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Re: [mv] Re: your mail
****** message to minivend-users from "Mr. Christopher F. Miller" <cfm@maine.com> ******
On Thu, Jan 20, 2000 at 06:17:32PM -0600, Christopher P. Lindsey wrote:
> ****** message to minivend-users from "Christopher P. Lindsey" <lindsey@mallorn.com> ******
> The thing that bothered me most when I first started using minivend
> was the response to my first email message to the list. I didn't
> understand how minivend worked, so I asked for some pointers to sample
> sites with config files or a general HOWTO. Nobody responded publicly,
> but I did get several personal responses from individuals who were more
> than happy to share their expertise for a consulting fee. It left me
> with the impression that Mike H. is the only person doing development,
> and the rest of the world is just riding on his coattails. If better
> documentation is available, they'll lose out on consulting $$$. So why
> help write better docs? It seemed that minivend was doomed to progress
> as the work of one man.
Generally, the quality of the answer one will get on any list
is directly proportional to the quality of the question. I can't
emphasize enough how important it is to do one's homework and ask a
good question if one expects any sort of answer. Some people
say that makes for nasty, unfriendly mailing lists. OTOH, it
makes for better answers.
Good subject lines help too, not just default "Your mail". Yeesh.
Hmmm, maybe I should put that subject line in the kill file for
my mailing lists!
The documentation is not a tutorial, but a reference manual; to
expect it to answer every question at the tutorial level is simply
unrealistic. This is not a beginner program. Minivend is probably
the most difficult collection of software you will ever use; it
is certainly the most difficult beast in our stable. That comes
with the territory: buying and selling, categorizing the world.
Look forward to the day when enough people make enough $$$ consulting
on Minivend, for then there will be Nutshell book. (Or maybe, Minivend
for Dummies?) That might very well be a bigger task than writing Minivend
itself. Until then, settle for the code and better docs than
most software. Minivend is not for the faint of heart. ;^)
cfm
--
Christopher F. Miller, Publisher cfm@maine.com
MaineStreet Communications, Inc 208 Portland Road, Gray, ME 04039
1.207.657.5078 http://www.maine.com/
Database publishing, e-commerce, office/internet integration, Debian linux.
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