. I hate waiting.

Big it isn't a big thing. Look up or not. I'm pretty sure no one here is that concerned.

Sounds like a lot of work.

[Love Zhaoying]

OP is trolling?  We could answer all questions with link to KB search results! 

[Cindy Evanier]

21 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

OP is trolling?  We could answer all questions with link to KB search results! 

Is trolling in the KB?

[Love Zhaoying]

39 minutes ago, Cindy Evanier said:

Is trolling in the KB?

I meant, she’s smart and knows how to search.

[Cindy Evanier]

Just now, Love Zhaoying said:

I meant, she’s smart and knows how to search.

I think she was being sarcastic

[Pamela Galli]

1 hour ago, Cindy Evanier said:

I think she was being sarcastic

Moi?

[Rolig Loon]

Toi.  😉

[Lindal Kidd]

Oui, mademoiselle Galli.

[Pamela Galli]

Well thanks for all the fish!

[LittleMe Jewell]

3 hours ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I meant, she’s smart and knows how to search.

Yes and in this case, Cindy is correct.  She's being sarcastic totally because of all the questions that come in to the forums where a very simple search would often have given the person the answer far quicker than waiting on someone to provide an answer.  Frustrating, at best.

[Pamela Galli]

Also, as a parent and teacher, and now to a great extent as a SL customer support provider,  I have devoted myself to empowering people, even those who did not see empowerment as the kindness it ultimately is. 

It just feels good to know how to access the tools you need to achieve your goals. To know how to fish.

IMO The answers forum is not foremost the place to regurgitate what the KB says, but to refer people to it and then clarify and elucidate it. To equip them.

But, still a  free country. 

[Rolig Loon]

12 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

4 hours ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I meant, she’s smart and knows how to search.

Yes and in this case, Cindy is correct.  She's being sarcastic totally because of all the questions that come in to the forums where a very simple search would often have given the person the answer far quicker than waiting on someone to provide an answer.  Frustrating, at best.

Indeed.  Pam has answered her own fair share of questions in the forums and elsewhere, so she's yanking on our collective leg.  We all know how frustrating it can be to answer the same simple questions over and over again for people who could find the same information themselves by diving into the Knowledge Base.  However, Pam also knows -- because she spent years in the classroom -- that laziness isn't always the problem. Pam's venting, humorously, but she knows that people have many good, logical reasons for coming here before the Knowledge Base.

Some people are genuinely poor readers. And some of them avoid winnowing pertinent information out of a lengthy article because it's paralyzingly frustrating.

Some of the Knowledge Base articles are not as clear as they could be, or contain out of date information.  Not many, but enough. They also address the resident as a user of the standard LL viewer, although a great number of residents use a TPV instead.  More to the point, though, the Knowledge Base is necessarily providing general information, not answers to every resident's specific, personal question. A generic answer can come close to solving the resident's question, but not quite hit the mark.  The KB article wasn't written with the resident's particular computer setup, or banking history, or cultural experience, or whatever in mind.

The KB is a company product, so it provides information about the way SL is supposed to work.  We can all easily point to ways in which we know that SL doesn't work quite as designed.  There's a better than even chance that an OP is stumbling over one of those oddities.

Finally, the Knowledge Base is difficult to use in the same way that dictionaries are.  When you are trying to figure out how a word is spelled, it's not always easy to find the correct word in the dictionary. After all, the word you know is the wrong one.  When you don't know the difference between selling L$ and transferring your USD balance to your RL pocketbook, where do you start?

The bottom line is that Answers serves a purpose that the Knowledge Base cannot.  It's "staffed" by SL residents, many of whom have more in-world experience than the average Linden and can afford to give off the wall advice when a Linden would have to bite her tongue.  We can read between the lines of the KB articles and talk from personal experience. We have read the articles, so  we can point to the specific line that answers the resident's question.  And, most of all, we're responding as real people  (people who get frustrated and give oddball answers at times, but still more real than a generic paragraph in the KB).  Some people just need that.

