Wedge

Always worth asking :)

Basically, though, I've learned to avoid IRC and IM generally because I find them a distraction from design and coding...

Not at this time, no. If such a thing were created, it's unlikely I'd go in there, to be honest.

Let me just add one thing into the equation.

There are a large number of requests that occur regularly, whose cause is simply the consequence of not fixing issues in the design.

Now, there are three things you can do in such a case:
1) Answer people when they ask about it
2) Create documentation so the question is answered once, authoritatively, and direct people to that answer
3) Refine the design so it doesn't need to be explained again

SMF's answer is invariably 1 and occasionally 2, and it's better now that there is the wiki but it doesn't solve the problem, it solves the symptoms - it answers the question, rather than trying to eliminate the need for the question to even be asked in the first place.

For example, Who's Online. How often does the question get asked about that, when admins see people accessing things they're not supposed to, and they start panicking that SMF is broken? Solution 1 happens consistently, solution 2 hasn't happened yet as far as I know, and I implemented solution 3 - if the user got an error, that fact is logged. If they were asked to log in, that fact is logged as well.[1]

Maybe there will still be a question about it but I can guarantee I won't get the same number of questions that would normally come up - because I've taken the time to observe that there is a problem and the time to do something about it.

Another example is the Member Options in Themes configuration. How confusing is that? I haven't yet decided how to approach solving it but I know that breezing over it with a lick of paint as happened between SMF 1.1 and 2.0 isn't the answer. It's beyond unintuitive, and again solution 1 is common, solution 2 is not yet happening thoroughly.

Consider that when helping people, that the team have taken the view that it's better to answer peoples' questions and write documentation than it is to actually solve the problems that emerge. Honestly, it's like a doctor that is only too happy to prescribe painkillers to treat a pain than to investigate what's causing the pain and prescribing treatment for that.

In the discussion that occurred about removing the manual in 2.0 RC5, there were a lot of naysayers about it, and some people pointed out that if the UI were better designed, you wouldn't need a manual. Thing is, that's largely true. People point to things like Google when they want to find a site with 'help' but the thing is, the help doesn't tell them how to do the fundamentals of using it, it tells them how to do clever things or answers questions that have cropped up. (Seriously: how many sites do you know that actively have documentation about how to register on them?)


The bottom line: if you need documentation to explain how the basics work, you really are doing it wrong.

1.	And just for fun, I'm going to do something useful with "Nothing, or nothing you can see." but I haven't decided how best to do it just yet.

It started out that way but it's become clear over time that it's going to be so much more than simply a better version of the code. There's whole new ideas being introduced, not so subtle changes of mindset.

I don't disagree with the other points you've made - and until 2.0 final came out, I still felt a little obligation to those people who were totally innocent bystanders.

For me it's a way to break with the past. I won't be needing the account, I have nothing further to say, and even if I did, no-one appears to be listening to what I'm actually saying anyway. For instance the last couple of comments from Brad and Flamer regarding my less than wonderful view about contributions... it's really simple, in a volunteer environment, you volunteer for things to do. They're not assignments, they're things you've indicated you're going to do. If you say you're going to then don't, you shouldn't have taken it in the first place.

Nah, I get the firm impression there's enough people intermixing "2.0 gold" and "2.0 final" to get the point across.Don't need an account to watch ;)

I think folks would have been more appreciative had this release really been worth something. The bug fixes are not that huge, no new features, so really, the big difference is that the team won't be issuing updates as big upgrades any more, which they could have done anyway...