Newbies-Read this First!

[nolybab]

I don't pretend to be a guru here. In fact, this is only my third day
with access to the wavesandbox. Therefore, I still vividly recall how
confusing it is to get started in the Wave! It's so exciting when you
finally receive that email from Google Wave granting you access to the
system. Then, when you login for the first time it can be a bit
confusion.

This is why I'm writing this post, to help you get through that
initial orientation as quickly as possible.

Also, if you find this information useful, just reply with a short
message, as this will help keep the thread current for new users.
However, if nobody replies, then this post will just drift into
obscurity.

So, without further ado:

1) First, the email you receive states that you can add the user wave-
dis...@wavesandbox.com if you have any questions. Ignore that
instruction because the user wave-d...@wavesandbox.com has been
deprecated (so far as I understand).

2) All the waves that you see listed when you first enter wavesandbox
are "PUBLIC" waves. Anyone can make any wave public by adding the user
'pub...@a.gwave.com'. When you add this user, it won't show up in the
users box, but rest-assured that once added, your wave is public for
everyone to see. Therefore, instead of following the email's advice of
adding wave-d...@wavesandbox.com, and instead just add
pub...@a.gwave.com and everyone will be able to see your waves.

3) If you don't want your wave public, then you must specifically
invite users to join your wave, otherwise, your wave will be very
lonely. Keep in mind that any user can make a wave public by adding
the pub...@a.gwave.com user, that means the creator of the wave, or
anyone subsequently added to a wave.

4) Using this group to find people's accounts for contact is actually
quite futile (as you'll soon find out). Why? Well, because when you
have someone as a contact, it's not like you can just 'IM' them, or
call their attention to your messages. For instance, you can create a
new wave, invite a contact and then start typing blips, but if the
other user does not actually open your wave, then he or she is not
going to know that you are trying to contact them. It can be very
confusing for first-time users trying to add each other to different
waves and then trying to figure out which wave they are in, or why the
other is not replying....

5) If you want to know who is actively looking at a wave, look and see
if there is a small green dot in the lower-right-hand corner of their
image-icon on the wave. If the circle is green, they are there
monitoring or participating in the wave, but if the green circle is
NOT there, then that user is not active on the wave at that time.

6) Resist the temptation to just create your first wave right off the
bat. I guess it doesn't matter much because you can easily delete or
edit a wave at any time. However, it might be better to monitor active
waves and try participating in someone elses public wave...it's not
really hijacking a wave if they make it public, right?

7) Experiment and have fun! What I mean by experimenting is to
consider all your options when interracting in the wave. For example,
just because a wave is public does not mean that it's necessarily
appropriate to just reply to any message. In some cases, it might be
better to use a 'private reply'. There's no right or wrong in this,
just something to think about. I learned this when I cluttered my own
wave with reply after reply followed more replies that were really
more appropriate for just a single user. Does it matter? Not really.
After all, we're all just experimenting here. Nevertheless, after I
saw what was happening and understood, I wished that the other user
and myself had just been doing private replies because it made my
public blips harder to see by newcomers to the wave.

8) Now, like I said, I am not a guru here. And I am certainly not
trying to take an 'Opinion Leader' position with this thought.
Nevertheless, I do wish to state that you're probably just better off
ignoring all those waves dedicated to discussing RULES of the wave. If
there are ANY rules at all, then I can think of only two: 1) respect
others and 2) use your brain and experiment. We don't need a bunch of
rules restricting our innovative uses of these technologies.

Finally, once you're somewhat familiar with the wave, you'll probably
want to start experimenting a little bit and go beyond simply using
the wave like a IM/Chatroom on steroids. So, I would suggest:

a) try embedding one of your waves to an external website using the
embed api or an embed gadget.

b) try putting a robot onto one of your waves and experimenting

c) try putting a gadget into one of your waves and experimenting

d) try creating your own simple hello-world robot and gadget :)

For what it's worth, I hope somebody finds this post useful and
helpful

See you in the wave!

--Nolybab

[David Cummins]

Thank you Nolybab that was very helpful, I don't have an account yet, but will keep.

D Cummins

2009/7/31 nolybab <thard...@gmail.com>

[Leonard Badi]

10x lot. No account yet, but just added a star

[Olivier Favre]

I can't see any green dot in the lower right corner of participants
avatar.
Moreover, I've just tested a wave with myself and I on normal and
testing account, side by side in Firefox 3.0 and 3.5, and I can only
see a dot on the current account.
(That is me see's a green dot on me only, and me-test see's a green
dot on me-test only. Both seeing both of them as participants.)

