Hi Josiah and thanks a lot for your effort to give me a thorough answer.
I've waited an answer like that can offer me some kind of summary of the
problem because, honestly, I didn't know how/where to find it and my
searches didn't gave me satisfying results.
I don't want to be misunderstood. I didn't say that the content itself
doesn't have value or utility. I'm just saying that the structure of the
documentation can be improved to make things more easier to find. It's not
an original idea, I've seen this kind of structure in other manuals/doc
systems. My intention, at the moment, is not a complete overhaul, just some
moving things around and maybe a little renaming of tiddlers. Reclassifying
the content, not recreate it. IMHO it should make a great difference.
"There is MUCH information around. Its just hard to find it." I totally
agree and that's exactly what makes the documentation not so useful,
especially for beginners. One of the main purpose of a documentation should
be to help users to find the right knowledge as quickly as possible or they
will search somewhere else. It's a natural thing. My personal view (and
experience) is that augmenting the current content is not gone resolve the
biggest issues that make the knowledge "hard to find". And I think this is
the main problem that we should fix in the first place. My primary source
of learning TW (and I thinks it should remain the primary source for
everyone) wad indeed the official documentation but my overall impression
is that it could have been an easier and more enjoyable ride.
I will try to make a demo to demonstrate my ideas first ("A picture makes a
thousand words"). Maybe I'm wrong but I think it's worth a try first.
Adrian.
On Monday, June 26, 2017 at 3:43:52 PM UTC+3, @TiddlyTweeter wrote:
>
> If you look back you will see on the main group a lot of discussion of how
> to arrive at better "documentation". I have been heavily involved in some
> of that. In the last few months there have been two major attempts to
> supplement documentation via Reddit & StackExchange. The first is stalled.
> The second goes on on, though slowly.
>
> Its entirely obvious that whilst Google Groups is fine for ongoing
> discussion it is* absolutely the worst for being able to find past things*.
> Which is a shame as many answers needed are buried in its history.
>
> FWIW, my own viewpoint has changed quite a lot from when I first wrote
> about the inadequacies of documentation--especially it poorness for
> newbies. NOW I think that the biggest issue is the FRAGMENTATION of
> knowledge about TW, NOT lack of documentation per se.
>
> The main documentation page IS fairly minimalist because its largely just
> one person--Jeremy Ruston--writing it and I believe he wants to concentrate
> on fundamentals. Its not always, in all parts, user-friendly, but its
> better than nothing.
>
> Also, partly all this is a consequence of what TW itself is. Considering
> how many people are using TW its remarkably difficult to get to see fully
> complete TiddlyWiki's. But that's because (1) a lot of them are off-line;
> and (2) what is on-line is not well indexed. Google searches don't bring
> many of them up (for a bunch of reasons, some of which could be improved
> upon, I think, to all our benefit).
>
> *IMO, you would likely be more effective either trying to bring what is
> known (& published somewhere) together, OR concentrate on one or two areas
> where you have skill and provide more in-depth tutorials & suchlike. *I
> truly think you will find that trying to fix TW documentation, as a whole,
> solo will not work. In the short time I been here I have seen 5 or 6 failed
> attempts at that already.
>
> So whilst I'm really in favour of what you are pushing for, I'm now more
> in favour of "joining-up-the-dots" --because I think it has a chance to
> work. I also think replete examples teach much, even in small numbers. As
> do in-depth tutorials. There is MUCH information around. Its just hard to
> find it.
>
> So, possibly a modest aim would deliver a more sustainable result?
>
> Just my two cents.
>
> Very best wishes
> Josiah
>
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