[Pamela Galli]

I think we are all able to tell when someone has some sort of problem with the language (or is drunk)and we adjust the kind  of help we give.  And no doubt the KB could use some extensive revision by well paid experts in SL task analysis. 

That said, I like to see help focused on teaching empowerment. It’s just so satisfying! 

 

[Rolig Loon]

17 minutes ago, Pamela Galli said:

I think we are all able to tell when someone has some sort of problem with the language (or is drunk)and we adjust the kind  of help we give.  And no doubt the KB could use some extensive revision by well paid experts in SL task analysis. 

That said, I like to see help focused on teaching empowerment. It’s just so satisfying! 

Agreed.  Each learner is different. Some need more hand holding than others.  When we can identify the ones who really shouldn't need much extra help, we need to give them a friendly shove in the right direction. The trick is in knowing which ones to shove and how firmly. I taught freshmen for a couple of decades, so I've seen some great successes and more than a handful of washouts. I feel just as bad about the washouts that I didn't challenge enough as I do about the ones I could have spoonfed a little longer. This forum is a very different situation, but the people who bring questions aren't all that different from college freshmen -- a little confused, sometimes frustrated, and looking for someone to trust for a way to Square Two.

[Ethan Paslong]

3 hours ago, Pamela Galli said:

 but to refer people to it and then clarify and elucidate it. To equip them.

minor"problem" .. nah too big word for it... minor "thing" is...

When you just refer to the KB you'r taken as rude and not helpfull. AND .. not to step on toes, quite some answerers take over and start answerering the question again ... with no reference at all to the KB.
Answering because of the answering is kind off issue anyway, when adding info it's no problem, but quite some times there are posts added what say exactly the same as previous answers already did.

[Cindy Evanier]

At home I am living in a time warp.  I ask my boys a question to certain things and they throw back at me "search it up"  which is exactly what my dad used to say to me when I was younger and what I said to my children over homework.  Difference being with me it was the huge collection of books and encyclopedias in the house and my kids have the internet.  Sure I will help with homework but after you have at least made some effort to look for information yourself.   So this is kinda how I saw Pamela's OP

Edited February 20, 2019 by Cindy Evanier

[Pamela Galli]

6 hours ago, Cindy Evanier said:

At home I am living in a time warp.  I ask my boys a question to certain things and they throw back at me "search it up"  which is exactly what my dad used to say to me when I was younger and what I said to my children over homework.  Difference being with me it was the huge collection of books and encyclopedias in the house and my kids have the internet.  Sure I will help with homework but after you have at least made some effort to look for information yourself.   So this is kinda how I saw Pamela's OP

When I ask my son a question he has been known to send me a link to that Google page that types in the search term for you. Payback!

[Rolig Loon]

9 hours ago, Ethan Paslong said:

When you just refer to the KB you'r taken as rude and not helpfull. 

I have been told several times in my life that I am "brusque," which is probably true at times. My mother's comment at those times was something like, "It's not what you say.  It's how you say it."  The information an OP may need is probably in the KB, but simply dropping a URL on him with no context can feel as if you are saying, "Go away and read this, dummy."  

9 hours ago, Ethan Paslong said:

AND .. not to step on toes, quite some answerers take over and start answerering the question again ... with no reference at all to the KB.
Answering because of the answering is kind off issue anyway, when adding info it's no problem, but quite some times there are posts added what say exactly the same as previous answers already did.

Quite true.  I get annoyed with some "Me too" responses as well. In mild defense -- having written a few of the "Me too" posts myself -- I would only say:

1. Asynchronous communications can be to blame for some of this. It takes time to type out a response.  If it's a lengthy one, I can complete it and hit the button and then discover that some faster typist already said the same thing.

2. No two people explain things exactly the same way.  I have sometimes rephrased an answer that I think is correct but written in a confusing way.  Even if I am saying the same thing as the previous person, I hope my way of saying it is easier to understand.  And if not ...

3. It never hurts an OP to get a second opinion, even if it amounts to, "Yup, that last answer is correct.  Do what he said." 😊