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#13 2020-12-25 08:45:56

Bloke
Developer
From: Leeds, UK
Registered: 2006-01-29
Posts: 11,433
Website GitHub

Re: txp mentions

Destry wrote #327845:

[message snipped] If I start getting web design spam, I won’t be happy.

GDPR’s got your back :)

Nice one, thank you Sir. And Merry Christmas to one and all.


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#14 2021-03-23 21:02:12

zero
Member
From: Lancashire
Registered: 2004-04-19
Posts: 1,470
Website

Re: txp mentions

good ol’ Textpattern gets a mention and a screenshot in this article about Going Headless.


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#15 2021-03-24 11:32:51

gaekwad
Server grease monkey
From: People's Republic of Cornwall
Registered: 2005-11-19
Posts: 4,240
GitHub

Re: txp mentions

Ten thousand reasons to use Textpattern

Front page of Hacker News right now.

Edit: back of napkin maths indicates we’re serving ~3 to 5 thousand visitors an hour at the moment.

Server CPU averaging about 9% usage, I’m very happy with the overall stability and performance.

Last edited by gaekwad (2021-03-24 12:11:47)

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#16 2021-03-24 12:20:33

Bloke
Developer
From: Leeds, UK
Registered: 2006-01-29
Posts: 11,433
Website GitHub

Re: txp mentions

gaekwad wrote #329427:

Front page of Hacker News right now.

Sweet! We really do need to write more. The offer still stands to anyone in the community who wants to write anything about Txp as a guest post, please just send it over and we’ll make it happen. Good content works.

back of napkin maths indicates we’re serving ~3 to 5 thousand visitors an hour at the moment. Server CPU averaging about 9% usage, I’m very happy with the overall stability and performance.

Woohoo! The shiny new DigitalOcean server is earning its keep. I need to get me one of those AMD thingies.


The smd plugin menagerie — for when you need one more gribble of power from Textpattern. Bleeding-edge code available on GitHub.

Txp Builders – finely-crafted code, design and Txp

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#17 2021-03-24 13:57:13

philwareham
Core designer
From: Haslemere, Surrey, UK
Registered: 2009-06-11
Posts: 3,564
Website GitHub Mastodon

Re: txp mentions

zero wrote #329412:

good ol’ Textpattern gets a mention and a screenshot in this article about Going Headless.

Maybe someone should post a comment on that article noting the ‘good ol’ Textpattern’ is still going strong (and a link to homepage). Easy win for a few more hits. Play the game!

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#18 2021-03-24 14:11:44

gaekwad
Server grease monkey
From: People's Republic of Cornwall
Registered: 2005-11-19
Posts: 4,240
GitHub

Re: txp mentions

philwareham wrote #329432:

Maybe someone should post a comment on that article noting the ‘good ol’ Textpattern’ is still going strong (and a link to homepage). Easy win for a few more hits. Play the game!

Done. Awaiting moderation.

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#19 2021-03-25 08:16:15

gaekwad
Server grease monkey
From: People's Republic of Cornwall
Registered: 2005-11-19
Posts: 4,240
GitHub

Re: txp mentions

gaekwad wrote #329427:

Ten thousand reasons to use Textpattern

Front page of Hacker News right now.

Server traffic back to normal levels. Nothing broke. That was a fun day for watching log files and graphs!

philwareham wrote #329432:

Maybe someone should post a comment on that article noting the ‘good ol’ Textpattern’ is still going strong (and a link to homepage). Easy win for a few more hits. Play the game!

Now live!

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#20 2021-03-25 09:56:26

John-Paul F
Member
Registered: 2021-03-15
Posts: 39
Website Twitter

Re: txp mentions

I’m not very good at the code side, but happy to write something. I’m a writer by trade.

Or indeed, to record a screen-share video (series?) as somebody better at the Txp helps me to set up simple site and walk through the essentials. Could possibly be useful to new visitors.

I’ve done quite a few of those kinds of videos elsewhere, on other topics, and I do like Textpattern.

Anyway, just an idea.


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#21 2021-03-25 11:28:02

Bloke
Developer
From: Leeds, UK
Registered: 2006-01-29
Posts: 11,433
Website GitHub

Re: txp mentions

John-Paul F wrote #329459:

Happy to write something. I’m a writer by trade. Or indeed, to record a screen-share video (series?)

Yes please! Browse the stuff we’ve posted and by all means if you have anything to add about the platform that’ll help newcomers or evangelise us or notes on your experience, features you loved, or tutorials etc, we’ll find a place to publish them.

If you ever want to bounce ideas around first on topics, by all means reach out to one of us. Entirely up to you. As you may have noticed, being a small team means we love offers of assistance like this. Thank you in advance!


