[mythtv-users] Re:MythTV Help Website
Erwin van der Koogh
mythtv at koogh.com
Thu Apr 15 07:19:33 EDT 2004
>> Precisely! And this fact is the single, strongest reason to deploy a
>> wiki !! When the answers are there for everyone to find, the flood of
>> messages on this high-volume list will drop significantly. Everybody
>> will be happy.
>>
>>
> Semi OT: I've never seen a wiki that was worth a crap. Care to share a
> couple links?
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page> ;-)
> Searching the mailing list archives or using google for an OSS project
> should be considered the equivalent of reading the help file of a windows
> app. That's just how things work. The folks that come here asking
> questions that are easily answerable are the same folks that call tech
> support before reading the help files.
> The only real irony is that the OP was offering yet another information
> source to the project when he himself had not availed himself of the the
> existing ones.
I have availed myself of the existing ones, and that didn't solve my
problems. What I think is the main problem is that as a newbie I have no
clue as to what is the real problem.. and that makes searching for answers
all the more difficult.
> Again, I'd have to see a wiki that works but every one I've seen is full
> of holes, wrong information and useless info that it's impossible to find
> anything useful. The exception to that has been the various "definition"
> sites that have a very focused scopes.
That's why I wouldn't suggest just a random everyone can do everything and
keep it focused.
As per previous post, I think the most can be gained out of a collection of
"How I got it to work with these parameters". So that others can look for
stories with similar parameters can compare notes.
>> Now, back to this. I feel that there is a VERY big difference between
>> requiring sgml patches, or having a low-threshold wiki. Let's say I
>> wanted to correct or annotate 1 sentence in the docs. Send patches ?
>> Yeah, very likely. No, just like everybody else, I just assume that it
>> being corrected on the ML is enough, and that maybe even someone
>> already compiles a faq out of ML answers. (when you are new you have no
>> way to know how it currently is done)
>>
>>
> Now we've switched gears here... A little bit ago folks were talking
> about adding large amounts of documentation not correcting things here
> and there.
How would one go about contributing a "How I got it to work" type story and
easily keep it up to date?
>> As coders, you just can't imagine how big a hurdle it is for 'ordinary
>> people' to hear that they have to learn, for example, XML before they
>> can join in.
>
> You do have a point.
Even as a coder (although a java, not C one) I would feel uncomfortable
writing docs on the main site. Mainly because there's one thing worse than
no documentation and that's wrong documentation.
> But the million dollar question is: "Did you need to struggle with that
> problem?" i.e. if you had: Read all the docs, searched the mailing list
> & used google would you have found the answer in a reasonable amount of
> time?
No I did not :)
> Personally, I think what Myth needs more than a Wiki is a FAQ and even
> that could be rolled into the howto I think. I'm not saying a wiki is a
> horrible idea, I just question the usefulness of adding another
> information source when the existing ones aren't being used properly.
A free for all wiki is usually a horrible idea, but if you can focus it
narrowly enough I think there's quite some potential in there. But I also
think that we are focussing too much of a particular technology. If it
could be solved by something (or someone) else that would be great too.
So maybe the million dollar question is:
"How can we make it easier for people to share their experiences with the
web?"
Erwin
More information about the mythtv-users
mailing list