[documentation] Hitchhikers guide to Drupal

[Kim P. Werker]

On 5-Jan-06, at 6:35 PM, Charlie Lowe wrote:

> This for no other reason than the difference in who would feel  
> empowered to speak and contribute in such a community.

Yes! Exactly.

I think I failed to be clear about something I said earlier -- I  
wasn't complaining. Any resistance I thought implied or explicit  
isn't something I feel defensive about. Especially today, I'm simply  
gaining more and more of an understanding of the community and of the  
project as a whole. In light of this, and after grabbing a drink with  
Boris et al. tonight, Greg and I are reexamining and fleshing out our  
newbie documentation ideas. Heine, thank you for wanting to help.

Back to what Charlie said -- I waited over 9 weeks to join drupal.org  
and make that forum post. I didn't join until *after* I nearly  
ditched Drupal and then figured it out. I wasn't comfortable asking  
what I feared would be considered stupid questions, or, even worse, I  
didn't want to come across as a whiner. I think Charlie hit the nail  
on the head.

Anyway, it took a pretty lively discussion on our forum post and the  
serendipity of living in Vancouver to bring me to today, when I  
finally figured out that my assumption about the future of Drupal  
(that it would eventually be super user-friendly and easily  
implemented by everyone and their uncles) *isn't* actually the end  
everyone's striving for. And that's totally cool.

Now I get where the Hitchhikers page fits in. I still think posting  
it is a bad idea, but I definitely think I would have benefited 11  
weeks ago from a page that told me that drupal.org is a developer- 
centered community that depends on an open source behaviour code (if  
you will), and only provides user support based on the generosity and/ 
or professional services of community members.

Cheers,
Kim
---
Editor
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