Thanks for all the encouraging replies guys!
I think quite a few of the repository items are pretty much dead, but it’s a difficult call on which.
What about all the links to the existing doc’s from the forum etc.?
But what’s happens for the wiki documentation now ? Is the wiki page removed?
My personal (meaning not necessarily that of the MODx team) is that all documentation should live in one of two places. A sanctioned single wiki (Confluence Wiki) or the developer’s personal site.
Yeah, there’s a lot of old items in the repository, which I find confuses clients when they’re trying to learn how to run their website - I personally find the forum-link for documentation a little bit backwards; in my eyes it would make more sense to link to the official documentation first, and then from there to the forums for discussion and development chat.
I also always recommend MODx to fellow web designers and developers, but I always find that it has a really steep learning curve; I blame this primarily on the Documentation (which is one of the reasons I volunteered to help) - I find a new comer will not give MODx much time before they give up - as a side note, I really like the idea of having a Help button directly in the new Revo Manager which loads the Confluence Wiki in a lightbox; things like that would really help a learner.
I personally think as soon as the
MediaWiki content has been copied over then that subdomain could be switched off; same with the
Ditto subdomain - its old, kinda rotting, adds confusion and a can sometimes make MODx look bad.
I like the idea of a developer having third-party documentation on their personal site (and mini-sites like what Scotty’s done for TreasureChest); but then what happens when that developer moves away from MODx and takes those pages down? - we’d be allowing the resource to be stored in the official
MODx Repository but not allowing the documentation in the official wiki? - I personally reckon developers should be encouraged to add their documentation to the Confluence Wiki first, and then expand their support through their own websites second.
If I recall correctly, one of the problems was that the official docs were not going to be open to public posting which would not make it a wiki but rather an official ’manual’ maintained or managed by the official team, and this was the reason that the wiki was kept active. Is this still the case?
What will be the criterion to decide if the documentation of an add-on could/should be in confluence or not ? What will be the process of selection ...
All add-ons are outside of MODx, but are they some preferred add-ons ?
I’ve not had to ask for any special permission, I just signed up for the Confluence Wiki as I did to the Forums, I could then start adding and editing pages, just like on Wikipedia - although Jay asked me to send him a signed copy of the
Contributor License Agreement because I’d modified the Ditto documentation, and Ditto is in the core, but as far as I know that wouldn’t be required for anybody
contributing to documentation outside the core.
I don’t think this process should be restricted, but regulated for quality - I think anybody is allowed to contribute to the Wiki, isn’s openness one of the core principles of MODx? - Although saying that, which is worse, no documentation or bad documentation?
On another note my preference would be for it to be split between Evolution & Revolution.
I really think that is important too - but I also think its essential that everything is in one place - perhaps the different documentation for the different versions of MODx could be represented by slightly different colours, or a badge or an icon? - this could also work for third-party add-ons; I personally think it would be fine to have the Wiki open for all and let developers add their third-party documentation; as long as we keep it organised and clear.
And yeah, I’m not going to do this on my own
so of course your all welcome to help!
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