Any interest in a user/player guide?

[antiphysika]

Neo's docs are getting better all the time, which is great, but there's a bit of a glaring hole when it comes to documentation geared towards your average player, or better yet, someone who is completely new to modded Minecraft.

Obviously there's the Discord which is great, but there are quiet periods. And I guess there are some people out there who dislike Discord for whatever reason...

I chucked this[1] together to give an idea of what I'd propose creating. It's very much draft quality in almost every respect. And so far it only covers the things which often get repeated on Discord time after time. But, hopefully, it is good enough for a RFC to see if there might be interest in such a guide.

So, yay, nay, 404? :stuck_out_tongue:

[1] https://github.com/neoforged/Documentation/compare/main...antiphysika:neoforge-docs:userguide

[IchHabeHunger54]

As an idea, this looks fine for me. It could be argued this should be on the actual home page instead of the docs, but that's not the point here.

Structurally, while I understand your idea, I have a few complaints.

• The initial article should list all steps: Installing Java, checking if Java installed correctly, creating a client/server installation, and the FAQ should all be at least mentioned in this article - they can still link out if needed.
  • In my opinion, this should be three articles: The main article, a separate article for Installing Java, and an FAQ article. Maybe also a server installation article. Client installation should really not require a separate article.
• The "Join the Discord to get help in #user-support" message should ideally be near the top of the article. It also does not mandate a separate one-paragraph article imo.

A few other things as well, please:

• Open a PR, a draft one if you want. This is so we can enable site previews, making it easier to read.
• Everything that isn't about installing Java, or the run.sh/run.bat files, should be OS-agnostic. For example, in the initial article, you have three tabs stating to type java -version into some terminal. This feels bloated, the OS-specific part could really be condensed into just a list of terminal apps depending on the OS used.
• Mention the existence of the Game Directory setting in the vanilla launcher to users.
• It might also be worth mentioning the existence of mod managers/launchers (CurseForge, Modrinth, Prism, etc.) and their advantages to users.

[antiphysika]

As an idea, this looks fine for me. It could be argued this should be on the actual home page instead of the docs, but that's not the point here.

Structurally, while I understand your idea, I have a few complaints.

• The initial article should list all steps: Installing Java, checking if Java installed correctly, creating a client/server installation, and the FAQ should all be at least mentioned in this article - they can still link out if needed.

  • In my opinion, this should be three articles: The main article, a separate article for Installing Java, and an FAQ article. Maybe also a server installation article. Client installation should really not require a separate article.

All valid complaints.

When I first started it was just to document a few things, like jarfix.exe on Windows, installing on a headless server (where users may not be familiar with the customary --help or that --installServer is a thing) and the manual invokation of java/the installer e.g. on Linux where file associations are IME often non-existent.

But yeah, it quickly grew and in the end didn't even cover two of the three I set out to document...

• The "Join the Discord to get help in #user-support" message should ideally be near the top of the article. It also does not mandate a separate one-paragraph article imo.

Yep, by the time I repeated it the second (third?) time, I got that sense too.

A few other things as well, please:

• Open a PR, a draft one if you want. This is so we can enable site previews, making it easier to read.

Will do!

• Everything that isn't about installing Java, or the run.sh/run.bat files, should be OS-agnostic. For example, in the initial article, you have three tabs stating to type java -version into some terminal. This feels bloated, the OS-specific part could really be condensed into just a list of terminal apps depending on the OS used.

• Mention the existence of the Game Directory setting in the vanilla launcher to users.

Both of those are make a lot of sense, I'll try and work up something that's more condendsed

• It might also be worth mentioning the existence of mod managers/launchers (CurseForge, Modrinth, Prism, etc.) and their advantages to users.

Yep I was thinking about covering the launcher/mod manager side. I didn't consider the "forges" (CF, MR) but that would be a good addition.

Thanks for all the feedback! I'll take that away and work on a proper PR during the week :+1:

[antiphysika]

Bit delayed on this, apologies. I started the week off with a cold and IDEA edging my last nerve with its Linux-specific bugs this has slowed me down somewhat...

I'm working on the draft PR now though and will submit whatever I have by this time tomorrow night.