Tech Writer Position

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 doesn’t 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 wouldn’t come all at once and the user wouldn’t feel cheated, but somehow “integrated”.

I understood the Greens that the creation of the old wiki caused them technical challenges. I can’t 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 don’t seem to understand that the help and documentation is a workhorse explains a lot about their way of working and professionalism.

Have you read the pre-requisites ?
(it’s below What You’ll Bring)

yes, I stopped continuing to read here:

  • Ability to read and understand technical information well enough to convey the details through written content to multiple audiences

I’m not their man :slight_smile:

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The required skills section is interesting:

Ability to read and understand technical information well enough to convey the details through written content to multiple audiences

Multiple audiences - new customers and…

Time management skills and an ability to balance different projects simultaneously

Ability to work on too many things at once. Be ready to be micro-managed.

Experience with software development, specifically Xojo, is considered an asset

Specifically Xojo…good luck with finding one.

It is, as written, a zero hours part time contract. Not serious.

for them it is serious for sure

I was thinking “Advertising”…

Did you notice the slowdown in TOF ?

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How the position is endowed, it looks like a marketing stunt (Shoutout: ‘Hey, we have a technical writer!’ Fine print: but only for 2 hrs a week).

Yep. Not much going on.

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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 that’s it. Real discussions are impossible.

And people like it so. They don’t 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.

Hiring a part time person for docs when their docs are in the shape they are in = not a serious effort.

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I have “preached” 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 doesn’t necessarily mean anarchy. It’s 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.

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There can be only One.

But seriously: with their paper-thin resources not leveraging the power of a Wiki for documentation the way you described lacks reason.

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Absolutely, and I’m 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. I’m fine with that.

But hey, perhaps I’m 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 doesn’t have the time or the willingness to allow changes, seeing some proposals might help one or the other … won’t happen though.

But there’s just one thing:

Community power ≠ Genius power

Or is it

Community power > Genius power?

the new person can start polishing the green wikipedia entry :slight_smile: - or finishing it …

To be fair Xojo DID do that way back when but … it just didnt work very well
Unfortunately

Oh my god even the wiki entry is dripping with Geoff’s ego.

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Marketing writers :slight_smile:
Just check the edit history on that page :slight_smile:

Many of the IP addresses (v4 and V6) that edit that page are in Austin TX
Ones Charter
The other Google Fibre
:thinking:

It stinks

it really needs an edit too

you cant build “responsive web apps” without framework hacking still

should say “HAS RANKED among” as its not consistently ON that list
it is not, as of right this second, NOT listed on TIOBE at all

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