[TYPO3-english] Major background issues

[marina t]

Christian Mueller, Xavier Perseguers, thank you!

First of all, thank you for accepting my message as feedback from a 
common user, who has little (if any) experience with Web service 
programming. Also a huge thank you for responding nicely and offering 
to help! :-)


>  > I have followed with increasing desperation the exchange started by
>>  Jigal van Hemert a couple of days ago.
>
>Could you point me to the exchange you mention?

I was referring to the "A black day for the TYPO3 community" thread, 
as well as to parallel threads, all of which seemed to point to the 
same direction: that of TYPO3 becoming increasingly harder to use for 
"common users", or rather, requiring specialised support in order to 
enable "common users" to make the best of it.

It is possible I misunderstood: there are a lot of "way too 
technical" issues being discussed on list for me -where of course, it 
is quite obvious I am the one that is out of sync with the rest of 
the crowd! :-)

In fact, I have no programming experience and know virtually nothing 
about Web server environments. So I did ask (maybe a couple of weeks 
ago) whether TYPO3 on MAMP could have been appropriate for my 
requirements and my current skill level, even before attempting 
installation.

So Christian, yes, you are assuming correctly: I couldn't get TYPO3 
installed. Let me clarify: I have been trying to install TYPO3 
locally, using MAMP. This is because I would like to play around with 
it offline, both because I am on an unreliable and slow Internet 
connection, and because I need to ascertain whether its page 
building/content editing features are suitable for other people, who 
have a lot less Web expertise than me. Bit like I was setting it up 
for a non-computer savvy client, except these are not "clients", but 
my writing mate, family members, friends or Web community members.

I tried both with the sample package I downloaded from TYPO3's 
Website, plus at least one (maybe two?) installing scripts. 
Basically, I don't seem to be able to correctly set up the database, 
so I get stuck before reaching the last of the installation steps.

Compounding my limited ability with server administration, there's 
the fact I sadly do not have a lot of time available, nor (probably) 
enough brains remained to acquire new skills. The reason I mentioned 
WordPress is that it's become sort of a benchmark in terms of 
"usability": I have a few blogs running under WordPress, and their 
users seem to be comfortable with the way they can maintain the blogs 
-while I find it relatively easy to administer its backend, when 
required.

Problem is, I am not a big fan of WordPress, especially the way it's 
been evolving in the last few years, and know I can't do what I need 
with it.

For many years, I have designed and hand-coded static HTML Websites 
and relied on separate, often pre-installed utilities for "dynamic" 
tasks -for instance, WP for blogs, Mailman for mailing lists, or 
phpBB for forums.

Having put together maybe 1,000 pages spread over a couple dozens 
Websites, and with new projects coming up, I was hoping I could find 
a way to streamline my workload and maybe pass around to the 
"dummies" some of the simplest tasks (such as content editing).

What do you reckon - would TYPO3 be the right tool for me? Would 
dedicated hosting be a better alternative to local installation (even 
though the slow connection issue would remain)?

As I said, I don't mind if it turns out TYPO3 is beyond my 
capabilities in terms of installation - and I would consider hiring 
someone to help me, if I can afford the fee :-)

However, I am sadly not in a position to tackle a steep learning 
curve, requiring many hours of my time to grasp new technical 
concepts besides what already is in my baggage - HTML, CSS, 
familiarity with FTP and simple "Webmaster-type" tasks.

Thank you again Christian and Xavier :-)

marina
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X 10.6.8