[phpGroupWare-users] Re: Various issues

[James Mohr]

Quote:
> find a flaw, someone will probably fix it. want better docs, write them.


As I said in the first line of my original post "I working on an article which 
will be a review of various web-based groupware tools." While I would hate to 
see a project of this scope disappear from the opensource map, I don't have a 
strong motivation to code or write documentation for a product I do not use. 

People tend to migrate towards useful and successful projects. If there is 
essentially no documentation for a project, the ROI is very low, so companies 
are not going to implement it, so you are not going to get any "corporate 
backing". 

The first GW tool I used was PHPGW. It was and is too frustrating to use. On 
the other hand, I have donated real money to open source projects. Why? Because 
they are useful, which also means I can figure out out how to use them. Ask 
yourself why people are not donating real money to PHPGW.

Have you approached any company for support? I trade advertisement on my site 
for a number of things. HP and Brother (to name two) have donated hardware to 
my project. One company donated a server which I gave to one of the project 
admins. Needless to say he works a lot on the project. Don't whine because you 
are not getting the help. Go look for it! 

As a journalist, I have an obligation to tell my readers the truth about the 
product. I dropped one product already from this article because it was trash. 
PHPGW has some major issues, but is worth mentioning. However, I would not 
recommend to a company looking for an opensource groupware product.

My two cents: Stop managing 3986 different modules. If the user wants to read 
comics at work, let them download the module from somewhere. Fix the bugs and 
usability problems and only afterwards work on adding any "cool" features. Make 
PHPGW stand out from the others. Write decent documentation so that everyone 
and anyone can use. Stop giving RTFM answers when the FM is non-existant. Don't 
piss off journalists.

You said "The manual is done in a odd way that makes it difficult for 
developers to update and so they don't update it." FIX IT!

When this article is written, I am going to move on. What is the PHPGW team 
going to do?

--
I'm European. Guns scare me, boobs do not. Sent from the phpGroupWare forums @ 
http://forums.phpGroupWare.org