[this got bounced back to me. Some of the points have already been
covered but I spent half an hour on this, so dammit, I'm going to post
it anyway]
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Emiliano <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [midgard-user] lack of documentation, install frustrations...
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 13:11:26 +0200 (CEST)
Thomas Rother wrote:
> (1) ONE thiong is a "rehaul" of the general Midgard docs (-> deatailed
> documentation with reference, like a "handbook".
> (2) ANOTHER thing is a simple but still complete and up-to-date (->
> 1.4.2.1) documentation of the FIRST steps into Midgard, the main install
> problems which may occur in various distributions (mainly those that are
> NOT used by the developers, like SUSE ...), any workaround plus a simple
> setup for a first Midgard site "from the scratch".
So get involved.
> P.S. I installed midgard 1.4.1 successfully on SUSE 7.1 a few months
> ago. It took me approx. 6 weeks, numerous IRC sessions with Daniel,
> Torben and others, a complete rebuild of apache and also some updates
> from the CVS tree (the tar.gz did not work). Returning to 1.4.2 last
> week, I tried to install this on SUSE 7.2 as we need to do the same
> install in our company soon. I didn't work, although it was said that
> numerous install fixes were made.
Open Source Software == Community Software. I don't run SuSE myself;
if we only hear "it doesn't work -- again!" without any details, *how
are we supposed to fix it*? I can't keep around machines for every
platform out there. If you have a stake in getting a particular
platform working smoothly, *help me to help you*.
> Can't you imagine that this is VERY frustrating for the ordinary user?
> And that this is NOT what people expect from "professional-grade" Open
> Source software?
And can't people imagine that only hearing "your docs are bad -- fix
it" or "the install is bad -- fix it" without feedback (either fixes
or detailed information) is VERY frustating too? Open Source Software
development ought to be a symbiotic relationship between users and
developers, not a one way street.
Let me make this one point very clear: I _do_ appreciate (in both the
'understand' and 'thank you' sense) that our users are investing their
valuable time and too often wind up frustrating with the lack of
progress. For reasons I don't quite understand myself, this matters a
lot to me and I devote lots of time to get things like this fixed.
On the flip side, I have a kid, a girlfriend, a skydiving
addiction and a dayjob to pay for it all, and everyones' urgent
Midgard problems to fill in the Copious Free Time that remains[0].
Try asking yourself "why do the midgard developers do what they do", then
try to fill in "because they love to spend every waking hour on a tool
they often don't even have time to use to its full potential
themselves[1] and getting vocal gripes in return", and see if it makes sense.
I'm having a hard time putting these two together.
I urge everyone who, like us, is frustrated with the pace of progress
of our project to join in. There's plenty of work to go around, no
matter what your field of interest or expertise. And if something
bothers you, _take ownership_ of the problem. Keep the problem from
going forgotten, (help) investigate, etc.
Emile
[0] For the irony-impaired: imagine wry smile here. And yes, you've
heard this exact line before.
[1] I was with the project for over a year when I decided to finally
take the time to fully convert the website of my girfriend to
Midgard. When I entered the project my intent was to get exactly
that done, but I got caught up in the development process.
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