August 26, 2002

I believe that there is a point in the life-cycle of any software application when instead of just interested people using it, anybody tries to use it just because it is there. Blog seems to have reached that point since I get a lot of e-mails these days along the lines of “I don’t like the default look of my site using Blog. How do I change it?” Now to me, it looks as if these people haven’t even bothered to go through the different dialogs in the app let alone read the documentation since otherwise they should at least know about templates.

It irritates me that people get a free application, don’t bother to do any groundwork and expect to get better support than they would from Microsoft for something they’d paid hundreds of dollars for. (And yes, I’m in full rant mode and this does not refer to all the innocents out there who are truly stuck and write to me with genuine problems :p) I believe in providing support and I believe in helping others – that is one of the basic principles on which the whole idea of careware is based. But I hate freeloaders who won’t even bother to go through the app or read the documentation and the FAQ before they write to me and ask me to help them. I believe that you should do some work too if you want to be helped.

I agree, the documentation is not easy to read and it doesn’t illustrate certain points too well. But unfortunately, I don’t think I’m the best person to write the documentation since I know the software inside out and so take a lot of things that may seem not-so-obvious to others as granted. And all the people who’ve promised to write me documentation for Blog over the last year or so have never been heard of since their promises :p And I do take some of the blame for people expecting Blog to work right out of the box since I do say that you don’t need to edit HTML at the top of the Blog page itself and people may expect that means that you don’t need to know HTML. And I don’t think I explain what a template is properly. So be warned! You need to know enough HTML to edit a template and you do need to do some work to set Blog up to look the way you want it to … but come on, how hard is it to read the documentation and the FAQ? 🙂

Tags: General
Posted by Fahim at 6:12 am   Comments (6)

6 Responses to

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#1
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Phil @ leaf 26 August 2002 at 2:15 am

Actually, if the external templates idea was forced more, people may find it easier to get to grips with. I’m not sure, but the full versions used to come with a set of external templates that could be modified (even as duplicates of the internal templates). Editing within the Blog dialog is definitely only really suited for minor changes (are these rolled back to the external template – I’ve not investigated?) and I think more should be made of the external template referencing feature.

That said, the documentation works well enough to get most people up and running. Fahim – perhaps investigation of a discussion board might be a good idea. If that’s seen to be a good idea, I can make enquiries with one of our benefactors.

#2
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Nige 26 August 2002 at 4:37 am

I still think that many problems could be addressed by a set up wizard. Sorry to go on about it, but I suspect that most problems for the casual user come from the initial set up, including the template, and if that was dealt with, you would get less hassle. Or am I missing something here?

#3
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Mike 26 August 2002 at 3:07 pm

I’m afraid you’ll have to face it Fahim, Blog is complex, quite unsuitable for most beginners. The majority quite rightly just want a nice looking online diary and do not have the time or interest to learn HTML, FTP and “how to build a website”. Perhaps these “freeloaders” as you call them should be persuaded to use Blogger or similar for a few months (like I did) and then come back and experience the far more interesting and versatile Blog. They could bring a few templates back with them, also like I did!

Please don’t spend too much time helping innocents Fahim, we want you working on Blog 7.0! Keep up the good work. Blog is really good – and difficult!

#4
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Fahim 26 August 2002 at 4:15 pm

Mike, I’m not calling all newbies “freeloaders” 🙂 What I meant by the “freeloader” comment was people who download the software and expect help without even reading the documentation and I don’t think that particular problem can be sorted by any amount of familiarity with any other software … though Nigel’s suggestion about a wizard might work for that kind of person :p

#5
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Tracie 27 August 2002 at 7:00 am

I don’t think I agree that Blog is THAT complex compared to blogging applications like Greymatter or Moveable Type. Those I found to be too complex to bother with. They have SO many features but to get them all working right it’s a real pain in the butt if you don’t know what you’re doing. At least that’s what *I* found to be the case… I was thrilled when I found blog. I thought it was so much easier.

Fahim, you’re a gem. You’ve got a good product. Don’t let those who don’t even TRY to figure it out get you down. *hugs*

#6
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Fahim 27 August 2002 at 4:16 pm

Thanks Tracie 🙂 Always appreciate the kind words from long-standing Blog users 🙂

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