[mythtv-users] Re: MythTV : Little Sleep, Lots Of Reading... I Failed.

Bruce Markey bjm at lvcm.com
Mon Jun 9 15:39:09 EDT 2003


Jarod C. Wilson wrote:
...
> And I assure you that my notes are far better for someone attempting to 
> install MythTV under Red Hat Linux 9 with a WinTV PVR-250 than the 
> documentation on the MythTV web site, even if they aren't "authoritative."

Which then suggests to me that you should submit updates
and suggestions for the HOWTO so that everyone who installs
MythTV has access to this information.

> Have you actually read all of both my docs and all of the official docs?

I have proof read every single word of the HOWTO on more than
one occasion. I am not going to read your notes or the dozen
or so other 'how *I* did it' pages that have been written before.
(did you know that others have done this? did you find any of
this pages? did they do you any good whatsoever?). I will,
however, see any and all information you submit to the HOWTO.

It is not a matter of competing to see if you can out do the
HOWTO. It is a question of whether you are going to contribute
to the open source project that you are taking advantage of,
or are you simply interested in drawing attention to yourself.

> In the official docs, there is no mention of RHL9 whatsoever, and only a 
> little bit on installing ivtv.

Because you haven't contributed it thus far. The documentation
is not written in stone and it did not descend from the heavens.
Now is the time to rectify this.

> It includes very little about how to 
> configure the card after you install the drivers (nothing about setting 
> resolution, specifying input, fixing ghosted images, or anything about 
> the remote). There is nothing about getting lirc from CVS to support the 
> grey remote. And so on.

mailto:rkulagow at rocketmail.com

> ...By the way, much of my initial information 
> actually did come from the official site, and was then 
> enhanced/customized for RHL9 and a PVR-250.

But then you neglected to send your additions back in.

> Guess what? I've already sent an email to Robert, requesting that at 
> least part of my info be incorporated, because I feel the official docs 
> are VERY lacking in several areas, particularly with respect to RHL9 and 
> the PVR-250.

This is a step in the right direction. Thank you.

> Now I did forget to explicitly mention that. I'm adding that to my docs. 
> :) There's a good chance that may have been one of Rob's problems 
> (sorry, Rob!).

Yeah, I threw this in because his symptoms seemed similar
to others who had missed this step. Isaac has sent this
several times as a one line response to reports of trouble.

>> http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-18.html#ss18.11
> 
> 
> Didn't know until looking at that again that you (Bruce) are an 
> "official" documenter.

This was the first section I had ever sent in. I assumed that
Robert chose to put the name of the new guy on it so that he
wouldn't take the heat for inaccuracies. At the time there
were at least a half dozen people per day posting questions
about how to get audio working. Since then, these messages
have diminished to a trickle. The questions that do come up
often include something like 'I ran aplay /dev/dsp and here's
what happened'. This test wasn't used until it showed up in
the docs.

I've since contributed "What capture resolution should I
use?", "MythTV GUI and X Display Sizes", "I'd like to save
or restore my database", "Removing unwanted channels", and
half of "Advanced Backend Configurations" and several little
additions and fixes all with Robert's editorial help. All are
subject to input from others and all available to everyone
who uses MythTV.

I also try to do lots of testing to seek out potential
problems and contribute code to fix features I need to use
and add features I'd like to have. I've been interested in
the possibilities of digital recording and convergence for
several years. I'd been involved with other projects in
the past. When I found MythTV, I made a conscious decision
that I wanted to contribute to help it become the kind of
system I've always wanted.

I guess I could have set up my own web site, maintained my
own FAQ (NO, an AIW will NOT work ;-), and kept my own patches
to do the things I wanted. But would this have done anybody
any good? Would anyone other than me care if the hit count
went up on my web site if people came to see my docs? No.

So, I'm asking you again, are you going to contribute to the
project that you have the privilege of using? Or, are you
going to draw attention to yourself for the work that others
have done to satisfy your own vanity?

If you continue on your course, I have to assume the latter.
However, I'd prefer that you contribute. If it really is about
attention, consider this. Wouldn't you gain more of a sense
of notoriety if you were the maintainer of the RH9 install
docs? If your name was on tech notes that appeared in the
documentation that everyone sees?

I assure you :) that you will be better off if you reconsider
what you are doing, and why, and decide to contribute for the
sake of all MythTV users rather than fragmenting information
and confusing new users for the sake of your own agenda.

--  bjm



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