Geeklog Forums

Too often, I think, we do not wish to put in the time to figure things out for ourselves. Our society seems to think that they are "owed" something, and that they can criticise and get someone else to tell them what they need to know, rather than spending the time to learn it themselves, even when services are offered for free. While I encourage non-technical types to use GL, I encourage them to use it not only to handle their site, but to learn and expand their horizons and their knowledge. It's a great platform for this. Now, having said this, I want it clear that I'm not singling anybody out. My purpose is not to belittle anybody. If I have, I apologise, but my point stands. If you do not show in your post that you tried to figure it out on your own, then *WE* don't know that you did, and we may assume that you didn't. Lets make everybody happy and just say, "Here's my problem, here's what I've tried to do to figure it out. Can anybody help me?"... That's much better than "I don't understand this. The documentation you supplied is useless. You guys really need to fix X or something bad is going to happen. This is almost unforgiveable and you better tell me what I need to know/help me/fix it or me and several other users who do not wish to try to figure anything out on our own will not use what you have supplied for free, and will go use something else..." I hope my point is clear. I've been active on many open-source projects, and it never ceases to amaze me the level of insensitivity and rudeness that is displayed. In time, some of these users have come to be part of the project themselves, and have confessed embarassment at their behavior. Honestly, we're used to it, and most of us forgive the behavior easily, but that doesn't mean we like the way we're treated. I'm not yet a real active part of this community, but I learn more about it every day, and will probably jump in and start pulling my share on the development front soon. I count myself a part of it, and I hope you all do too. Let's be a little more courtious, and try to help ourselves a little more before we start asking for help. I guarentee that if you do this, even though it may take you twice as much time, you'll figure many things out on your own, which means a faster "answer" for you, and the things you can't figure out will be more readily and completely answered by the community. Give it a shot. It works.</rant>Nuke...

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Nuke...

I completely agree, no but's about it... I am just a user of the product and am completely new to running a server, running interpreters and running scripts and I have to admit I was able to put 95% of it all together without asking for help from someone else. The benefit of solving a problem through reading up and troubleshooting all on your own is a reward unlike any other... It really shows and proves how unstoppable you really are even if you're tackling something unknown... I had many questions but assumed many times the question had to be asked on Geeklog already so I would use the search button... Such a pretty and cute little button and so powerful... I would agree Geeklog needs some documentation but would also agree its easy enough to get by without one and when a question seems hard, pull out the resources and the site might have the answer already (chances are in your favor)... Geeklog is a great community and I plan to give back because other scripts more whack than GL charge more than their worth and GL is free... Thats amazing and I believe their project should be supported by everyone who plans to use it as soon as time permits... I would like to thank the staff at geeklog for the awesome script and I know your time is better spent on developing than on answering many questions. I've asked my share and I would just like to thank you all for your time in both arenas. Thank you a thousand times in fact because Geeklog is great!

I agree. It's amazing how some people can't ask for help in a courteous way. Open Source software is run by volunteers who don't get paid for any of the hours they put in. It's merely a hobby. As such, you won't find perfection in the OS community. We all run into irritating bugs but that doesn't mean we should take our frustration out on others here. People should be overjoyed that those with programming skills are willing to share their talents at no cost. Otherwise we all wouldn't have great sites that are easy to maintain. Is the software perfect? No. Is the documentation perfect? No. Those who want this should look at commercial products instead. After getting over sticker shock maybe then they'll come back and say you know it's really not that bad after all.

That's inexcusable and graceless at any time, but especially so for Geeklog. If there's any CMS package that works *according to the directions,* it's this one.

Thx for the hard work.

Wow... I sure hope that wasn't aimed at me.

While I haven't been asking for help myself, I have joined a couple of conversations where people were struggling due to the lack of documentation, and I spoke up to agree that user/admin documentation would be very helpful.

If I've come across as disrespectful at all, I sincerely apologize. I'm in awe of the programming/design/graphics skills of those who have created & continue to create Geeklog and its associated themes/plugins/etc. And I'm extremely thankful that these people have decided to put their time and efforts into an open source project that they're sharing with the world. (Thank you, whoever you are!)

So, again, if my posts have come across as complaining or insistent, I apologize. (I spend a lot of time on another online forum, so perhaps I've misread what's an acceptable "tone" for the conversations that take place here. If so, again, I apologize!)

Of course, Nuke, if that rant wasn't aimed at me, then never mind!

(I've used that little search box quite a bit here. It does come in handy, doesn't it?)

My rant wasn't aimed at any one person... I've just seen the pattern over and over and decided to speak up. No worries. Nuke...

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Nuke...

By "our society" to whom are you referring?

I think GL rocks and all correspondence should be polite and direct. I agree doing a little research first and letting people know what you have done certainly does assist all involved. Well said.

I don't see how it ultimately effects my point, but, if you must know, I was speaking on several levels. First and foremost, I speak of the "society" of the web community.

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Nuke...

I totally agree, I can't believe how some people demand help and patches and harp on you guys for providing FREE support and a killer application. That said, the pendulum swings both ways and I have seen developers, not necessarily affiliated with GL who are total pricks and will rant and rave if an easy question is presented to them.

hello - Im hoping you can help me out a little, i have tried to install GL on my hosted server, www.rascalsoccer.com - i get this error message

Parse error: parse error in /export/web19/omega/rasca001/www/lib-common.php on line 3815

Parse errors are often caused because you don't have -- closing or opening single quotes, double quotes, brackets, parenthesis, etc. -- missing semi-colon -- extra characters floating around Check the contents in line #3815 and see what you changed and left out. If you can't figure it out, then post a section of the code to include that line so we can see it.

Damn Right

 I downloaded your Geeklog proggy about 3 months ago. I will admit I knew very little at the time about PHP and or Mysql. I had done some scripting and fooled around with a database or two. After I downloaded Geeklog and had a site all setup in about an hour, and then began tearing it apart to see how it worked... I must say I learnt more about PHP and Databases in 2 days, then I had learned in 4 months of reading. It was like someone turned on the light bulb in my head. For this I thank you very much... Job well done!!!