[documentation] Hitchhikers guide to Drupal

[Laura Scott]

Robert Castelo wrote:
>
> On 7 Jan 2006, at 18:33, Laura Scott wrote:
>> in addition to the developer-focused discussion and activity and 
>> functionality, we could make welcome and help facilitate user-centric 
>> and site-admin-centric discussions of what Drupal could be.
>
> What's missing from your analysis is that most developers are also 
> users - they usually set up and maintain Drupal websites on a daily 
> basis, which means they have plenty of exposure to Drupal's rough 
> edges, and improvements to Drupal come from this experience.
>
> Developers are just ordinary users who can scratch their own itches.
I don't doubt that. What I am saying is that just as there is a science 
to coding, there is a science to UI, as well as to community building, 
social networking, business marketing, etc. But few people are experts 
in programming and these other areas. We would all benefit from 
cross-specialization communication. That's where Drupal.org is having 
the biggest challenge community-wise. I thought that's the problem that 
this page(s) is attempting to help address by making non-coders feel not 
only not unwelcome but actually valued.

Trolls are trolls and there always will be trolls. But we're talking 
about the others, right?
> I don't disagreeing that feedback from non-technical users is a good 
> thing. The page should make it clear that feedback is invited and 
> welcomed. It's just that if no one is available to implement 
> development based on the feedback then it will have little effect.
How do we measure whether someone is available? Let's say a feature 
request goes unanswered for a year, then someone sees it and says, "Wow, 
I like that idea. I can make that happen." In this example, the 
suggestion does lead to something, though at first it may seem like 
worthless space taken up on the site. If 10,000 ideas never get acted 
upon, if one really cool idea comes out of it, I think it's worth it.

Let's not forget that if people get excited about feature development 
and feel like they're a part of the community, then they're more likely 
to contribute by learning code, offering bounties or even hiring people 
to do the work. I think we see precious little of that because so many 
people are told to write code now or STFU, and that's a fast way to shut 
down any and all conversation, which benefits nobody.
>
> Most users who can code, based on their daily use of Drupal, already 
> have too many ideas for things to work on.
But there's always room for another good idea -- something that may 
trump other existing ideas. No? Some people can never learn from others, 
but I don't think that applies to all of the developers here.
>
>>  What I don't like about "hitchhiker" is that it gives the idea that 
>> Drupal users are flakes, freeloaders, Bohemians
> OK, that's better than 'parasites' - can I convince you that 
> hitchhikers are adventurous, social, and generally decent?
Is this about convincing people that hitchhikers are decent people, or 
about convincing people coming to Drupal that they are valued? When I 
think about hitchhikers, I think about people getting mugged and robbed. 
I think about vagrancy. I think about the signs on the highways passing 
by prisons that say, "Do not pick up hitchhikers." It may have been a 
cool thing decades ago, but these days hitchhikers tend to have negative 
connotations, at least in the US.

Laura