[documentation] Hitchhikers guide to Drupal

Fri Jan 6 01:00:32 UTC 2006

It's not really a unique view.

Open Source has it's roots in a scratch your own itch philosophy.  With that in mind, it's better to scratch your itch in a group with similiarly minded individuals who can cover your blind spots.  This is great for developers and coders because they have the ability.  However, it does not in anyway exclude non-coders.  

Robert is a developer, he can't help it.  :)  But, there are a lot of ways to contribute.  GUI interface proposals.  There was an awesome serious of discussions in between 4.4 and 4.5 where people did mockups (I learned a lot about things watching those discussions and even participated in them).  Some contributed code, but many merely went over the interface and the coders built towards a more usable admin tree.  The effects of that are sitll ongoing as things get moved into the settings menu.  Doesn't mean people will code it, but your ideas may be just the right thing a developer is looking for and there are feature requests for that.  The more detailed the feature request is the better.  No garuntees tho.

I don't code.  For over two years now and I still do not code php.  I do support and docs.  I should learn, but haven't the time.  I try and help people figure out how to effectively participate.  You do not have to code to participate and contribute.  However, the developers themselves code for their own reasons.  Long term active involvelment can help you learn how to propose change effectively.  How to get others interested in doing this.  If necessary, group to raise a bounty for a dev to do this.  Lots of ways.

The fact that Drupal is usable for people like you and me shows what great strides have been made from when I joined a few years ago.  Newbie documentation is welcome.  It would be great.  But, Drupal itself is not geared towards the non technical or unwilling to learn.  Full websites are not simple things and Drupal fools you with it's ease that they are.  There are a lot of non technical people who get their very successful start here.  As well as those not prepared to put in the work to learn who don't.  

CivicSpaceLabs distro is geared towards the non technical.  The DrupalEd focus is geared towards the less technical as is the DrupalArt site.  

Part of the reason I want the newbie stuff here, is that then it will be built into the site.  It will help poeple through that learning curve.  We will have more people graduate from new to average, to experianced and might begin to take that step towards developement I have seen so many take.  All without realizing that they were doing so.  Without the artificial barrier of being 'new'.  This will help increase the number of active mid level admins we have helping out and contributing back.

As these numbers increase, then we get more contributors.  You don't have to be a developer to be a contributor, but you can't expect someone you don't know to do something for some random stranger they don't know.  That's not their motivation (well most of them) and quite frankly, the ones who demand and flame in the forums are irritating and tend to decrease active involvement by the devs.  

Many of the contributors do not money off Drupal.  I don't.  There are lots of others active in the community for whom this is a hobby.  Lots and lots.  A serious hobby mind you.  It's a hobby that saves me money.  I don't have to buy Dream Weaver, I don't have to update websites content, just set them up for friends and families (and a non-profit).  They can mange their content without bugging me.  So I have incentive.  However, familiarity breeds success.  I can setup a basic Drupal site in a few minutes.  Configuring takes longer because sites are about content, not modules.  One other of my contribution is to try and take routine support load off of devs so they can spend more time making spiffy neat things.

-sp

________________________________

From: documentation-bounces at drupal.org on behalf of Kim P. Werker
Sent: Thu 1/5/2006 3:29 PM
To: A list for documentation writers
Subject: Re: [documentation] Hitchhikers guide to Drupal

Robert, thanks for your post. It's fascinating to me.

It seems I'm coming from a fairly unique place (though maybe I'm 
wrong) -- I can't help but wonder why developers put tons of effort 
into something without having the goal for it to reach as many users 
as possible. I'm only now somewhat coming to understand.

But here's the thing -- more and more users are like me. I'm not a 
developer -- I'm just a happy Drupaler. With 2005's massive growth, 
it seems there's a rapidly growing mass of users like me. I thought 
Drupal was for people like us, but I'm learning that's not the intent.

