Re: Yahoo has no staff tech writers

["Chuck Martin" <twriter -at- sonic -dot- net>]

Catching up after a trip.....

"Andrew Plato" <gilliankitty -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote in message
news:171953 -at- techwr-l -dot-  -dot-  -dot- 
> "Chuck Martin" <> wrote ...
> > All the more reason to have someone on staff. Those changes are planned,
and
> > a staff technical communicator can not only help in shaping new designs,
> > making them more usable, any needed additional documentation can be done
as
> > the design is being implemented--without a need to ramp up and what's
being
> > done. That's simply not the case with a contractor.
>
> That's just not how it works in that business. Things are not planned at
the
> depth of other businesses. Again, Yahoo seems to be doing okay, so I don't
see
> any reason for changing that.

Doesn't it depend on the definition of "doing OK?" Maybe they are
profitable, but they are also losing users. I don't have specific statistics
in front of me, but from what I've seen, while Internet use keeps growing,
which means more raw customer numbers are available, the percentage using
Yahoo as a resource is shrinking--because others are stepping in and doing
what they do (or used to do) better.

Heck, if you go to a local Yahoo now, the directory is no longet even
evident.

>
> And furthermore, technical writers are not responsible for shaping
designs. I
> know every third STC seminar tells you that you have this right. But the
fact is,
> many organizations have no interest in having tech writers have ANY input
on
> design. And demanding this job on day one is a super-fast way to have
yourself
> escorted out the doors.

Here's where you're utterly and completely wrong, and it's because you seem
to define "technical writer so narrowly. "Technical communcators" do far,
for more than "just" write--except, perhaps, for the English majors and
creative writers who have crossed over to the field seeking higher salaries.
True technical communicators have both the technical competence and the
writing skills to do a complete job, and do it right. That means not only
writing, but graphics, design, programming, and more.

But many companies want just the writing, and your attitude simply enables
that--which means that often technical writing is little more than the
application or hardware janitor, cleaning up after programmers' and
managers' hack jobs of UI design. Sure, we can do that. And watch the tech
support calls roll in. (Which companies like nowadays because they charge
for tech support calls, so it's now another profit center.)

But whether it's a piece of hardware, a software package, or a web site or
application, the fact is that all these things communicate when they are
used. Every icon, every word, every field, every button, everything,
communicates to the user. The user, meanwhile, simply wants to reach his or
her goals and deosn't want to delve into a manual. If that hardware,
software, or web site does its job, then users have an easier and less
frustrating time reaching their goalsd.


>
> If you want to shape design, you need to move into a production manager or
> designer job. And that is a different discipline than  tech writing. Now,
some
> organizations will permit a writer to be involved in the design process,
but
> usually that is well after that writer has already proven his/her ability
to
> produce useful documentation. Rarely is that job handed over on day one.

Usability and design are not separate disciplines from technical
communication. In fact, they are a lot of overlap. A lot.


>
> > But their business is hurting. Many people who need to search for
something
> > on the web, once Yahoo!'s bread and butter, now turn to somewhere else.
> > Heck, I even have Google's toolbar installed on my IE browser.
>
> But it obviously isn't. They reported high profitability recently.
Remember, you
> pay Yahoo NOTHING to search their site. He who has the money, makes the
rules.

Well, actually, I do pay. I pay for their fantasy sports.

OTOH, I don't pay google, yet it has become the search engine of choice, and
not only for me, but for many, many others who find Yahoo has failed them.

Yahoo has decided it no longer seems to want to be a search engine, or even
a good directory.

>
> > Their CEO has an attitute of stockholder first, not user first. I'd
surmise
> > they are stil so popular because of (a) inertia (I still use My Yahoo!
as my
> > default home page) and (b) they still catch some percentage of new
Internet
> > users. But I bet the percentage of all Internet users who use Yahoo!
> > services has fallen, and will continue to fall.
>
> Every single public company in the world has an attitude of stockholder
first.
> That's business. Because stockholders have a real stake in the business.
You
> contribute nothing to Yahoo. And clearly, people are willing to use it
without
> extensive help files. So, inductive reasoning here would suggest that
whatever
> yahoo is doing is working.

IBM used to, and look what happened. But in the mid to late 90s, they
started focusing on customer needs, user needs, and look what happened.

If you don't make the users happy and satisfied with your products, your
company will fail. You can cover up a product's deficiencies only so long.
But if customers are happy, they will come back and buy more, thereby
increasing the stock price. It doesn't take an MBA to figure that out.

>
> Users are not lost little puppies that need the tender guidance of caring
> technical writers. And moreover, many businesses have collapsed into
oblivion
> with user obsessions.
>
> Many firms simply are having a hard time justifying tech writers on staff.
This
> is largely due in part to the overwhelming incompetence in the tech
writing
> profession. Why pay a person a big salary when they refuse to learn the
> technologies of their own employer? When they spend night and day
obsessively
> masticating over the most pointless minutia of grammar and FrameMaker and
totally
> ignoring the worthless content they are generating. When writers eat up
months
> and months of work building elaborate single-source systems that produce
crap.

Who refuses to learn the technologies of their own emploers? Certainly not
any of the writers I've worked with, nor the people I've seen on this list.
I have to wonder about the people you've worked with in the past that would
lead you to paint such a wide swath with your tarring brush.

Meanwhile, I've found many more issues with incompetent writers, often
programmers who think that technical writing is easy, but who can't write a
lick, organize information that can be found, and haven't a clue about what
kind of information users need and when.

Good writers do not "obsessively masticate over the most pointless minutia
of grammar," but they do know how to write clearly and cohesively. And they
stand up to programmes who think they know how to write and when they try to
push their own version of "grammar" down the writer's throat--usually with
the backing of their manager because programmers are gods in this industry.

>
> There too little pragmatism in tech writing and when the economy is in the
> crapper, like it is now, starry-eyed promises of usability based on
theories
> gleaned from web sites is just not worth the investment.
>
Pragmatism is good. I'll clean up the garbage to pay the bills. But I also
know how much better it can be, and will continue to advocate for
it--appropriately of course--when the occasion arises.




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