[opencms-dev] open letter -- How to learn OpenCMS

[Paul D. Bain]

At 09:46 AM 10/13/04, you wrote:

>I am new to OpenCms and am trying to develop a web application using it. 
>Over the past month or so, I have posted many messages to this list, but 
>only received a few replies to various questions. I have also noticed in 
>the message archives a lot more questions than answers. Open-source 
>projects that do well usually have a good community behind them to help 
>out new users, along with demos and good documentation. While, OpenCms has 
>the best docs of any open-source CMS project I have looked into, I don't 
>see enough help on the mailing list.

         There is no shortage of help on this list. The problem does NOT 
lie with the OpenCMS developers or with the experienced users of OpenCMS. 
The problem lies with users who are too lazy to search the email archives, 
too lazy to read the documentation, or too cheap to buy Matt Butcher's 
excellent book on OpenCMS.

         When I began learning OpenCMS two years ago, I began by reading 
the official documentation. Then, I read every single email in the archives 
(for the prior six months) that had been posted by Alexander Kandzior, the 
chief architect of OpenCMS. Other posters whose emails contain valuable 
information include these:

         = Matt Butcher
         = Olli Aro
         = Mark Miller
         =  Stephan Hartmann
         = Rene Hinojosa
         =  Joachim Arrasz
         =  Thomas Marz

I suggest that you read the emails of these experienced users _very_ 
carefully. Their emails contain a great deal of supplemental, useful 
information. Do _not_ merely search the email archives. BROWSE them. READ 
them. They are a gold mine of information.

Sincerely,
Paul Bain

>For example, a project like Resin, which has a very small team of 
>developers, has its lead developer posting regularly to the mailing list 
>to help people.
>
>I hope that Alkacon can devote more resources to monitoring the list and 
>helping new users and thus grow the community of experienced users (who in 
>turn can help people out on the list).
>
>-andy kriger
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