I guess it's because is still a sandbox and that one day it may return
the way you described it.
I've put a High5 to your post, many thanks !


Olivier

[Bastian Hoyer]

You can only see the green dot if the person is in your contacts.

[Vincent]

...good work. I'm going to link your post into a couple of waves I've
created for new people on the system. This was good work!

---v

[Peter Wiseman]

Maybe something's changed recently. I couldn't initially see any
public posts. To view public posts you need to search for
"with:public".

Or search for public in this group. A useful one I found was
"Announcing Simple Public Forums Options".

Or search for a wave called "List of Discussion Groups" by entering
the following in the search box:

with:public "list of discussion groups"

Peter.

[Ville Sundell]

Thank you Peter! That tip of yours helped me very much to see the
public waves :)

I was thinking what was wrong with my account, because it seemed that
everyone else could see the public waves well and without problems.

Now I am also able to see them :)

2009/8/2 Peter Wiseman <peter....@gmail.com>:

[miguy2k]

Thanks a lot! Tough I don't have an account yet, the bit of info was
highly appreciated :-)
Hope to see you in the wave once I have access!

Regards,
Mike

[malhar]

Hi Nolybab,

I just received my wave account but I can't see any public waves?

Thanks

On Jul 31, 6:51 pm, nolybab <thardin...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I don't pretend to be a guru here. In fact, this is only my third day
> with access to the wavesandbox. Therefore, I still vividly recall how
> confusing it is to get started in the Wave! It's so exciting when you
> finally receive that email from Google Wave granting you access to the
> system. Then, when you login for the first time it can be a bit
> confusion.
>
> This is why I'm writing this post, to help you get through that
> initial orientation as quickly as possible.
>
> Also, if you find this information useful, just reply with a short
> message, as this will help keep the thread current for new users.
> However, if nobody replies, then this post will just drift into
> obscurity.
>
> So, without further ado:
>
> 1) First, the email you receive states that you can add the user wave-

> disc...@wavesandbox.com if you have any questions. Ignore that
> instruction because the user wave-disc...@wavesandbox.com has been

> deprecated (so far as I understand).
>
> 2) All the waves that you see listed when you first enter wavesandbox
> are "PUBLIC" waves. Anyone can make any wave public by adding the user
> 'pub...@a.gwave.com'. When you add this user, it won't show up in the
> users box, but rest-assured that once added, your wave is public for
> everyone to see. Therefore, instead of following the email's advice of

> adding wave-disc...@wavesandbox.com, and instead just add

[nolybab]

malhar,

as peter pointed out above, if you cannot see the public waves, try
searching the following:

with:public

that should help.

[LiuDuo]

Thank you !

On Aug 1, 6:51 am, nolybab <thardin...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I don't pretend to be a guru here. In fact, this is only my third day
> with access to the wavesandbox. Therefore, I still vividly recall how
> confusing it is to get started in the Wave! It's so exciting when you
> finally receive that email from Google Wave granting you access to the
> system. Then, when you login for the first time it can be a bit
> confusion.
>
> This is why I'm writing this post, to help you get through that
> initial orientation as quickly as possible.
>
> Also, if you find this information useful, just reply with a short
> message, as this will help keep the thread current for new users.
> However, if nobody replies, then this post will just drift into
> obscurity.
>
> So, without further ado:
>
> 1) First, the email you receive states that you can add the user wave-

> disc...@wavesandbox.com if you have any questions. Ignore that
> instruction because the user wave-disc...@wavesandbox.com has been

> deprecated (so far as I understand).
>
> 2) All the waves that you see listed when you first enter wavesandbox
> are "PUBLIC" waves. Anyone can make any wave public by adding the user
> 'pub...@a.gwave.com'. When you add this user, it won't show up in the
> users box, but rest-assured that once added, your wave is public for
> everyone to see. Therefore, instead of following the email's advice of

> adding wave-disc...@wavesandbox.com, and instead just add

[Ville Sundell]

I think there should we a menu entry for the public waves, right?

That would make it easier for new testers to get used to the wave, imo ;)

2009/8/4 LiuDuo <ld2...@gmail.com>: