Preformatted textSince I reaed some quite “rude” comments recently about NOOBS not searching for the answer by themself. This post is not intent to insult those experts, just an example of thedificulties for us NOOBS. I just started to learn Lovelace. When trying to find information about Lovelace from the start page, I get this information: Preformatted text
The fact is that when I know what the solution is, most of the times I will find the information of HOW to do the solution at hass.io. But to find out WHAT to do I often spend hours googling different keyword combinations… After a couple of months I now consider me being an “experienced noobs”, and tends to find the answer quicker than when I started. But still avoid asking questions here, unless I am desperate. And in this case I will find the information other ways. But would make a noobs life easier if things was easier to find.
(Just another noobs comment. Probably in the wrong forum as well. )
Your point is valid, your approach leaves a lot to be desired. If you’d approached that in a less abrasive manner, people would be more willing to listen to you.
That’s where I started contributing back to Home Assistant, but there’s a limited number of us working on the docs, and we can’t do everything. If you spot something outdated, submit an edit. If the contents are confusing, submit an edit. If there’s something critical missing, submit new pages, or at least pop over to Discord and join us for a chat.
Sorry for the late answer, I have been away for a couple of days. Thank for your answer. And I hope I did not offend anyone with my post. I wrote when was reading a post where someone quite rude told a noob to read the documentation by themself. Then start searching for Lovelace… Understanding Hassio is not super-easy when you are a beginner.
I wouldn’t mind helping, but do not think I am “subject expert” enough yet to do the writing. But there are perhaps other ways people like me could help. Like reviewing documentation and comment on how easy they are to understand.
Most probably you have most of the documentation already, but the way to navigate through it could be improved. Like the “Examples” section which is great. I have used it a lot, both learning from what you can do and copy code to modify (rather than writing all from the beginning. If there was a possibility to search/filter out those configurations by e.g. component it would be even better. If I as a noobs trying to set up Apple-TV it would be of value to look at configuration examples having Apple-TV:s. Then adding some smart categorization of automations and scripts and make those examples more available. That I believe would get the documentation closer to a level where it is possible to find both what to do and how to do things.
There is a fine line there. If people get used to being handed the answers then they never learn, and if the documentation is hard to understand then everybody loses. But, that has to be handled with tact, and some posters fail there.
Agreed entirely. There have been conversations around how to make it better, but it’s not a small task. There’s also the problem where as the platform changes, the docs become outdated. That adds a massive overhead, and we already have a problem with outdated docs. In theory the cookbook, along with the live repositories of people’s configs, helps there, but I appreciate finding things is “not easy”
I’d encourage coming over to Discord and getting a discussion going about what works, and what doesn’t. It’s constructive feedback and engagement like this that really helps improve things
I to look look into Discord when I get a little bit further with Lovelace. It takes more time than I expected Especially reconfiguring Customizations to be able to use custom cards the way (I think) I need to get where I want: But I like Lovelace so far, even though I miss some functionality that exists in HADashboard. But I will drop HADashboard, at least for now.
Especially reconfiguring Customizations to be able to use custom cards the way (I think) I need to get where I want: But I like Lovelace so far, even though I miss some functionality that exists in HADashboard. But I will drop HADashboard, at least for now.