David Wallace wrote:
Also, I've lost count of the number of times someone has posted something to the effect of "I'll pay someone to give me Nutch support", simply because they find the existing documentation and mailing lists inadequate. Usually, that person gets told that the best way to get Nutch support is to ask questions on the mailing list; but since questions often go unanswered, this isn't a very good way to get Nutch support at all.
I agree this is a problem, but it is also an opportunity. I do try to answer Nutch questions whenever I have time, and most other Nutch developers are also active on these lists. The problem is simply that there are more questions than question answering hours.
All of this is acceptable in a product that hasn't yet reached "version 1.0". The code has moved ahead faster than the documentation; and that's fine, provided the documentation will eventually catch up.
Yes, I hope it will.
Maybe, once 0.8 is deemed production-worthy, the team should down tools, stop coding, and put some effort into really producing a really lovely set of documentation, including a comprehensive FAQ. I believe that this will help grow the user base, faster than adding new features ever could.
That would be nice. Once things settle down it will also be easier for support organizations, consultants, book authors, etc, to step in and improve documentation too.
Doug
