DA forum revision needed - Wiki req'd

Status
Not open for further replies.
C

clubhost

Verified User
Joined
Oct 28, 2004
Messages
44
Location
Sydney, Australia
Everytime I go looking for an answer to my troubles, I do the forum search and what do I find. Just more questions....

I would find differing how-to's usually 2 to 3 years old and not much clarification about whether it was fressbsd, centos, redhat, debian. It's too hard to tell whether that how-to was still relevant or destroy my box.

The only way i can see this problem being resolved is to have a DA wiki, with the first line of each wiki entry referring back to a thread in this forum. The two should work together and hopefully it will result in a comprehensive DA manual.

I know this has been suggested before, but the problems still exist.

What do you think?
 
DutchTSE said:
http://help.directadmin.com gives you some answers to your problems;)
Click to expand...

Yep I'm fully aware of the DA Knowledge base, but that can only really deal with "Official" support, I'm mainly talking about all the other information, like updating spam assasin, php, clamav, and other such information.

When it's posted in the knowledge base, only da staff can maintain it, when it's in a thread on this forum, it's up to the original poster, but in a wiki we can all maintain the record.
 
I think it is already bad enough that I have to go to the site-helper page, the knowledge base, and the forum to search for answers. Now you want to add a fourth place for me to have to look?
 
So you understand my problem!

You look in the knowledge base, nup no answer there, then you go to the forums and you find something that is 3 or 4 years old and a bit vague, do you trust it will work now?? Would it mess with DA configuration, especially features added to DA since that topic was created in 2003.

Atleast with a Wiki a page is created and then updated, not just abandoned and a new thread created later.

Therefore you will only need to visit the wiki. You would hope that the wiki would be populated by the knowledge base first up.
 
If you find an old thread in the DirectAdmin forums and you're not sure if it will work for you (how-to or something like that) - you can post a question to the thread and it will be answered.
 
So you understand my problem!
Click to expand...

Actually I don't. I have never had a problem finding answers to questions on this forum unless it has to do with new technology or software.
 
I have to agree with floyd and smtalk. This forum has saved me more than once. DIG DEEPER :)
 
cbservers,

You make some good points and I'm of mixed feelings on a wiki.

The biggest problem is that I've seen a lot of wikis (including wikipedia) where I've had to make changes to totally incorrect information. When I do, there's no way to notify any of the people who've already gotten the wrong information.

If a How-To is incorrect, it can be edited. If it's really bad, and if the original author isn't able or willing to fix it, then it can be removed; just report the post and give the reason, or post the problem in the thread itself, or even email me; there's always a working email address in my siglines.

I think up-to-date How-Tos are much easier to maintain than wiki's.

All that said, you can always create your own unofficial wiki. Go for it :) .

Just don't expect that those of us who do a lot of support here will have the time to work with your wiki as well.

Jeff
 
jlasman said:
I think up-to-date How-Tos are much easier to maintain than wiki's.
Jeff
Click to expand...

I tend to agree with you....but that only works when there is a fairly complete collection of Howtos

If I was in the "support" mode, I'd rather develop a howto than answer the same question with the same detail time and time again.

Thom
 
Hey, I've contributed, others have contributed. So now it's your turn ;) .

Jeff
 
jlasman said:
Hey, I've contributed, others have contributed. So now it's your turn ;) .

Jeff
Click to expand...

That's a good point....I was going to do that....but then realized that I've been told that my problems with squirrelmail could have been handled if I didn't use it for Admin mail, and then that there was no problem, but a mis-configuration by my vendor.

Even funnier was my thought of having squirrelmail forward mail. After I was told that no web-based client forwarded mail. I suppose I could write about installing the squirrelmail module to forward mail :D

I think I will simply play dumb and ask questions, as it's obvious that I am not smart enough to make any contributions.

Thom
 
Thom, I wouldn't use that term not smart enough. Perhaps not experienced enough; that even happens to me, still, after all this time on these forums.

Never sell yourself short; there are too many others out there willing to do that for you ;) .

Jeff
 
Well, if you all want to make a wiki, I noticed that dawiki.com was available and went ahead and registered it so if you decide to start one up, let me know and I'll set up account for it and host it for free (that is if DA doesn't want to do wiki.directadmin.com).
 
jlasman said:
Thom, I wouldn't use that term not smart enough. Perhaps not experienced enough; that even happens to me, still, after all this time on these forums.

Never sell yourself short; there are too many others out there willing to do that for you ;) .

Jeff
Click to expand...

I re-read this thread and realized that not only have I not seen anymore posts about the wiki, but even after you drafted me for help on it, and I sent the reqested email and left a message on your phone system, I have gotten no feedback.

I realize everyone is busy.

I have the impression that a DA wiki is a dead issue.
 
chatwizrd said:
Game over ! :D
Click to expand...

It's a shame....but I guess there simply aren't enough folks willing to volunteer the time to post/maintain it.

So we can look forward to topics that are like:

How can I install a buggy whip in DA
Do it this way
I tried, it didn't work
Ah, maybe this way?
Well, sorta, but it still hits the horse in the head

And about 30 posts later, someone posts the way to do it.....and then there are many posts after that explaining why what works can't.

On the other hand, this forum is lot more helpful than many.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top