[TYPO3-UG US] [Typo3] RTE Bugs or Problems?

[JoH]

> Take the chc_forum newsgroup, for example. Maybe you can tell me how I
> can search the messages posted in that newsgroup? Sure, I can
> search the headlines in my newsreader, but that isn't very useful.
> Perhaps I could configure my newsreader to store all the messages on
> my hardrive, but who wants to keep a copy of all that data locally,
> and what about the guy who just signed up?

Well - that's exactly what I did.
After subscribing to the different newsgroups I set my newsreader to
download not just the headers but all the messages available.
typo3.english for example currently contains 50478 messages taking up
165.619KB of harddisk space which is not that much when a basic harddisk's
size is at least 40GB nowadays.
Using a newsgroup it doesn't matter when you signed up. Even if I setup a
system from scratch tomorrow I will get the same 50478 messages onto my
system in just a few minutes.
You can do a full search based on sender, recipient, subject and message
then and find anything you want.

> On another note, I'm not sure how helpful it is to suggest all the US
> users of typo3 are too lazy to install a newsreader, or that any
> American users who *GASP* prefer a forum to a newsgroup only hold that
> preference because they're too unprofessional to have used a
> newsreader before... IMO, This is the kind of attitude that turns off
> so many potential TYPO3 users.

Maybe it's because I am no native speaker but this is not what I wrote.

I wrote, that most of the professionals _I know of_ (and these are certainly
not from the US) are using newsreaders.
That does not mean that
a) somebody who prefers a forum is automatically an "unprofessional"
b) people from the US are unprofessional

And I wrote (did you notice the small word in front of the sentence?):
_IF_ you are too lazy to download a professional newsreader (which OE is
not) then stick to your built in OE newsreader.
This does not mean that
a) people using OE are unprofessional
b) all the people from the US are too lazy to download a newsreader.

IMHO this "kind of attitude" has something to do with a kind of
misinterpretation of postings (be it intentional or not) but in fact it
doesn't exist.
I just wanted to inform you that many of the TYPO3 cracks will never visit
any forum (be it on typo3.us or wherever) just because they don't have the
time to do that.
But they will happily answer your questions if it is posted to one of the
newsgroups.

This means that if such a big number of "potential customers" (whatever that
means) wants to use a forum you should inform them about the fact, that a
very high percentage of the real knowledge will not be available for them.

BTW: There is a big difference between a universal TYPO3 knowledgebase like
typo3.english and a TYPO3 forum for customers.
If you are running your own TYPO3 consultancy, a forum will be a good choice
to support your customers.
You can pay your own support team to have questions answered just in time,
and of course there might be a very good and professional knowledge
available.
But this is for endusers or editors and not for developers or consultancies.

If you want to use TYPO3 to sell TYPO3 based sites to your customers you
should stick to the newsgroups to stay up to date.

But maybe the misunderstanding begins with a different interpretation of the
word "user".
A user is somebody who wants to get a TYPO3 based site and therefor pays a
consultancy to set it up. It would be better to call him a "customer"
Everybody else is not a "customer" but a "developer" or a "consultant" who
needs completely different support.

IMHO the reason why TYPO3 is not such a big WOW in the US is the fact that
there are not enough consultancies to support the "customers" the same way
they are supported in Germany.
If a "customer" comes to the German list we tell him exactly the same
things:
TYPO3 is not for end users.
You have to learn a lot before you will be able to use it.
If you want quick reults, go and find a consultancy or at try some coaching.
This doesn't turn anybody off, since (in contrary to the US market) he can
do exactly what we told him and find at least 5 different consultancies
within a radius of 50 miles.

So the main goal for the US marketing should be to increase the number of
TYPO3 consultancies and create a nationwide service network that will meet
the demands of those potential customers.
It doesn't make any sense to promote TYPO3 services to customers if you are
not able to deliver it in the region where this customer is living and
working.

It's up to you to decide if this attitude really is rude, cold or elitist.
For me it's just the plain truth. If people can't stand that, it's not my
fault.

Have a nice weekend

Joey

-- 
Wenn man keine Ahnung hat: Einfach mal Fresse halten!
(If you have no clues: simply shut your knob sometimes!)
Dieter Nuhr, German comedian
openBC: http://www.openbc.com/go/invuid/Jo_Hasenau