High SKUs and no ReadMes ...
DavidGB
Posts: 570
What's going on with the product SKUs?
New products were following the normal sequence with SKUs in the 24000-24999 range, with the a few still in the 23000s that had obviously been held back, but suddenly there's been a jump to products in the 29000s and 30000s. But the Documentation Center product ReadMe index still only goes up to the 24000-24999 range. It's not uncommon for me to want to go to a product ReadMe to look for more info to decide if I want to buy something through looking at additional info notes in the ReadMe or the file list (e.g. to check if/what morphs are included in clothing, or - like today - to hopefully see from the filenames exactly what types of fabrics there are shader presets for in a shader product that just says 'Clothing, Fabric & Leather x 71 shaders' on the product page).
What gives? Not having links to the product ReaMes in the website just means I won't be buying some things I otherwise might. Today it means I've dropped considering today's new shader product.
(I REALLY hope this isn't some new system to only allow acceess to ReadMes via Daz Connect, as I have not and will not install DAZ Connect, ever. I remain and will remain on DS 4.8 until/unless a higher version of DS without DAZ Connect - or with a version of DAZ Connect that contains no DRM/encryption module/plugin/code - becomes available, even if that means I never upgrade past 4.8.)
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Comments
Do you understand that you do not have to use Connect with Studio 4.9? DIM and manual install are available for all but a very few products.
I have lately had concerns about the documentation that will help us use the more complicated products. When someone on acid decided to design the current system to replace including the documentation with the product download, they did quite the number. Now, if you're lucky, you need to go online, find the SKU, go to that segment of the list that includes the number, and then look it up by the TITLE! And if this method was ever explained, I totally missed it.
Oops! I got called away to kill a scorpion in the shower and didn't finish my comment. So to continue... I totally agree that when I look at a product I consider whether there is enough information on how to use it before I buy. My hope is that someone will reveal that there is some mysterious place where the documentation is stored that I just don't know about.
And now that I found the Readme for Iray Worlds Skydome, there is absolutely no information that helps explain how to use it.
Yes, the palaver getting to the ReadMe of a product one is considering buying is a real pain, even before the jump to these strange SKU numbers that aren't in the indexed range. For one's I've bought it's not too bad as I do use DIM and one can just click the button by the product in DIM to cause the ReadMe page to open in my browser without having to go through to find the link in the Documentation Center - i don't know whether that works with these 29000 and 30000 SKU products as I haven't bought one yet and the only ones I've had an interest in are ones I need to see the ReadMe and file list before making up my mind whether to buy them.
It's also certainly true that a lot of products could do with more information on use in the ReadMe pages. But my concern here is the absence of a route to them - at least before purchase - for these 29000 and 30000 products. Plus why the heck has there been this huge product number jump? Have all the 25000-28999 numbers been reserved for RDNA products? Did RDNA actually have that many products?
Yes I do know that. And I explained in detail at some length several monhts ago why I will not install a DS that contains the encryption/decryption software on my computer, even with the option not to use it. I do not intend to repeat myself. You can serach for my posts if you are curious, but I expect not.
I added the footnote just because I'm sure DAZ are expecting many/most/all of the objectors who said they would not install this stuff or upgrade past 4.8 to be worn down and just give in over time and install it. Unlike 2004-2008 when I was on the forums every day making large numbers of posts about all and sundry, since becoming disabled I hardly ever read or post here unless it's about something particular and important, and I haven't posted for the months since posting that I wouldn't install a DS containing the encryption/decryption system and explaining why. So i was just letting DAZ know that, unlike a few things i objected to during the development of DS 2 and in the early DS3, I have NOT given in and will NOT give in on this. I will not ever buy encrypted content, or download free encrypted content (except for encrypted scripts - that's always been OK; but not encrypted figures, props etc). I willl not install a version of DS that includes the software to support encrypted content (unless it is after DAZ have defintively and publically abandoned encypted content, but need to leave a legacy suppoprt for it in DS for awhile for the sake of users who did download encrypted content). If that means I never go beyond DAZ 4.8, so be it.
And harking back to another request i and others made but DAZ have ignored, on the product pages would it really kill DAZ to put in the MINIMUM software version needed for a product rather than just list the latest version of the software? If stuff works in DS 4.8, then put 4.8+, not 4.9? If it works in DS 4.6 too, put 4.6+, not 4.9, etc. It will save you from product returns for products that actually do need 4.9 from those of us still using and intending to continue to use earlier versions (and I know there are people still using 4.6, who have what are for them good reasons not to go to 4.8, let alone 4.9). The current system of just listing 4.9 for every DS format product is just plain silly.
Oh for heaven's sake ... this is just ridiculous.
The ReadMe's for the 29000 and 30000 SKUs ARE there, just not indexed.
So the procedure for getting to one for a product one is interested in but haven't bought is now:
1 From the store page for the product, make sure you leave it open in one browser tab, and click the help link to open in another.
