AntonNewbie wrote:
My over-riding impression is that Joomla looks like a very interesting and useful CMS and I think the team producing it and assisting new users are doing a great job - just as the producers of PHP and MySQL are doing. They are probably all fine example of software -
BUT ***********
Most open-source, free, GPL software is developed by people who are great programmers totally committed to perfecting the project. Few people want to be involved in the far more mundane matters of producing good, readable and comprehensive help files and documentation.
Nobody really wants to search through a multitude of forum posts trying to find basic information to solve what is obviously a common problem (if the number of people with similar problems is any indication).
Surely Joomla would be a better product, and be far more widely used, if the installation and set-up was simplified, and handled in a step-by-step fashion which even new users could understand?
Telling potential users that cookies are disabled (when they are not), and just stopping the installation is hardly helpful. If certain setting in the PHP.ini file are essential, why do you have to sign up for membership, log onto a forum, and wade through countless postings to try and find them?
Thanks for your help.
You seem to be under some misguided impressions judging by the crass, ill-informed, and insulting statements you make in this post.
The first point you seem to have absolutely no comprehension for is that Joomla! is a non-commercial project, it is run entirely by volunteers who contribute to the project when their every day real lives allow them the time.
Yes the programming is done by experienced developers and they are keen to make the code perfect that is everyone's aim all-be-it often difficult to achieve.
Yes documentation is often the poor relation in this type of project simply because those that can't program are too busy invariably whinging that something is not intuitive enough for them or the instructions are not detailed enough.
We currently have a regular team of 4 people who are prepared on a regular to roll their sleeves up and carry out both the developer and the user document for this project. Is that enough? NO ... but wasting our time answering posts from people who clearly want everything done for them and aren't prepared to help themselves and others. Are we programmers NO (other than what we learn ourselves along the way).
Joomla! is primarily developed for the Apache, MySQL, and PHP platform as is clearly stated in the
limited documentation, mainly because all of those projects follow the same Open Source as Joomla! and provide their software at no cost. Yes it is intended that it will be compatible with other server types provided these support MySQL and PHP but as has been stated in many other threads on this topic, the developers are not specialists in these and in fact do not have in this case an IIS server on which this can be directiy tested during development.
You will find plenty of individuals on this forum who are prepared to give up their own time to assist those that need it (and I would add deserve it) who are prepared to work with others rather than against them. Your post and others like it make many wonder why the bother be they developers, documenters, or forum members. I would suggest you take a look at what you have said and consider why you feel you are entitled to more than this.
The upshot of this would seem to be that you get your wallet out and go buy yourself an off the shelf package with paid support that you can then dictate the terms and conditions of service you require! I frankly doubt whether you would get the support of a community in the same way as the Joomla! community supports. You can either choose to be a contributive member of that community or be on the outside as a detractor.
