[wiki] TextBook Wants You !

Jaro · 2005-05-16 06:28:24

I registered about 2 months ago but didn’t get to write anything yet. Shame. I’ll try harder.

davidm · 2005-05-16 08:37:29

Thanks guys,

Quite true what you say, bizartist : everyone can contribute, even in a small way on basic topics. It’s the cumulative effort of all textpatterners that will make TextBook progress !

slabanosa · 2005-05-16 15:10:29

Hi David,

not sure I’m the right person for explaining anything clearly (je suis meme sur du contraire :) but if you need me for translating anything to French drop me a line, I’ll be happy to help

davidm · 2005-05-16 15:25:53

Well, a lot of people seem to be concerned about the skill requirement to write a documentation. I understand, but then again anyone who struggled and managed to grasp anything regarding textpattern is more knowledgeable than they know… it’s just a matter of putting it in a simple and clear manner, but we’re several working on this thing, writings are going to be edited by multiple editors so to speak. And there are still some basic things to write there…

I you have some time here and there, help about the french translation process would be nice… for more info about the french translation, read Textpattern in French is a Go

Mail me your email address and I create an account for you @TextBook :-)
Thx !

Last edited by davidm (2005-05-16 15:29:34)

Remillard · 2005-05-16 17:07:55

Just to emphasize a few points:

1. I’m sort of in absentia to some degree since January and haven’t had much time to contribute to it, so all applause definitely goes to Destry and crew.
2. Don’t worry so much about “skill”. The majority of the work is just banging the keyboard and getting SOMETHING into the wiki. As noted, it can and will be edited after the fact. However even if you cannot write skillful prose about the beauty of Textpattern, if you can do some of the grunt work, it makes it easier on the editors to craft it into the skillful prose.
3. Even if you can just go in and describe a single screen, or fill out one glossary entry, or anything like that, it’s helpful.

and apparantly Textile is not working… it just swallowed the numbered list marks without providing the numbered list.

Last edited by Remillard (2005-05-16 17:09:24)

marios · 2005-05-16 20:47:14

It would be really nice to have some “real life“examples for txp tags and forms from with in textpattern,which could in turn make it possible to lessen the learning curve,however I don’t know how much that could be possible before release candidate would be seen.
I’ve logged in several times but I feel that I’m not ready yet, since I haven’t tried out most of the stuff yet (together with major plugins).
Allso the conditional tags and custom article tags need some more “insight” from expert point of view,and I don’t want to pollute textbook with something that I’m still trying to figure out for myself.(But I’m getting closer soon)

regards, marios

davidm · 2005-05-16 21:43:26

Thanks Remillard, you sum it up quite well, the thing is to move forward and as you say do some grunt work… and you’re right, Destry deserves a hats off for the huge work he’s been doing the past few months on this project. I am more focused on the french translation since I am heading this effort, but as I said I’ll try and chip in a contribution on the writing as well.

Marios, you’re right writing on the more elaborate features is not that easy since you have to try and be precise to avoid induce erroneous understanding. Yet, one way to go about this might be to first outline a section by defining title, then rough summaries, then detailed content.

I see it more like a layered work (from the global to the detail) than a stack of detailed content (first, writing title 1 of section A, then title 2, etc…). If this makes it any clearer for would-be contributors, it would be of great help to help just outline things which makes it easier to go forward.

Some people are great at structuring and synthesizing, some are more at ease at writing detailed stuff but need some context to write stuff. I think everyone should chip in a contrib according to their own skills…

Last edited by davidm (2005-05-16 21:44:52)

Destry · 2005-05-17 19:14:10

Wow, thanks for the kind words…just trying to keep things on track is all, however slow.

For proper reference to (and details about getting) new user accounts, please see the User Accounts page, which has new information about who to contact under certain situations. (Mary, maybe you can edit your post to change your link to the one above, rather than to my personal contact?)

For all you relatively new to Textpattern, I think its OK to consider yourselves users of TextBook at this point as opposed to contributors to it (but of course contributors too if you want), that’s the whole point of it being there. What you might actually contribute at this point (as new users of TxP) is feedback about what you think is missing in TextBook…what is the information you need to know but cannot yet find (or understand)? This would help bring to focus the kinds of content others should work on creating, the documentation that should have priority. If I added a “What do you need?” page to TextBook, would that help?

As far as writing goes, in my mind there are a lot of “old-timers” in this community who have created many sites with Textpattern and who have very good knowledge of its nuances. These are the ones I would expect at least a paragraph or two from at this point. Especially for the sections slated for creation in Chapter 4: Common Web Site Setups with Textpattern, a critical chapter indeed.

I’ve even heard great suggestions from oldsters, such as actually building and packaging up the various TxP projects proposed for documentation in Chapter 4 which can be downloaded and taken apart for hands-on learning. This is a great idea, but where’s the beef..er…uh…backing?

