Apparently draft support is Just Plain Broken right now. (Please do experiment with it yourself to see how it's working); things are not being saved correctly. If you see reports of this on the board, please go ahead and stick a "reported to devs" answer on them, and IC with http://rt.livejournal.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=1070.
FAQ 143 has been updated to include information about both Unicode problems and character conversion problems. A link to this FAQ on issues with Unicode problems is now approvable.
mendel stumbled upon this great article on Unicode. I highly suggest you all read it, as it explains some things much better than I ever could. ;)
Take your time when reading it, as it is pretty long and a bit complex in sections. It was written with programmers in mind, but is not difficult to understand for non programmers.
Zilla is easy to use. Unfortunately, the user interface on the zilla query page can be hard to navigate. The form below gets you the same results as choosing sensible values on the query form.
I'm not around today (ie, the next twenty four hours or so). I've had a crisis of sorts in one of my other online responsibility areas (off LiveJournal) and I'm going to need to focus on that today. You can drop me an email if you need me, and I'll try and do what's needed, but I can't promise. Sorry about that.
As per this LJ_maintenance post, we're having problems (which you've probably noticed in your own use of the site anyway). Developers are aware, working on a resolution, I apologise for the inconvenience is fine. It's really all we can tell them.
This community has now been renamed to support_web. There have been a few glitches, and hard links to old posts are currently broken. All fixed! Thanks, sherm! One minor glitch, which is unfixable, is that /community/webclient doesn't work, but the only people who are likely to go there will also know where else to look for information (ie, web_ui), so that's minor in the scheme of things. The userinfo for webclient still goes to support_web, so that's good enough.
I've noticed a few non-Supporthelps watching this community, so I thought it may be helpful for you to know some of the things we're doing "behind closed doors". These include:
We've hammered out a new, clearer definition for the category. This has gone through various consultation procedures among the Supporthelps and Admin/Staff and will be posted in lj_support after Christmas.
We've identified the basic skills that are required at each priv level and hammered out some procedures for training people to get them to those levels. Documentation is in the process of being written. This, too, will be detailed after Christmas.
This community will be renamed to support_web within the next few days. Due to the limitations on renaming communities, this will need to be done manually, hence the delay. However, it has been agreed to in principle, so consider this reliable information. The redirection will be automatic. This rename is being done in order to be in conformity with other Support category communities. It is also in line with our new focus, which is not tied to the web client in the way that it was when the category first began.
Another community has been created, web_ui. No volunteer at any level will be required to watch this community. Any documentation or training sessions appearing there will be announced in one of the required communities. The purpose for the community is to serve as a reference librarary and training center for professional development. The idea is not so much to watch it, as to visit it when you need to research a particular technical area specific to the category, or to join it on a short-term basis for advertised training sessions. There is no content there at present, but several training documents are in the process of being written. It is a permanent account, so the information will remain accessible regardless of any changes that may occur down the track (for instance, if we started deleting inactive accounts). This is important because these reference materials will be major assets involving substantial research and work in their creation, and should therefore be protected from anything that could compromise their availability in the future.
Lots of reviews! Whee!
A permanent test account is being established for testing bugs and errors specific to paid accounts (especially S2 and Syndication bugs). Frontline bug testing arising from Support requests will come under our brief under the new definition. Due to the possibilities for abuse, use of this account will be restricted to Supporthelps, but Interims may ask one of us to test an error or suspected bug if need be.
Invitation codes will be provided on request for creating test accounts to any Web Interim who doesn't already have one, and they will be offered as a matter of course to new I1s in the future. It is recognised that many Interims will already have codes to spare, but this is considered a matter of principle. Volunteers should not have to pay for the tools they need to do their job. It is the responsibility of the category to provide them.
A master list of Privs in Web has been made available here.
We do regular Board Reports and Zilla Reports to keep abreast of bastard freakies and known issues. Known issues are assumed knowledge for Supporthelps and optional for people with lower privs. I will start posting Zilla reports with a public setting for those who are interested, since the information is useful, publicly accessible, and has no reason to be kept private.
It was decided (well, actually, I decided this one unilaterally) that the tag [ui] would be used to mark certain requests. It does not in fact refer to Web-UI, but rather, to the fact that a request is under investigation with a view to a possible Zilla report, developer query, or similar follow-up. We also agreed that we would adopt common cross-category tags such as [auc] (awaiting user comment) and [xx] (closable).
I need to go through leora's Support Guide now that the Web situation and infrastructure is clearer and ask for information to be added. I'm hoping to do that tonight or tomorrow.
I'll be writing a major post to lj_support in the next week or so that will pull all of this together in a more formal way.
pleased