[TYPO3-UG US] ... from New York

[John Romano]

Hello.  I've been consulting and implementing Typo3 solutions for a few 
years now.  My company handles all aspects of IT consulting, however our 
major focus has always (10+ years) been ISP, hosting and web design. 
We've implemented dozens of Typo3 sites and are more than comfortable 
with extension creation and/or modification.

Now, I'd like to share some painful thoughts about Typo3 to anyone 
getting into it fresh and wants to read up on what they can look forward 
to.  I'd share the painless thoughts, but Typo3 and pain are synonymous.

Let me preface this by stating that Typo3 is, by far, the best O/S CMS 
I've come across.  I've tried Xoops, Midgard, Nuke/PostNuke, Mambo, 
etc... I've even dealt with some non-O/S CF and ASPX/VS.Net based 
systems... Typo3, hands down, is a much more effective and cost allowing 
solution.  A Windows 2003 server and VS.Net will cost several thousand 
US$.  A Linux box for several hundred US$ is all you need to host a 
handful of Typo3 sites.  If you are interested in the best, most cost 
effective solution, AND you have some PHP experience, then roll up your 
sleeves, dig in, and get your hands dirty, it's a long, frustrating but 
_eventually_ very fulfilling experience.

<rant>
  - documentation swiss cheese; i.e. find a how-to for the proper usage 
of $MarkerArray for within your custom extensions.  Maybe you can find a 
post about it in the knowledge base using the...

  - mailing list search; the typo3.org based search never worked 
right... now that it's gone it works much better :\   ... but good luck 
finding ANYTHING anymore.  Google searches mostly tend to bring up 
German stuff.

  - mailing list usefulness; hasn't been very useful other than to 
search, but you can't search it anymore... you decide.  Also there's a 
distinct feeling of being ignored that goes on and a gruff if not 
hostile attitude towards any question asked.  Angrily stated "RTFM" and 
"Search the list" are the most commonly given answers... of course the 
list search doesn't even exist anymore so we're supposed to use 
Netfielders antiquated archive search, or even Google instead.  How 
about they dedicate a server to Typo3 support...  or are Typo3 users 
unimportant?

  - US English? I can't begin to touch upon the poor US English I've 
been exposed to during my course with Typo3.  i.e. "Splitted"? Perhaps 
it's a word, but I (we?) never use/hear it; instead I(we?) use "split". 
  "I split the log for firewood" not "I splitted the log..."  but hey, 
it's O/S so it's OK right?  wrong... I can not tell a US company to not 
worry about the poor English... or teach them to use the Euro date input 
format (Note: I posted a php fix for this, and apparently this past week 
Kasper finally made this config option work. CVS only for now.)

Now I don't want to spitted hairs, but we run into these issues every 
single time we try to search for support on using some aspect of the 
Typo3 product... every single solitary time without a single exception, 
not ever, not even once.
</rant>

Epilogue: Typo3 is, by far, the best O/S CMS I've come across.