Last edited by Destry (2005-05-17 19:24:48)

marios · 2005-05-17 20:17:13

One solution to this dilemma could be to open a thread in the forum (In the way it’s done with the central plug in list ) and call for submission from authors who allready have published some relevant articles on threir own sites.
These could be gathered there together with author, name, URL rss feed and so on.
Wilshire’s new article about comment integration is just one good example for such an article.
(I wasn’t thinking about the way it’s done in Textpattern resources)
The way how these could be included later on in TEXTBOOK is a different question.
Would like to hear what you think about that,Destry,Davidm,Remillard.

regards, marios

Last edited by marios (2005-05-17 20:18:34)

davidm · 2005-05-17 21:17:52

Thanks Destry for the input ! I guess it will help shed light on the TextBook process, and true I am also expecting more of the old-timers ;) And yeah chapter 4 is not an easy one, old-timers will be key to completing this task sucessfully.

Marios, this is a very good idea ! I fully second that, many resources are not necessarily documented and could be inserted or adapted to fit into the textbook ToC.

Destry · 2005-05-18 09:55:38

Not to keep referring to these fine folk as “old-timers,” but they know who they are, and they know the score with TextBook, if they don’t initiate time/effort to add something to TextBook on their own, then I don’t think there is really anything that could be said or done at this point to encourage them further. The simple fact that Dean has made TextBook the official documentation source for Textpattern should be reason enough (in my opinion). I think what may have to happen is someone else will need to “borrow” existing Weblog articles and rewrite them into TextBook without the authors’ actual involvement (but with their knowledge, of course), and then give their source articles a citation in the References section of TextBook, which is what it was intended for anyway.

Nevertheless, davidm, you are quite the recruiter (I must say) so if you find something that works, by all means pursue it.

davidm · 2005-05-18 11:29:36

I am not sure every “old-timer” is necessarily completely aware of the current effort, or I’d rather say the whole community and especially old-timers are “living” on the forums and not necessarily taking the step to also contribute to TextBook or textpattern.org for that matter (but things are changing, as for textpattern.org is concerned. People have started being convinced they can find the info they need there, with the 200 plugins, the mods and tips…).

I think it’s just a matter of these alternative “places” to gain recognition with those forum junkies we all are ;-) This place is great, I very much agree, but the wiki and textpattern.org are the natural places for “core” contributors (a.k.a old-timers) to go to. It’s just hard to attract people there ! Maybe it’s the idea that they don’t have enough time to make a significant contribution, or that they are not convinced yet by the results (many people were in this case regarding textpattern.org, but with alicson and some others, the regular build of content made it earn due respect). I don’t know…

As you say, I am trying to recruit, and maybe an opiniated enthusiast old-timer like me can (with your help, the help of Remillard and others) tip the odds, I don’t know… Wait & see !

The french are starting to answer the call, at least :) I am confident the translation effort will greatly accelerate in the next weeks. What concerns me is the original english version. We have to reach a cruising speed to achieve this, and my POV is that we’re not there yet…

andreas · 2005-05-18 11:52:09

I’ve heard the call and promise to make an effort to get some more texts into the Wiki! Thanks for keeping this on the table. It sometimes takes just the repeated reminders…

davidm · 2005-05-18 12:20:48

Thanks for the help :-)
I know that you’re already putting quite an effort to add content to textpattern.org…

As you say, hammering this will maybe payoff, attract attention at least !

Destry · 2005-05-18 12:37:34

davidm wrote: The french are starting to answer the call, at least :) I am confident the translation effort will greatly accelerate in the next weeks. What concerns me is the original english version. We have to reach a cruising speed to achieve this, and my POV is that we’re not there yet…

I agree. If the English version is not up to snuff, then it will not be much of a motivator for anyone who might otherwise want to do translation work.

What would be very nice at this point (besides some focused effort on Chapter 4, which will require the “experts” to contribute to), is to simply see some improvements to the pages that are already there, such as the detailed work I’m slowly doing for the admin panels in Chapter 3 (e.g., Preferences Subtab), and for the TxP Tag appendix pages, particularly with respect to the individual tag pages (read the tag page Editing Notes, and see an example of how each page could be improved to be). Sometimes it’s not just new content, but the quality of content that exists that can be worked on.

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#16 2005-05-16 06:28:24

Re: [wiki] TextBook Wants You !

#17 2005-05-16 08:37:29

Re: [wiki] TextBook Wants You !

#18 2005-05-16 15:10:29

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#19 2005-05-16 15:25:53

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#20 2005-05-16 17:07:55

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#21 2005-05-16 20:47:14

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#22 2005-05-16 21:43:26

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#23 2005-05-17 19:14:10

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#26 2005-05-18 09:55:38

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#27 2005-05-18 11:29:36

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#28 2005-05-18 11:52:09

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#29 2005-05-18 12:20:48

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#30 2005-05-18 12:37:34

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