Zikula Community

• GlueBeard
  
  

  • Rank: Softmore
  • Registered: Dec 16, 2003
  • Last visit: Jan 19, 2010
  • Posts: 100

  Posted: Sep 03, 2004 - 03:53 AM

  As I scroll down the forum index listing here on PostNuke.com, prominently missing, apparently in keeping with what seems to be the PostNuke tradition of documentation being the lowest priority, is a forum dedicated solely to documentation.
  
  This, I think, underscores both the problem, itself, and the degree to which the problem perpetuates itself.
  
  Sure, writing documentation can be tedious and time-consuming. But, so, too, can be the learning curves associated with PostNuke, PHP, MySQL, specific blocks and modules, various interfaces, theme crafting and theme editing, etc..
  
  The problem with doing searches for information in the forums of PostNuke.com is not that, many times, the answer cannot be located in these forums, but rather, all-too-often, the system yields up thousands upon thousands of possible forum postings in response to a search.
  
  The problem is further exacerbated by the fact that, at times, some modules and blocks do not have any real documentation to speak of, at all.
  
  Making things even more problematic is the fact that tutorials are often written in such a way as to end up being "over the head" of someone new to the entire world of PostNuke. For the gurus who travel in ritualistic fashion to the pinnacle of Mount PostNuke, they possess knowledge, experience, and understanding that the uninitiated simply are devoid of.
  
  Certainly, it is true that, if a newbie to it all would simply immerse themselves and learn all that there is to know about the items mentioned previously above, then they, too, would be better able to tame these beasts.
  
  Yet, it would likely be less time consuming to learn and become fluent in foreign languages.
  
  At times, the documentation that is included with a block or module leaves one more confused than when one began. Other times, the documentation starts off well enough, and then seems to dissipates the further that one reads, leaving one mired in the middle of the Swamp of the PostNuke Lost.
  
  I have read numerous lamentations about documentation deficiencies in these forums, since I started using PostNuke, but even still, documentation's struggle for recognition continues to be the redheaded step child of PostNuke.
  
  For those who are proficient in the art of authoring documentation, and yet who simultaneously lack coherent and thorough understanding of PHP, PostNuke, and other such relevant informational monstrosities, there exists a quandary of great sorts - How does one write documentation for something that they do not understand? Thus, they are handicapped from the start.
  
  documentation should always be written to the lowest common denominator, where possible, so that the uninitiated become the initiated via reading of the documentation in question.
  
  The forums of PostNuke.com are the technological equivalent of informational kudzu. Sure, in all likelihood, the answer that one seeks is already here. It's just covered, masked, and hidden away by the kudzu of thousands of irrelevant messages masquerading as the Holy Grail of answers that one is seeking at any given moment.
  
  The phrase "Save the Rain Forest" conjures up images in my mind of the PostNuke.com forums. All manner of wild beasts roam here, exotic beyond my wildest imagination, and seemingly increasing in species and variety as we move forward. Pity, then, the newcomer to this jungle, he or she who ventures forth to explore this new and savage continent.
  
  I say "savage," because many are they who have been claimed by the fabled beasts that roam this continent, both night and day.
  
  The learning curves associated with PostNuke are like wild and raging rivers, whose rapids of technobabble lay ready to drown any who seek to traverse them.
  
  No block nor module offers any true increase in functionality to those who are unable to figure out how to install them and get them to work properly.
  
  And God forbid that some timid soul summon sufficient courage to want to delve into the Slave Pits of Theme Editing, for great is the misery that awaits one there.
  
  Somehow or other, and I am not quite sure how, exactly, I now manage to find myself in the midst of this jungle, its technological canopy blocking out the light of understanding above.
  
  It's a big jungle, so I figure that I can carve myself out a nice little niche space between its vines of confusion and its trees of tense efforts. But, of late, I have come to the conclusion that this jungle is alive. Yes, alive!! Something out there wants to eat me, I think.
  
  Yet, I persist, as I continue to search for the fabled Eldorado of documentation.
  
  Is it real, or only a myth?
  
  Many are they who have searched for it, only to give their lives in vain to the PostNukian Rain Forest.
  
  Thus far, lots of Fool's Gold, but little in the way of real wealth. A speck of gold dust here or there, a shiny bauble or precious gemstone now and again, but nowhere yet have I come across the Mother-lode.
  
  Eldorado!!

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