[mythtv-users] constant flames against people that are new to thelist - can't we all be adults here?

[Jarod C. Wilson]

On Thursday, Oct 2, 2003, at 10:58 US/Pacific, Tim Harvey wrote:

> From: http://www.hyperdictionary.com/search.aspx?Dict=&define=dearth
>
> Dearth:
>  Definition: [n]  an insufficient quantity or number
>              [n]  a severe shortage (especially a shortage of food)
>   Synonyms:   famine, paucity, shortage
>   See Also:   deficiency, lack, scarceness, scarcity, want
>
> Is this really the word you meant to use (seems not according to your
> context ;) )?

No, I tanked that one. I meant wealth, more or less.

> There is certainly a TON of information on MythTV out
> there, but most of it is poorly cataloged and presented.  Searching the
> messages for example is difficult if you don't know what terms to 
> search
> for, and because of poor message headers.  Honestly, how long would it
> take to read every single message in the archive?

You shouldn't ever have to read every message. A halfway decent search 
string will cut that way down. I do occasionally get a few pages worth 
of messages on gossamer when I do a search, but I usually find what I'm 
looking for. Yes, some headers aren't great, but with the search term 
highlighting, you can scan the message body pretty quickly. Perhaps I 
just know better what I'm looking for than some, I don't know.

> There is no excuse for someone not searching
> this archive

I agree with you 100% on that. :)

> but I wouldn't tell anyone they have to read every message.

No, but at least try a few searches and poke through the most recent 
hits turned up, at the very least.

> I probably monitored this project for a week before I even realized 
> that
> the gossamer archive was there... did not jump out at me at all when I
> read the info page: http://www.mythtv.org/modules.php?name=MythInfo (I
> clicked on the first link, even seeing the 2nd link to gossamer.  Note
> the colors of the text chosen... links don't really jump out at you)

That is true. I'm now intending to write up something to add to the 
"Introduction" section in the documentation that perhaps makes it more 
obvious to people, and suggests what steps they should take before 
posting to the list(s).

> I have been monitoring this project for a couple of weeks now and I 
> have
> yet to come across an actual 'FAQ'.

Could be a good thing. But someone then has to write it and maintain 
it... I could see the merits of a wiki-based FAQ...

> I think something that may solve some of the problems is to have an
> actual FAQ and additionally have an actual 'userguide' for MythTV as 
> the
> documentation which currently is an installation guide.

A "how to use your MythTV box", aka a User's Guide would be a good 
thing also, but again, someone has to write it and maintain it.

> I've found
> myself having to go through the code to simply get a list of 
> keybindings
> for the various modules (outside of keys.txt).  This as well as
> explanations of setup parameters would be the kind of thing that I 
> would
> expect to see in a userguide.

I agree. That would be a Good Thing. Just gotta get someone to write 
it, maintain it (do I sound like a broken record yet?)...

More and more, I think a wiki could be of great benefit...

> I've read over
> http://www.mythtv.org/modules.php?name=MythInstall and your guide at
> http://pvrhw.goldfish.org/tiki-page.php?pageName=rh9pvr250, which are
> both excellent, a dozen times but they both still left me with a ton of
> questions.

Well, if you have indeed read over both of those, then your questions 
are probably ones that are worth asking here (assuming of course, 
you've searched the mailing list archive to see if they were already 
asked :).

> I'm willing to put together the start of
> both of these documents in hopes that they can be maintained and have
> patches submitted by us all as the rest of the project.

Excellent. I'm definitely willing to help.

> So anyway... look for a posting from me in the near future (emphasize
> future more than near as I'm limited on time for another few weeks)
> providing hopefully a good start to a 'MythTV FAQ' and 'MythTV
> UserGuide', but certainly don't look at me to keep it up to date as I'm
> anxious to get in and start coding ;)

Heh. You said it: "Documentation is boring." Personally, I can't code, 
so I do what I can on the documentation and question-answering side. :)

--Jarod

-- 
Jarod C. Wilson, RHCE

Got a question? Read this first...
     http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
MythTV, Red Hat Linux 9 & ATrpms documentation:
     http://pvrhw.goldfish.org/tiki-page.php?pageName=rh9pvr250
MythTV Searchable Mailing List Archive
     http://www.gossamer-threads.com/archive/MythTV_C2/