Re: FAQ Project (was) [perl] tag is a cruel joke

["Daniel Blake" <danblake@exotrope.net>]

>That said, people have a great point. The documentation does suck for
>the novice user. I remember when I first started with minivend and I
>banged my head into the wall constantly. Now, I have gleaned enough
>experience that I understand what minivend wants and how it works.
>Once that is achieved, the documentation is awesome and really gives
>you what you need to know, you just have to have enough experience to
>know what to look for, its a sort of Chicken and Egg thing.


I have been evaluating MV (following this list) for about a month or two now
because I think MV is the application to use for E-commerce and this list
let's me know what people are running into while using MV.  I have printed
the docs, and purchases a new ink cartridge :-) and now I am in the process
of reading them.

>If the documentation sucks we need to make it better. I think its
>perfect for the intermediate user right now. The beginner needs to
>invest a lot of time to become intermediate in order to find it
>useful.

I agree, there are spots in the docs that seem to jump ahead more than I can
follow.  This is a program that is very impressive to the point where
magazines (Linux Journal) has stood up and taken notice.  A program this
powerful needs great docs, not just for intermediate and power users, but
for those that want to start using MV also.

>If everyone were to compile these emails and snippets of info that
>they found useful I bet we could have the fine makings of a 'useful
>FAQ' in it.
>By compiling everyone's archived knowledge bases we could really build
something
>easy and useful to work with.


I am willing to contribute to this project, what little I can, to make MV
even better.

>So, I am willing to act as a central repository of such information.
>Maybe anytime someone has an 'AHA' moment that they saw float through
>the email list they can send it my way, I can compile them and then
>forward them onto the documentation project for analysis and
>inclusion. Its a minimal thing but maybe it could be the start of a
>truly user built knowledge base that takes into account the actual
>needs and common questions of users. If this concept sucks or is
>already being implemented ignore me and post some details on how to
>contribute in a manner that won't be flamed or ignored.


Please, any information on the documentation project would be helpful.  On
the list we only hear that is happening but we don't hear anything else.
How do you contribute to the documentation project?  hows it coming along?

Sorry for such a long post.