[Typo3-documentation] Quit talking and start chalking!

[JoH]

> Ok, now's the time to critisize some of the things you wrote:
>
> > 1. A wiki is the worst thing I have ever seen when it comes to create
> > something like "better documentation" since everbody is allowed to write
> > what he likes wherever he likes in the style he likes and as often as he
> > likes. This is more than just counterproductive - it's a waste of time
and
> > resources.
>
> Wrong. As soon as there is something to append to, or fix in, a wiki
> is a good thing.
>
> I think the wiki will prove to be useful as soon as there is someting
> that can be improved in a few minutes - then people will do it. As
> long as there is virtually nothing, only those will work on it, that
> would work on documentation using OOo. That is part of the problem.


You can append and fix things exactly the same way using Typo3. But - and
this is the main advantage - you must be allowed to do this!
The most disturbing thing about almost any wiki I have seen so far is, that
you will find lots of annotations, comments, fixes, changes and all that
together with marks and links about the users who did it without any
structure. Almost everybody can add something like: "hey this is complete
bullshit! You will have to do it like this!" - the next one will write: "You
are all wrong - it is done like that!" - Or even worse: He will DELETE
something which has taken someone else hours of writing before. OK, you have
versioning, so you can get it back. But if you want something readable you
will be cleaning and fixing and cleaning and fixing without end ... IF you
will be doing that. If not, the wiki will be useless for any professional
user.

My personal conclusion: A wiki is just a waste of time.

> > What is the reason for this wiki-crap?
> > Something that needs to be documented before you can use it to create a
> > documentation is IMHO no option.
>
> Well, the current docs are written using OOo. And guess what - there
> is a manual about this, and a template document. So this would be no
> option, too?

Yes! - And exactly that is the point!
There already IS a documentation AND a template document so it will be easy
to do it the same way many others did.
For wiki.typo3.org there is no documentation since you can't give the user
advice on how to use it as long as everybody is arguing about styles,
structure, setup and so on.
And even if there will be some consensus sometime, the docs will have to be
written. Additional work that is not needed when using Typo3.

> > And IMHO you can add as many stylesheets as you like, the usability of
such
> > a wiki will stay what it is - crappy!
>
> Why is the usability crappy? Just a rethorical question to show that
> statements without examples or explanations are not very useful ;)

see above

> Ok, if you like to, this thread can now end. Right, I wrote something
> about asking you a few things: Do you have any suggestions how to
> pocket some balls? Not using the wiki (as you clearly said it's
> crappy)? Would you help setting up something else (the TYPO3-based
> approach you suggested)?

I can offer two parked domains that pointed to typo3.org until today.
I have setup a server using Typo3 3.6.1 on
http://www.typo3solutions.com and
http://www.typo3-solutions.com
It's just a basic typo3-server with basic extensions since I don't know
which extensions would be useful for a documentation project.
If anyone is interested in setting this up I will send the admin login via
private mail.

Joey