2 On the help page, click to open the documentation center, which open in a third tab.
3 Close the tab with the no longer needed help page.
4 On the Documentaion center Home page, find and click the link to the product ReadMes
5 Randomly pick any page range and click.
6 Randomly click on one of the products to get its ReadMe page
7 Go back to the tab with the 29000 or 30000 product page open in it. Select and copy the SKU
8 Go back to the tab with the randomly slected ReadMe, go to the address bar, select the SKU within the URL and paste the SKU of the 29000 or 30000 SKU product you are intesested in over the top.
9 Click to load that address which is now the URL to the unindexed 29000 or 30000 SKU product and ... wow, after all that i get the ReadMe.
Is this still some ongoing April Fool?
Are DAZ now actively revelling in their reputation for poor documentation? (Every Poser version has had an honest to goodness complete manual; no DS versions has come anywhere near - just a partial in progress one that is never anywhere near finished before becoming outdated by big changes).
By the time I get to the ReadMe for one of these new products - and bearing in mind that each action on a computer causes me cumulative pain - I feel i should be at least given the product as a prize for the effort I've put in just to get to the ReadMe ... if not paid on top.
Poor doumentation in many cases, with an appallingly circuitous route to get to it already, now magnified by not even indexing them so one has to work out and construct the URL oneself. And DAZ portrays itself as some professional company producing professional products in a professional way. I can't think of a single one-person software outfit or publci domain software organisation that is anywhere near as poor on documentation, both finding it, or its comprehensiveness ... or indeed existence.
I don't think you need to do all that. If I remember correctly, you can click on the product image in Smart Content, and you can get it to open the readme if it's available. Or you can get it to take you to the product listing page -- which may or may not be the DAZ page or the product listing page in the wiki.
If you are installing with DIM, jsut click on teh "i" at the end of a entry.
They are doing that to see if the product is worth buying in the first place, which is why people are asking for a direct link to the product readme on the store page of a product.
I'm very much on DavidGB's side here — the readme system ever since the switch to "online only" has been a ridiculous mess, and this massive jump in unlinked SKU numbers is really the cherry on top of the icing.
It isn't helping that I've never been able to get at any of the online readmes without a ridiculously long wait for the index pages to show up, plus the ridiculous system of indexing by SKU but listing on the index either by name (where there is an actual sort-of-up-to-date readme) or by the even more ridiculous zz-name (for all those old readmes that were never properly updated from the old Artzone archive that hasn't existed for years).
Can you tell yet that I find the entire system ridiculous?
Just one question — why can't we have direct readme links from the store product pages?
Indeed. Muzzy as I am from prescription medication, I thought i made it quite clear, even with examples of why I might wish to do so, that I'm talking about consulting the ReadMes before buying the item, while considering whether or not I want to buy the item, so clearly I CAN'T use DIM to get to the ReadMes on those occasions. I know perfecty well one can call up the ReadMes in DIM, and actually wrote in my second post above "For one's I've bought it's not too bad as I do use DIM and one can just click the button by the product in DIM to cause the ReadMe page to open in my browser without having to go through to find the link in the Documentation Center".
Mind you, when it is a product i have already bought but need to consult the ReadMe, having to go start DIM, wait for the program to start and get to the ReadMe that way takes almost as long as the ridiculous performance of Click on Help, Click on Documentation Center, close Help tab, click for product ReadMes, check SKU and click on the right SKU range, check exact product name and scroll and find the product link and click performance even before these weird unindexed SKUs.
Renderosity have links to the ReadMe on a product's page. Content Paradise have links to the ReadMe on a product's page. Renderotica have links to the ReadMe on a product's page. Most of the small Poser/DS product stores I know have links to the ReadMe on a product's page. Why doesn't DAZ? Why does everything to do with documentation at DAZ have to be laborious to find and get to (and usually inadequate or non-existent at that)?
I just looked and the product index now goes up to the 31000 range. They must have just fixed it.
In DS 4.9 there is now a right-click option from the products listings to get to the readme (ctrl-right-click to get options on what opens, and where).
You can use this one (it's free) to browse all product- and readme pages. Left click for the product page, right click for the readme.
http://taosoft.dk/software/freeware/prbr-daz/
Why are the Genesis 2 Female Anatomical Elements claiming they need updated for over a month in my DAZ Connect Update listings in DAZ Studio 4.9.1.30? It is the only item that won't update.
Well, you know how those anatomical elements are... always wanting a little extra attention. :P
Because that would be a lot of work for DAZ. And what would they get out of it? Better informed customers? Not necessarily an asset for a company. So for them to invest a lot of time and manpower into something that might not een benefit them in the end...not likely, I would say.
And isn't the thrill of finding out what exactly you just bought half the fun of shopping?
No, this should NOT be a lot of work for DAZ. It's a simple template change. The SKU number is already in the data for the page, building the link around the number would be trivial. It's simply a matter of them taking the time to do it.
Well, I'm not a computer human, so I'll take your word for it. Still, someone would have to go do something, and since DAZ probably doesn't know whether it'll benefit them at all or might even end up hurting them, my guess is that even a little to no work would be to much :D
In my opinion, adding the links is best done whem doing a software update, since it's something that should be well tested before being publicly released. Also, we have to remember that what ends up on the documentation website is what the vendors provide, so if there isn't much useful information there, we need to make the vendors aware that we want better information to make an informed purchase or understand why we should install an update.