Tom,
So far I have not seen any inclination that Tomasz is looking for help
with this. There are issues for TJ to consider when an important
component is no longer under his direct control. Since TJ said on
more than one occasion that he wants to do the whole product himself,
he will do the whole product himself. I also want him to do the
documentation for two reasons. First it really is his responsibility
as the developer even if he has 1 or 100 employees. Second, doing the
documentation is an important step to really understanding your own
work and finding edge conditions from the careful thinking when
explaining the function for others. As an example, while writing up
the documentation for my Flexible Parameters for others to read, I
realized a number of things I wanted to change --some of them just
because it would be easier to change the code than to explain it the
way I wrote it. However, to what level he documents is his stated
choice.
So, if there is a project, it needs to fill a need for users
independent of, not instead of, the official documents.
I think the spirit of sharing between users is that we each have
benefitted from help from other users and in a spirit of fairness and
repaying that debt and expectation of further cooperation, we give
back something to the community. 10% will take and never give. 10%
will give much more than get. 80% will give and get about the same.
It is easiest to share when there is a common agreed upon playing
field. This list is one field, the AFL formula library is another,
and the UKB is one more. It is easy to agree on these venues because
they are directly supported by AmiBroker.
I think that proposing another venue for many to collaborate would be
taking a big risk. It would really need to become like a business
with partners and conditions spelled out carefully if money is to
change hands. It is much easier for an individual to do this than a
group. I think there is a much higher risk of disappointed people
than delighted ones.
Now that I have got the negatives out, I don't want to leave the
impression that I think no need exists, or that there is no way to
fill it. There are needs and there are ways to fill them. Of course
a better playing field would help, but the key to success IMHO is to
use the same approach as eating an elephant -- one bite at a time.
People feel good about making a contribution that takes them a few
hours, but has immediate results that can be shared. A contribution
that takes months becomes a job, and as you say needs to be justified
somehow with a larger compensation --and expectations of (emotional)
reward grow with the investment.
Take a look at what happens when expectations are not lined up with
reality. Someone is hurting right now due to this revelation and it
is showing in another post.
As far as monetary compensation goes, I expect to reap that directly
from my efforts in trading. Seeking compensation from writing
documents is a different business and would be an emotional conflict
of interest that could interfere with my prime goal. Emotions are a
key factor in trading success -- conserve them!
I am taking one collective bite of the Elephant to start -- a
Glossary. If that goes well, then I will bite again.
Best regards,
Dennis
On Aug 30, 2008, at 6:26 PM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
Dennis,
I agree that having the information for free would be better, but I
have found that there is no such thing as a free lunch. By having a
pay site, the people who are working to keep the site current would
get compensated for their work. Probably not what they deserve, but
at least some compensation. All the help on this forum would still
be available on this forum in whatever form that is being used, but
it would also be available on the user site in a user friendly form.
I have about 10 web sites. I now how hard it is to keep a site up to
date. With a product like AmiBroker, the task is almost
overwhelming. I also think that it would give Tomasz more time to
concentrate on improving AmiBroker because someone else would be
keeping the manuals and help areas current.
Tom
----- Original Message -----
From: Dennis Brown
To: [email protected]
Sent: Saturday, August 30, 2008 3:16 PM
Subject: Re: [amibroker] Re: Help Manual
Tom,
I am answering you here to get this into the right thread.
It sounds interesting, but I believe that the UKB could support the
ebook idea or even broken up into smaller sections. Once the
initial heavy lifting is over, I would guess that it would not be
hard to find volunteers to update it with just the new stuff. I
would hate to see a paid subscription site model for this --it just
seems like it is admitting failure of the community which is so good
about sharing freely. I would not object to contributing to the
initial work that would be free to all. Of course that is what the
UKB is supposed to be for.
However, I would be happier if there was some way that we could have
an AmiBroker UWiki to compliment the AmiBroker UKB for this kind of
work since it fits that model so much better. Open to the
community, but only up to date license holders would have edit
access (as a way to control access to those with a vested interest
in its integrity --or perhaps only trusted authors access like the
UKB. Another option would be to have a site like you mention but
only up to date license holders would have any access as a way to
support AmiBroker and perhaps gain support from Tomasz since there
would be a direct benefit.
Lots of possibilities. It warrants more consideration. The thing
is to fill a need of one segment of the community as easily as
possible.
Best regards,
Dennis
On Aug 30, 2008, at 5:30 PM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Dennis,
What I envision is a site for AmiBroker users. It would contain an
Amibroker manual in an ebook form, an AFL manual in an ebook form,
a glossary in an ebook form, links to all the AmiBroker info. maybe
a revision of the AmiBroker AFL terms with a more easily understood
definition with more samples, a list of AFL programmers who will do
programming, a forum for questions and answers, and anything else
that would help users get the most from AmiBroker.
This would be a membership site with an annual fee. Of course,
Tomasz would have to approve and I would suggest he raise the price
of AmiBroker and include a year's membership in the site. The new
AmiBroker user would up to date easy to use manuals and information
and Tomasz would not have to devote as much time to support and up
dating manuals.
This is just a quick idea of the possibilities.
Tom
----- Original Message -----
From: Dennis Brown
To: [email protected]
Sent: Saturday, August 30, 2008 1:23 PM
Subject: Re: [amibroker] AmiBroker AFL Glossary project
Tom,
I don't think I quite have the full understanding of your vision.
I believe Tomasz would need to support the idea (at least not
object to it) because of the amount of proprietary material that
would have to be referenced. I think it should be discussed in its
own thread. I could support it personally if it fills a need and
does not fracture the community.
On Aug 30, 2008, at 1:23 PM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
To have a manual that is complete and current would take a lot of
time and effort not only to write the manual, but to also keep it
current. I would suggest that if someone wants to take the trouble
to write and update the manual, they could have a pay site with the
manual on it. They could charge a nominal annual membership fee.
Then the members could have access to the manual all year and the
writer or writers would have a least received some compensation for
their effort.
I realize that this would not be a big money making effort, but it
would be helpful to the members and provide some compensation to
the writer. It could even be presentated as an ebook which could be
downloaded. The members would be able to get an up dated ebook as
changes, corrections, and additions are added.
I think that if the annual membership was reasonable, enough people
would subsribe to make it feasilbe. I would be glad to provide help
with a web site and producing the ebook.
Just my humble suggestion,
Tom
I
