Anyone who follows me longer knows that I am a big supporter of change. You have to break out of the hamster wheel and be open to new developments.
But a documentary is a very sensitive topic IMHO. You get used to the structure, you often know by heart where the information is in an article that you have not been able to memorize for years, etc. In your own documentation, you may refer to the official documentation, have screenshots for customers or your own reminders and bookmarks created etc.
Yes, you know the mistakes, you learn how to search (even beyond language barriers), you learn how keywords are used. Changing all of that in one day is extremely dangerous. It doesnât really help that the previous version is still available.
But of course the change does not stop at documentaries. But, then you should discuss and design such a topic with the community. This way the changes wouldnât come all at once and the user wouldnât feel cheated, but somehow âintegratedâ.
I understood the Greens that the creation of the old wiki caused them technical challenges. I canât judge that, but theoretically understand it. But simply rearranging everything in the quiet little room and then hoping that the churchgoers will find their way around the new songbook is somehow an absurd hope.
And most importantly: content matters - not design!
The fact that they donât seem to understand that the help and documentation is a workhorse explains a lot about their way of working and professionalism.
what are you expecting in a forum everybody has to be careful about being banned as a troll if writing something what is not in conformity to the meaning of the CEO? In most cases threads are closed immediately and thatâs it. Real discussions are impossible.
And people like it so. They donât like to be disturbed when and if somebody is ranting. Even if he rants in a correct wise and with truths behind. They like to have their silence and everybody is wonderful. So, now they have this kind of silent place.
I have âpreachedâ a few times in the past that they could utilize the power of the community, particularly since Xojo has a small but trustworthy and engaged community. Let people make changes. Native speakers could fine-tune some wording, etc. They had a wiki, so why not use the power of a wiki?
A wiki doesnât necessarily mean anarchy. Itâs fair enough that only Xojo employees could ultimately release changes.
Again, who knows best how to optimize the documentation, if not the power users?
The developers could write how they expect things to work, and the community could fine-tune how it actually works.
I mean: finding a small typo but having to write an email to hello@ - Seriously? in 2023? I have better things to do.
Absolutely, and Iâm not naive. Probably a bad idea to let all customers edit entries. But some would definitely volunteer. They could create a hidden forum to discuss changes. They could say that people need a certain level of trust on the forums, etc. and yes, ultimately the Inc. should have the right to make the final call. Iâm fine with that.
But hey, perhaps Iâm really naive, but one would expect that this would help them a lot to simplify their life.
I mean in a wiki you can usually see the proposed changes. That alone would help the community, even if Xojo doesnât have the time or the willingness to allow changes, seeing some proposals might help one or the other ⌠wonât happen though.
