modxcms.tv, video tutorial site for modx.. need help

The problem with subtitles is that they can be distracting. You are trying to show people something and on top of it they then need to read a second set of text or watch a second visual. I think that 1) don’t worry about heavy accents in English as most smart folks can hear past them 2) if English is not a language you speak well or fluently do the screencast in your language and get the English voice over done by someone who does.

Personally I hate screen casts with no dialogue. The CakePHP screencasts are long and boring w/o the audio. People expect to hear a dialogue of what is going on.

The early Ruby on Rails screencasts by DHH are in heavily accented english since he is not a native english speaker but they are still great screncasts because of his clear, well-paced explanation.

Sound quality is more important that native English.

Go forth and speak clearly.

Quote from: smashingred at Sep 23, 2008, 07:52 AM

The problem with subtitles is that they can be distracting. You are trying to show people something and on top of it they then need to read a second set of text or watch a second visual. I think that 1) don’t worry about heavy accents in English as most smart folks can hear past them 2) if English is not a language you speak well or fluently do the screencast in your language and get the English voice over done by someone who does.

Personally I hate screen casts with no dialogue. The CakePHP screencasts are long and boring w/o the audio. People expect to hear a dialogue of what is going on.

The early Ruby on Rails screencasts by DHH are in heavily accented english since he is not a native english speaker but they are still great screncasts because of his clear, well-paced explanation.

Sound quality is more important that native English.

Go forth and speak clearly.

I think I am just a little bit scared to do it wrong

Can the people who can provide videos post what the videos are about and in which language they are? And maybe provide a Youtube link (or other videolink) to the videos?

I admit I have never scripted the screencast I did for clients, just laid out the key items on paper and stuck it to the screen to keep then in mind when actually doing the screencast. I am not "natural", I prefer writing to speaking (even in french).

Yeah subtitles won’t cut it, it would simply negate the benefits of a screencast.
Great idea about the voice over thing, how did I not think of it ?!?

I don’t mind inflicting my french accent on you but I’ll do some trial first. I’ll do a test batch and submit this... or maybe ask edge (Dave Edgerton) since we had a 45 minutes chat on the phone a few weeks back : he can testify my spoken english is rusty !

It’s funny that I can write english just as fast as french (nor nearly as fast) without looking for words but actually doing the speaking makes me slower And keep in mind it’s always easier face to face to understand a non native since people can (subconsiously) read your lips.

Anyway, if we are to work collectively, one of the first thing to do is put up a list on a wiki page for example and someone signs up for a given screencast. One thing I noticed is you have to keep screencast short. At first I explained several features to my client and then I have split screencast one feature -> one screencast. It makes it easier both for the viewer and you. If you need to do it over, at least it’s not a 15 minutes screencast to re-do. Plus, you are less likely to loose focus or go too fast.

What do you guys think about the setup of the site:

• Maintened just by me
• Maintened by the moderators / team members of modx
• Everyone can register and post screencasts

I think the second option is the best so we can be sure that the video’s have a good quality and value.

I am also thinking of the design of the site; should I use the standard design that get’s installed with MODx or do we prefer a new design? I like to build a new design, but I think that it wouldn’t be a great design if I design it. It would be something like running on http://www.mediaguy.nl (don’t look at it with IE6, that one is still broken )

But on the other side there will be a screencast section at the new site, maybe it is better to keep the site simple and just use it to collect the movies. And then redirect to the screencast section on the new marketing site when it gets released? I don’t know what’s the best when you look to it at a marketing way...

Option 2/3

I want the ability for users to submit screencasts for review and posting. Moderated by the community or team. Really we could do this through the forum.

I’d say we just make the site dead simple. Black background with the old logo and simple ditto generated front page with each linked/embedded video in its own document.

Personally, I think the domain should eventually get integrated with the new site and redirect to the screencasts section of the site.

I don’t want to take away from your ambition to help out modx grow and to share your knowledge with the world but as was discussed recently, except for fansites the modx branded urls should be all pointing to the modxcms.com site and not have dozens of urls all over the place.

If you want a quick and dirty template based on the modxcms.site why not just use the modxcss template that comes with modx and create a new logo/header banner to sit atop it?

I also think it would be the best to redirect to the screencasts section of the site when that is done (would love to transfer the domain to the modx foundation for free if the new site get’s launched), but until then just use it as a separate site to start collecting the video’s so that we can use it to get a good collection of video’s for the new site

I think I will keep the site in the modx template that is already installed and then make just a simple blog with categories. Then I add a Template Variable where you can enter a YouTube id to add a video. The content field would be used as a description, I think even the editor could be disabled so that it is just plain text. I think that that will be enough for this site to start

I think it would be better to have all modx.ext and modxcms.ext domains that we guys own to be redirected to the general site. Take as a example the german site, it even has it’s own forum... wouldn’t that take away the attention from the normal site in germany? The new modxcms.com site should have it’s own translated parts, so that you will lead your visitors to their own language and the community of their own language. That would also help to make these translated forums more active. (by the way: is there a topic about the new site? Just to keep this topic clean)

Everything you say sounds good but the community sites are better left where they are since they are managed by native speakers. In an ideal world with infinite resources it might be nice to have them all rolled in but because they are fan/user run they get updated and far greater participation used by locals.

I’m going to be toying with screencasts after I finish a project this week and see how it looks in various formats.

Thanks for the efforts.

Jay

I think I will just link it to the new site when it is finished, I don’t find the time to make a start on this site.

I saw some people on twitter talking about wordpress.tv and that they would like to have something like that for modx!

Maybe it is time to create something for modxcms.tv? The problem is that I don’t have much time to do something to it!
Some people here that are able to help?

I can help provide UK Hosting if needed, until the site is ready to move to modxcms.

That said hosting videos on youtube may bring more traffic to modxcms. It’s a good idea to have video tutorials and I will be making some very soon for my clients so they can see how to edit documents and manage their websites.