[pmwiki-users] PmW Mag?

[Crisses]

On Sep 20, 2006, at 2:23 AM, kjettil wrote:

> Jon Haupt wrote:
>> On 9/19/06, Kathryn Andersen <kat_lists at katspace.homelinux.org>  
>> wrote:
>>
>> What's wrong with "Magazine"?  That's what it *is*, isn't it?
>>
>> I totally agree.  The title could be PmWiki Magazine, and the  
>> group on PmWiki.org could just be /Magazine, and I think that  
>> makes sense.
>>
> I strongly support PmWiki Magazine - it may not be "sexy", but it  
> tells exactly what it is (intended to be), also to people with a  
> mother tongue different from English. PmWiki is used and  
> appreciated by an international audience and should therefore  
> address that audience. Even if the target area is the whole world,  
> the language shall of course be the (only truly) international  
> language, viz. English (sorry for that French and German colleagues!).

Yipes!  That's not what I mean by it -- but if someone's using an  
auto-translator service "Magazine" translates where "Zine" "PMZine"  
etc. will not.

I don't care what language is used the most on the net... if I were  
trying to translate a foreign site, I'd appreciate if the words were  
translatable!

> As regards contents: I can't find that anyone yet has written a  
> book on how to set up a PmWiki site, like has been done for e.g  
> Joomla. And there's probably no need, since PmWiki is so easy to  
> set up and configure - and it's highly configurable and extendable.

Actually, I disagree.  A separate "How to set up PmWiki" pamphlet  
would probably be terrific -- even if it were only 4 pages long :)   
"PmWiki Noob to Pro in 4 Pages or Less!" ;)

> But in that versatility lies a problem, in particular for those new  
> to the business (with varying degrees of knowledge of PHP, xHTML,  
> CSS, server setup, etc). This list shows repeatedly that beginners  
> encounter the same type of problems. ww.pmwiki.org is a wonderful  
> source of tools, advice and help - but it takes months to find out  
> how to use it effectively. PmWiki Magazine could do a lot to ease  
> the setting up of PmWiki sites and relieve Pm from the burden of  
> repeatedly having to give the same advice and help to beginners.

I doubt that someone looking to try it out is going to stop by the  
magazine.  A serious & simple tutorial with literal step-by-step and  
troubleshooting instructions rather than links back to the technical  
(or more technical) documentation would be great.

I started a videotutorial (onscreen with voiceover) for PmWiki use  
once. I haven't cleaned it up and done the post-production on it, and  
could use to re-do it from scratch.  Bad me.

> But, experienced administrators also need advice and guidance, be  
> it on a more advanced level. This list is a goldmine - but you  
> can't reasonably read and remember everything. And, that day when  
> you yourself have that particular problem, it may take a lot of  
> time to find the advice in the archives. Therefore, articles for  
> experienced administrators are also necessary.

We should label articles or tutorials with a Level.  Beginner,  
Intermediate, Advanced, Contributor.  I could write reams about  
debugging techniques for PHP for example, but it wouldn't be relevant  
to everyone.

> As regards look and feel: To show the full capacity of PmWiki as a  
> CMS, the PmWiki Magazine should have a CMS layout, with a nice CMS  
> type skin.

And screenshots, photos, diagrams, charts, whatever -- some people  
are visual learners, or at least need the other side of their brain  
massaged occasionally.

Crisses
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /pipermail/pmwiki-users/attachments/20060920/247457a5/attachment.html