Bill, Thank you for the long detailed post! I think the OpenACS community needs some more input in this area. Your specific questions are most helpful:
- What the system actually is
- How it actually works
- What, from the administrative point of view, it takes to use it (besides a degree in computer science)
- How, from the end-user's point of view, it is used
- Where I can find out those things in a way that doesn't take that degree, and won't take me two or three weeks of digging (for things I can't seem to find anyway)
Questions/points have been added to the list of ones the documentation (and website) needs to answer.
OpenACS suffers from a certain syndrome that I call the "plumbers syndrome" for lack of a better phrase. [Danger: generalizations ahead] Plumbers homes seem to have poor plumbing, electrician's homes tend to have bad wiring, and software development websites tend to have, well, poorly organized websites from a user perspective... [That's been my experience, though I know the opposite is true also, it's not relevent to this message.] Maybe it's the nature of not having the external perspective or will to complete it. Perhaps a lack of resources has meant giving up on some aspects to complete more important ones. Whatever the reason, priorities have been focused elsewhere.
I suspect this syndrome on this website is an underlying reason some people want to change the OpenACS name... to get a fresh start on a new website.. It needs it. An analogy would be working in an office until it's completely filled-up, disorganized etc, and then move to a new office (or building) for a fresh start --instead of cleaning/organizing the old one.
For the record, some end-user material is being written with the help of people like myself who thankfully have strong self-esteem and lack tack --important qualities for creating voluminous amounts of useful feedback.
Keep coming with the questions.. and if you don't like the answers... keep asking, please! They will eventually be answered to your satisfaction if this project is to succeed.