I started a forum thread a couple of weeks ago because I'm desperate 
to help with newbie-oriented documentation. There's a fair amount of 
resistance; I couldn't really understand why. One of the most salient 
objections to our idea of starting a sister site with newbie-oriented 
how-tos and case studies is that it would splinter resources. But the 
more I understand of the goals of Drupal development in general, the 
more convinced I'm getting that eventually some folks with popular 
marketing and "average" end-users in mind are going to splinter off 
into their own distribution with prettier packaging, slightly 
smoother edges, and more straightforward, newbie-oriented 
documentation. And I won't think that's a bad idea at all. But I 
wonder if it might not be so great for drupal.org...

Hm. I'm pretty much just thinking out loud, so to speak. Are these 
questions that come up often, or is it that Drupal's coming to a 
turning point?

Cheers,
Kim

On 5-Jan-06, at 2:40 PM, Robert Castelo wrote:

> On 5 Jan 2006, at 13:43, Dries Buytaert wrote:
>> 1. It is a fun but confusing title, IMO.
>
> I agree that the title is fun but gives little indication of what 
> the page is about - on the other hand pages with fun titles are 
> more likely to be read.
>
> On 5 Jan 2006, at 13:52, andre wrote:
>> Strictly from a PR perspective its not good at all.  It comes off 
>> as sounding like: "Users are whiny brats - and Drupal has no time 
>> for you."
>
> True. Lets keep the concepts but run the whole thing through a 
> diplomacy filter.
>
> If we do need to post a comment referring wingers to this page it 
> would be great to also display in the post a large icon of a cheese 
> board... "would you like some cheese with your whine?" ;-)
>
> On 5 Jan 2006, at 15:57, Charlie Lowe wrote:
>> Those users who do not contribute visibly on the project may be 
>> helping by spreading the word about Drupal, and thus potentially 
>> getting more contributors.
>
> My gut feeling is that the benefits of that are negligible, as far 
> as providing more resources for Drupal.
>
> On 5 Jan 2006, at 18:37, Kim P. Werker wrote:
>> It seems to me that presenting Drupal as a developer's playground 
>> where mere-end-users-not-contributors aren't welcome is okay if 
>> the goal of the development is to make more development. But if 
>> the goal is to make the software popular, then some compromises 
>> would be beneficial.
>
> Kim has hit the nail on the head, this is exactly what we need to 
> address....
>
> My understanding is that developers code features that they need 
> for their projects, then donate their code to Drupal. This may 
> sound very altruistic but actually is very practical, because as 
> Drupal's feature list grows each developer is able to deliver a 
> solution for bigger and more diverse projects - projects that they 
> wouldn't have a hope in hell of being able to compete for on their 
> own.
>
> It doesn't really matter if some developers put in more than 
> others, the combined effort is what's important.
>
> ...alternatively some developers also create features because they 
> have a cool idea, and just can't resist writing the code. I'll hold 
> up my hand on that one.
>
> The Drupal community as a whole has an altruistic goal of creating 
> a tool which helps people better communicate, most developers are 
> happy if the work they do contributes towards that, but will not 
> shelve profitable or interesting work to spend their limited time 
> on features they themselves don't need or have an interest in.
>
> So it's not that end users aren't welcome, they are, but they're 
> not the target of developers work in the way a commercial 
> application would be. Drupal's popularity with non-technical 
> administrators doesn't affect developers in any way.
>
> On 5 Jan 2006, at 18:55, Boris Mann wrote:
>> The desire for a document like this is to have a single page to 
>> link to quell the "useless" kvetching/whining that comes up.
>
> Exactly.
>
> It's like someone going to a self service restaurant and asking the 
> guy at the next table to go get the meal because they are used to 
> being waited on at restaurants.
>
> Mmmh, maybe we can change the metaphor to that instead of 
> hitchhiking. It doesn't imply that end users are potential serial 
> killers ;-)
>
> On 5 Jan 2006, at 16:01, Laura Scott wrote:
>> Drupal represents the result of a collaborative effort between 
>> volunteers who contribute their own time and effort to the 
>> collective endeavor. As such, Drupal is developed not according to 
>> client demand but by the interests of those participating in the 
>> collaboration.
>
> I like Laura's text, but I think the message will sink in deeper if 
> we can get the point across better using a metaphor that users will 
> intuitively understand.
>
>
> Best regards,
>
> Robert
> --
> [ documentation | http://lists.drupal.org/listinfo/documentation ]

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