The smd plugin menagerie — for when you need one more gribble of power from Textpattern. Bleeding-edge code available on GitHub.

Txp Builders – finely-crafted code, design and Txp

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#22 2021-03-25 11:39:12

John-Paul F
Member
Registered: 2021-03-15
Posts: 39
Website Twitter

Re: txp mentions

Bloke wrote #329460:

Yes please! Browse the stuff we’ve posted and by all means if you have anything to add about the platform that’ll help newcomers or evangelise us or notes on your experience, features you loved, or tutorials etc, we’ll find a place to publish them.

My first thought is that the forum could possibly do with a prominent “Hello, if you’re new start here…”

My own feeling as somebody new to the forum (though not to Txp) is that I don’t know where to start.

I hesitate to post anything anywhere because I suspect there’s an answer somewhere, if only I spend time looking for it – and then I feel overwhelmed, and give up.

(I do realise that this is all voluntary and don’t want to make unnecessary work for others.)


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#23 2021-03-25 13:46:59

Destry
Member
From: Haut-Rhin
Registered: 2004-08-04
Posts: 4,909
Website

Re: txp mentions

John-Paul F wrote #329461:

My first thought is that the forum could possibly do with a prominent “Hello, if you’re new start here…”

You mean like the Get Started link in the pole position of the universal navigation?

My own feeling as somebody new to the forum (though not to Txp) is that I don’t know where to start.

Understood.

Allow me a couple of thoughts on it. I’ve been thinking about this stuff since day 1 of my tenure.

The first question that probably needs asked is, what is the goal behind starting? And from there, what should be the expected entry point for getting the info needed for said goal?

This all swirls around the old chestnut of the forum trying be and do more than it should. The way I see it, the forum serves the following important roles, in this order:

  1. Social watering hole (general info, latest happenings, news/announcement, end of the world, etc.)
  2. Plugin support (there really is no other way to get help with plugins)
  3. Q/A (how, troubleshooting, etc — but only because solution info is not written up in a more appropriate place yet)

Let’s look at some common/possible goals/tasks and what the top conventional (and presumably intuitive) entry points would be:

Goals/Tasks Entry point 1 Entry point 2
I heard about Textpattern and want to read more about it. Main Main/about
I like what I’m reading, where do I download this mutha? Main Main/start
Well, I can’t log in. Halp! Forum
I need a plugin. Plugins Forum
I want to develop a plugin. Docs Forum (for support)
I want a theme. Themes
Crap, there are no themes. I want to make a theme. Docs Forum (support)
What’s a shortcode? Docs Tags
How do I make thing 1 do this and thing 2 do that? Q/A Docs Forum/how?

Et cetera, et cetera. So, when there are so many possible entry points, each better suited to some needs over others, where should the ‘Get Started’ tourist flag be planted? Pole position in the universal navigation seems like the ideal spot, alongside all the other main entry point links.

Then focus of the investigation shifts to whether content at those landing places is answering the right possible questions people bring with them. There we might find room for improvement.

As for all the little how do I do this questions and stuff, like the last row in the table implies, the forum always ends up answering these kinds of questions over and over and over and over, which is not only a waste of time and effort, but it does nothing for centralizing and curating the best response(s) to a place where they are easier found and pointed to.

I suspect the problem is as much lazy habit as it is IA and information availability. I’d wager this is a common scenario when someone has a general question about doing something: 1) skip docs entirely, 2) maybe do a forum search, but if what they seek is not in page 1 of results, that’s it, so 3) time to post a new How? question.

Everybody hates documentation, it seems, whether reading or writing it. I know. But everyone needs to write more documentation, for the stable docs, not the quicksand forum. The more doc gaps filled, the easier it is to direct people to them instead of reinvent the wheel.

In my humble opinion, being that Textpattern’s tag language is at the center of what everyone eventually gets to, that’s where more documentation provides the biggest payback. If a video series can be produced that teaches tag theory and whatnot, great. Let that be part of the docs.

Likewise, helpful documentation does not always fit within the scope of the Txp docs platform (e.g. tips, tutorials, etc.). These kinds of things might sit better in Textpattern Tips, or even at the blogs of individuals. In that case, Txp Docs should be linking out to those choice works in context of related information; tag pages seem especially relevant here.

Last edited by Destry (2021-03-25 13:57:01)

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#24 2021-03-25 14:02:30

Destry
Member
From: Haut-Rhin
Registered: 2004-08-04
Posts: 4,909
Website

Re: txp mentions

Bloke wrote #327847:

Nice one, thank you Sir.

A lot of good that message did. Straight to the trash, probably. Oh, well. I didn’t get the style guide out yet either. :/

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