Idea for developer's list. Was: Re: [ic] Echange en Francais,

[IC-Admin]

Jeff Dafoe wrote:

> I am certain that the people asking the question would have no problem
> checking the archive first (I suspect many do not know the archive
> exists, finding the archive search from developer.akopia.com is not very
> intuitive)

What would you consider intuitive ?

If you go to developer.akopia.com, there is a clearly marked section for
"Documentation". That's one click (and even an unpatented one..:-). There is
another clearly marked section "Mail list archives". That's aother one
click. (Now two for one and still for half the price of free).

Are you saying people access the mailing list from somewhere, where they
don't come in  over the developer.akopia.com page ? Or do you expect a
zero click option for the documentation ? (How do you then expect it 
to ever click in user's minds ?  :-)) 

> There was absolutely nothing critical in my reply.  The Interchange
> solution is currently far from a plug-and-play solution and does require
> a level of technical skill that the average person looking to install a
> shopping cart may not possess.  

I think Mike Heins said it quite nicely this morning :

	Interchange is less of a car and more of an engine. It has some vehicle
	features, but it doesn't sport all models from motor-scooter to
	semi-trailer. You can build any of those out of the engine.

It is obvious that IC was not designed to be a plug and play
intuitive solution (though its UI makes a strong effort in that
direction). May be that's now backfiring. The UI is that convincingly
click, cut and paste that people mistakenly don't "look under the hood"
anymore. 

May be the top banner on the mailing list should be redesigned. Instead
of putting Akopia's Logo up there, it would be a place where a big, fat
link to the docs and FAQs should stare into our face all the time. 
Then the only canned answers left to give out would be : 

'I hear you' said the deaf guru
'I see' answered the blind newbie

Birgitt