[This might not be the right section to post this, but I am unable to post in the Community board.]
After responding with many lengthy replies to Twitter DMs from people interested in ENS and how to get an .eth domain name, how to purchase eth, etc, I feel it would be beneficial to our community if we were to create an internal Wiki, perhaps at wiki.ens.domains, where ENS community members can provide FAQs for things such as a “complete noob’s guide” to purchasing crypto, how to transfer CEX holdings into an external wallet, and how to use eth to buy an ENS domain name, etc.
Other pages could include The Constitution, the history of the project, current governance proposals, a list of 3rd party projects that currently support ENS integration, an explanation of how gas works and why it is currently so high, planned future upgrades, and much more.
I feel like this would save a lot of time spent having to explain the same things over and over to new users, and also would function to help clear up a lot of potential confusion that is preventing new users from understanding the purpose of ENS. We could even have a page dedicated to explaining what all of the “jargon” that gets used means, for example Web3, DeFi, dApps, Smart Contracts, etc.
I would be willing to do most of the writing for these pages, but I would love to hear some other opinions on the idea.
So, for governance we have the Governance Docs, and for devs we have the Technical Docs. Both are Gitbooks, so they can be amended by pull request (see “Open in GitHub” in the top right of any page). I’d definitely welcome edits to either of those, and if an Ecosystem WG wants to appoint editors I can give them direct access to GitBook to streamline things.
We could probably use a “user documentation” site as well, with the sort of basic FAQs and questions you talk about.
I think a user documentation wiki would be very useful, currently documentation that can be linked to about ENS is all over the place (mirror, medium, twitter, etc.), or there just isn’t a good resource available at all depending on the topic. Things that may seem simple for a crypto native can be very complex topics for those that are new to the space, which is especially important because ENS may be the first web3/crypto experience that many people have.
Tutorials on the basics would be a great place to start, but it’s crucial that they provide basic info on things that most wouldn’t think to include, such as paying gas fees (and that they can’t be refunded). Obviously full explanations of the concepts wouldn’t be required, but just a general “beginners guide” theme would be good.
Yes sir, I am willing to do the majority of writing and/or proofreading. Just give me some ideas/prompts and I’ll get to work. I can also get started on the “bare basics” FAQs if that is a good place to start.
Edit - if I could get the recordings/transcripts from @brantlymillegan 's Twitter Spaces that would be really helpful - he provides a lot of great explanations that I could incorporate into a beginner’s guide.
Twitter doesn’t have user accessible recording/transcripts (unless someone specifically recorded or copied the transcription for it). brantly.eth however does have a lot of good write-ups on medium that could be used as a starting point.
I’d also be very willing to contribute to user docs
I’m so glad you brought this up daylon.eth. When I started at ENS I had a similar idea of having a docs site that was more user focused (rather than dev focused), and answered questions generally about ENS registration as well as providing some context for web3.
I got as far as setting up a Gitbook (with Nick’s help) and was thinking of hosting the docs at learn.ens.domains. The intention was to get a skeleton version of the docs up and then make it very easy and encouraged for community members to submit Pull Requests to make changes and submit additions.
Would love to get this initiative going very quickly because I’m sure it will have an immediate impact on people’s experience with ENS, especially for those seeking support.
I have created a thread in Discord, under the DAO-chat channel. It would be great to schedule a kick-off call and get the ball rolling. So excited and grateful to see this come to life!
Great initiative, working on such information availability gaps would help in driving broader ecosystem adoption as well. Shared my thoughts on the Discord thread
Great proposal, daylon.eth! I’ve been getting similar questions over and over again so let me know if there’s anything I can help. Also happy to localize / translate the content into multiple languages.
hey @chainape, once the first version of the Learn Docs are up, we can start an effort to translate the content into multiple languages. There is an airtable form pinned to the Translation channel in the Discord server for anyone to express an interest in helping with translation related to ENS. Other than that, if you are interested in contributing to the Learn Docs please open a ticket in Discord and tag me. I will grab your email address and add you to the Basecamp project.
I strongly agree we could use a wiki style system. I do think we should consider the average person and attempt to explain things in terms that everyone can understand. When it comes to web3, DOAs, and backend management many are lost of the technicalities. I believe simplifying the complexities would yeild a much larger adoption.
@alisha.eth I tried opening a ticket on Discord, but the bot kept auto-closing my message mid-draft. Hopefully my email contact got through on the second try, but if not, please DM me. I am interested in contributing to the Learn Docs. Is there a space where ppl can post FAQ topics that need a write up, and where contributors can mark topics they are currently working on? It might be helpful to focus our efforts to answer as many topics as possible without doubling up on similar doc topics. Also happy to help proofread and edit other content creators out there, feel free to reach out.
Hi @Trinedy I just tagged you in the Learn Docs thread on Discord with some more details. Would love for you to contribute to the Learn Docs. If you can please send me a friend request on Discord, I will make sure you are looped in on everything
