[ic] Wanted: Support Group - opinions?

Paul Jordan interchange-users@icdevgroup.org
Fri Feb 14 01:27:00 2003


> >>It is pretty obvious to me that there needs to be a separation between
> >>the advanced technical discussions going on here and a mail group for
> >>those people wanting to ask more simple questions about say, setup
> >>issues.

[snip]
>
> The absurd thing is that being such a excellent cart, which could be
> used by beginners and advanced users alike, providing such simple
> documentation would probably greatly accelerate the use of the cart
> system on the net and end up bringing a lot of paid work to the
> programmers.
>

Devin

The docs are a touchy subject :)

You do make valid points, and although another list will probably not spawn
here, I can suggest trying the forum,
http://www.interchangeville.com/forum/index.php where you can ask questions
at will.  It is just important to remember that there are very different
communities on the web. The forum is optional, and a consultant, looking to
help hopefully future clients can choose to go there and peruse the open
questions, or another user can try and help. A mailist on the other hand is
going straight into 1000's and 1000's of inboxes all over the world. Maybe
these people also have a MySql mailist, Apache... etc. This can add up
quick, as I am sure you know. A Newsgroup IMO is more a hobby, so one
welcomes as much bantar into their inbox, as it is their passion. I know I
spend way too much time reading and deleting myself.

Documentation is a double edged sword on an open source project, unless
someone is solely put on the docs which is not likely. You are right, it
would proliferate the use of the software.

For instance, 'options' just went through a major change in 5.0 (from 4.8),
which is not officially released yet, and would not be documented anyways.
About a year ago, ADMIN was the devgroups thorn in it's side, and with 4.9
they brought great improvement in ADMIN. Item Options were a thorn also, and
Mike and the guys have apparently came up with a new model, that is supposed
to be quite extensible.

Documentation may not come for a while, or not at all on these. There is a
Wiki, where one can contribute, so if you decide to take advantage of these
new 'options' maybe you can drop some pointers in there for the next guy.
There is also a "copy to dev group" link in the help editor in ADMIN. So if
you want to drop notes about items options, or using ADMIN for options, you
can do it there too.

I think the rift in the community about the docs, comes from the fact that
Interchange has not really defined itself yet, as to what it is. It has no
implicit target audience, which I think has to do with the fact that it
comes bundled with Cpanel. The devgroup recently "separated" support
regarding Cpanel,
 http://www.icdevgroup.org/cgi-bin/ic/cpanel.html
which is a statement that helps define it's target audience. However when
you open yourself up to the average joe (i.e., bundled with Cpanel)
documentation can only be achieved via corporate sponsor, plain and simple.
For instance, Apache is not targeted toward the average joe.

Believe me, Interchange can do alot and evolves quickly, and that makes
documentation a project of great size, and there are only a handful of
people in the devgroup.

In life we all must take the good with the bad. I don't think the devgroup
will make another list, however if they did, and *if people used it
responsibly, I think it would do alot of good. Reducing rtfm questions on
the main list, and make an alternative, which is optional to those that want
to allow that email into their inbox. Said that, I think Mike knows the
drill on this, and that this list would still get all the questions, and/or
people would just post the same question on both, thus doubling some post.
Ultimately it comes down to the users being responsible, and their actions
will define where energy gets focused.

Paul