[pmwiki-users] PmWiki forum...

Kathryn Andersen kat_lists at katspace.homelinux.org
Sat Mar 17 23:22:39 CDT 2007


On Sun, Mar 18, 2007 at 12:05:49AM -0400, The Editor wrote:
> 3) The lousy quality of the FAQ page is no proof the mailing list
> works.  It's just proof we have a lousy FAQ system.

> The fact we frequently get asked the same questions on the mailing
> list is probably better proof the mailing list doesn't work.

No, you have that backwards.

> I've tried the archives many times.  They don't work for me.  It's
> hard to find stuff.  PmWiki can and should do better.  Much better.

Me, I've found the archives and found them helpful.  YMMV.

> 4) While the cookbook helps some it is itself getting a bit unweildy.
> Pm has been slowly making some good changes in this area, but I have
> thought for a long time we need to start categorizing the information
> there.  Perhaps a section for recipe scripts, a section for config
> questions, one for markup issues. Rankings, culling out stuff not
> maintained, whatever. Information is only as good as its taxonomy.
> Well, I don't know.  Sounded good.  But effective classification helps
> alot.  The cookbook (IMO) is far over extended, and would be much
> better if it stuck to specific kinds of solutions, etc.

There does need to be refactoring -- but I don't see any volunteers
stepping up for this.  Perhaps partly because it's such a massive change
that nobody feels they have the authority to do it (except for PM, and
he's got better things to do at the moment).

The chief problem that I see is that we need to make the required
information *easy to find*.  But what *are* the best ways of grouping
the information?

That and more tutorial-like pages, which is what started off this
discussion in the first place.
 
> 5) The idea a wiki is better than a forum is also nonsense.  If you
> read my post, I suggested we do one in PmWiki.  We can keep it as
> editable as we want, so if info needs to be changed, you just change
> it.  Delete a thread.  Add a comment.  Whatever you want.  With all
> the bright thinkers on this list we should be able to come up with
> something!

Strong words there!  I dare you to justify this bald assertion.
You say that we haven't proven that the mailing list is good, well, you
haven't proven in any way that a forum is good.

So far as I can see, all a forum is is a lame kind of web-based mailing
list which is harder to use.  I cannot see *any* benefit from a forum.
What makes a forum better-organized than a wiki?  The same amount of
discipline is required (so far as I can see) to make a forum
well-organized as it takes to make a wiki well-organized.
In all cases, the difficulty is in taxonomy and grouping pages/threads
in a way that makes the right page/thread easy to find.

Kathryn Andersen
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