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#37 2008-09-27 19:43:42
- els
- Moderator
- From: The Netherlands
- Registered: 2004-06-06
- Posts: 7,458
Re: TXP Tips site goes live!
Martin and Jonathan: Ruud was talking about the How-tos and Examples forum, not ‘How do I…’ :) At the moment people are discussing whether or not to close that forum and move (part of) the topics posted there to Textbook. So I have been asking myself the same questions.
Apart from that, I think it’s a great idea to collect tips and snippets that don’t fit elsewhere (meaning: on one of the main sites) on TXP Tips. Still, I think the birth of TXP Tips should be taken into account when deciding about the How-tos forum.
Last edited by els (2008-09-27 19:45:17)
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Re: TXP Tips site goes live!
As Gocom points out: copyright maybe an issue, some people may prefer a link to their site rather than having their content reproduced.
Maybe txptips could be some sort of interface to get to other places?- I often find it hard to find what I need on the forum. If txptips could point out tutorials in the forum posts and have better categorization to get to the specifics then that would be great .
- It would require less time to maintain? As it currently is it seems very time consuming for one person to look out for snippets & transfer, maintain, request them…
- Disadvantages would be that it will not offer the content as polished or condensed as it is now and links might become broken of course.
masa wrote:
As far as I can tell, the FAQ and Textbook’s tutorials focus on what’s possible to do with the core while perhaps Txp Tips should focus on how to extend Textpattern with plugins, js-libraries etc.
I like that idea.
Isn’t the intention for it (FAQ and txptips) all be brought over to the docs.textpattern.com eventually? can’t it all have a place there?
TXPDream – A Textpattern Tag Library for Adobe Dreamweaver. (updated for 4.2.0) | jdw_if_ajax – Only serve certain parts of a page when requested with AJAX
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Re: TXP Tips site goes live!
JanDW wrote:
As Gocom points out: copyright maybe an issue, some people may prefer a link to their site rather than having their content reproduced.
Copyright on TXP Tips is retained by TXP Tips and the respective authors. I think there may be a misunderstanding here – there is no intention to reproduce content without permission.
Maybe txptips could be some sort of interface to get to other places?
I think it depends on the tip/tutorial. I could add a file download as part of the tip (on the side where it says “About this TXP Tip”) or a URL link if necessary. Whatever works.
I often find it hard to find what I need on the forum. If txptips could point out tutorials in the forum posts and have better categorization to get to the specifics then that would be great .
That’s the plan.
It would require less time to maintain? As it currently is it seems very time consuming for one person to look out for snippets & transfer, maintain, request them…
I will open a new thread and request permission from authors in advance. That way I don’t have to ask every time.
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Re: TXP Tips site goes live!
Posted here for contributions and authorisation for the publication of tips.
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#41 2008-09-28 13:31:38
- kevinpotts
- Member
- From: Ghost Coast
- Registered: 2004-12-07
- Posts: 370
Re: TXP Tips site goes live!
I think people get a little overworked over the idea of duplicating content. We have all lived with plugins being posted in textpattern.org and the forum for years. While I kind of made a stink about this awhile ago, I’ve come around 180 degrees on the point. It makes the chances of finding relevant content easier; some people are going to look at Textbook, others are going to look at TXP Tips. I think the critical part of all of this — which is something that textpattern.org does well — is provide contextual links to relevant info. For instance, if I submit an article to TXP Tips, I am probably going to want to link to the appropriate tag entries from the tag list, possible plugin solutions from the forum or textpattern.org, another related tutorial on an independent blog, etc. Authors have to be generous with outbound links so the community can follow up for more info.
Kevin
(graphicpush)
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Re: TXP Tips site goes live!
Good show, jstubbs!
Although I’m slightly left of center on the distribution/redundancy issue, I certainly have come to understand that in communities like this it’s ridiculous to think everyone is going to feed a single source or project. It’s like herding cats (that old apt metaphor), so don’t try and hold the cats back.
The ultimate user aim is to help people get stuff done, and Kevin is on the mark with the suggestion of working the contextual links. If each running cat provided a means to do that, we’d be doing the ultimate service to the end-user. Natural selection will work it out otherwise. Authors will tire of adding their tip (whatever) to multiple locations and settle on one preferred location instead (I see this now with plugins: forum threads versus .org versus the author’s own site). Not all authors will choose the same location. In the end one or two will dominate (like a high school click) until a new cat starts running to mix things up.
As for the contextual links, this can be done in TextBook using the mininav template for a given article/tip/whatever. In this case instead of using it for internal links, simply edit the header to “Related reading:” or “Reading elsewhere:” and add the external links to all the external sources on the same topic. Since it’s a template, it can be used to output that list in multiple TxB locations. That’s contextual links at it’s best, and soon as the new skin is in, TextBook will allow authors to do it easily. There’s also this nice “PDF Book extension” (see “A” List) forthcoming, which makes train reading easier too.
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Re: TXP Tips site goes live!
Hi Destry, thanks for the nice comments.
My idea here was not to replace the Textbook or the Resources examples. It was to create something that did not exist. As you say, time will tell what users want – the marketplace will decide. All I want really is to provide a repository of examples that are useful. Where the examples go – on TXP Tips or somewhere else – is not really relevant. Users need examples to work with, and this is what TXP Tips is all about.
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