Just a FYI: I’ve asked the CS-Cart team if they could set up a Wiki. I even am willing to admin the thing. I think a LOT of questions could be answered there – instead of painfully doing a search and skimming through hundreds of posts 
I’m toying around with the idea of just hosting it on one of my servers, but it should REALLY be here – something like http://wiki.cs-cart.com makes perfect sense.
This would REALLY help out us new cs-cart owners! I mean, how many times have you seen in the forums, “How do I change my Title text?”, or “How does .htaccess work?”. I’m just now trying to understand the template system, and a Wiki site would help immensely.
It’s Wiki time. If anyone has a “bat-phone” into the CS-Cart team, please use it and ask if they can simply install MediaWiki!
Thanks!
Hurrah. You have taken it further. Nice one.
It is just what cs-cart needs.
It does things that are not apparent according to what is set where etc.
Fingers Crossed - yes it should be on this site.
Hey guys. I created a cs-cart wiki www.ourcs-cart.com or wiki.ourcs-cart.com. I am speaking with cs-cart now about making it the official cs-cart wiki but until then have at it.
What would be best is just a FAQ/Knowledgebase script filled with ‘accurate’ information about common issues and others that get properly resolved via this forum or the bug tracker. There is no need for another discussion based script since there is already both this forum and the bug tracker for that.
A couple of the CS related Wiki/CMS sites that have been started already contained inaccurate or server specific information that in some cases caused more harm than good.
The most important thing regardless of the type of site used is making sure the information published is correct for everyone. If the solution could be server specific then answers for multiple environments should be provided. There is a huge problem with incorrect or incomplete answers within this forum. The knowledgebase should be much cleaner and precise in my opinion.
I was going to offer the Devs help with this since the forum is such a mess with conflicting resolutions to many problems but haven’t got around to it yet.
I disagree that there should only be a FAQ. When using zen cart and many other things I rely heavily on their Wikis for help. They are much more easier to use than a forum. Forums are great for figuring out things that should be in a wiki. I like to think of wiki’s as a huge collection of “how-to” or “tutorials”. Much easier and quicker than sorting through a bunch of posts on a forum or looking through a huge list of FAQ’s.
IMO Forums should be used for figuring things out and a Wiki should be used for the decisions made on the forum.
BTW there is a FAQ section for CS-Cart on the Wiki.
Another thing that might help the forums from being so messy is to create a IRC Channel. I suggest we use the freenode.net channel #cs-cart.
In the IRC Channel we can create a bot to answer many questions or users can point new users to bot responses.
I have created the #cs-cart channel on the freenode.net server if anybody wants to get on there. Also there is a link to the channel on the wiki.
If you havent used a wiki for anything before here are some examples of some good ones:
Zen-Cart Wiki - Open Source Shopping Cart system based on PHP/SQL
[url]Zen Cart Storeowner Docs | Zen Cart Documentation
Awkwardtv Wiki - a AppleTV hack site
[url]http://wiki.awkwardtv.org/wiki/Category:How-to[/url]
But this is all just my opinion based on my experience with wikis.
I have enough trouble finding time to help people posting problems here. I won’t be able to do the same thing on multiple sites. This is why I don’t see a need to have yet another site to post problems and stray off topic with all the comments as it does here.
Call me old fashioned but I would MUCH rather search a well kept FAQ system for a solution to a problem than read thru dozens of comments/posts hoping to get lucky. It is also much easier to manage a knowledgebase than a Wiki or CMS because there is no moderation needed. Only a couple knowledgable contributors would be needed to keep it updated.
Jesselee offered me the csdevelopers domain awhile back to do what you are trying here but I just see this as unproductive so I passed on it.
I don’t mean to argue with you or put down your idea Josiah but, I really think you jumped the gun creating this without entertaining the options or ideas of others.
But people don’t post comments and questions in the Wiki… it is essentially exactly what you are saying you want. Its an advanced FAQ or better yet a centralized location for tutorials. People don’t post questions they only post solutions… if there is a solution that needs to be updated or changed than you can go in and change that tutorial.
I agree that having something like another forum would be ridiculous and pointless… this wiki is meant to stop the multiple posts and questions, to quickly and easily find manuals, tutorials, how-tos, instructions for anything cs-cart related.
I am not trying to argue either I just want to defend the potential that a wiki is as apposed to a “FAQ”.
Did you goto the awkwardtv.org/ site that was posted above? It will be similar to that… you will notice that there aren’t any forum like posts or anything that would act to replicate or replace the forums. The cs-cart forums are very necessary and useful. I am just trying to give cs-cart users a better experience in support than what is available through the extensive searching and multiple posts in the forums.
Maybe after more content is submitted to the wiki you will see all the potential and usefulness it has.
I have never really used a wiki before but can see what one could do for me.
When I started using cs-cart I had to spend a long time doing trial and play on what effect the various options made and how they worked.
This is not dealt with in the manual and often not on the forum. But if it was dealt with on the forum there might be bits of knowledge on one area all over the place.
For example - what is the short description for - i was never seeing it. Okay now I know.
The forum system also has the problem that the same questions get asked again and again on basic matters and they will continue to be asked. Clogging it up.
Better that the forum deals with problems and issues and the wiki is a start point resource that lags behind as a long term reference.
The two work together. I just hope that cs-cart bring the wiki into the forum.
I don’t know the specific distinction between wiki and FAQ. In all honesty, I think in essense they are the same thing, they just tend to be presented differently and I don’t really see advantages of one over the other. Both can contain useful info, both can be searched, both can be limited to who and how info is posted. I think many (if not most) people think ‘anyone can post’ to a wiki based on wikipedia, whereas you cannot to a faq. I don’t think that’s necessarily true, but maybe that’s the source of the friction here?
What I personally would like is to have the most common questions asked of the CS-Cart support staff and the answers posted in a readily searchable form. Whatever you choose to call it. It would be very useful and attractive, especially for beginners and those of us who can’t remember things from day to day.
I think this should be something CS-Cart provides, but as they don’t really pay much attention to the forum itself I can’t see them taking this on. It also goes against their support business model, so I don’t see them being enthusiastic about giving away info when several people might pay to ask the same question. Unfortunate, it would improve the useability of their product, but they’ve got to be able to make money or this will all go away. It’s their call.
Very well said.
[quote name=‘arlen’]I don’t know the specific distinction between wiki and FAQ. In all honesty, I think in essense they are the same thing, they just tend to be presented differently and I don’t really see advantages of one over the other. Both can contain useful info, both can be searched, both can be limited to who and how info is posted. [/QUOTE]
Similar but different.
A wiki allows a better layout of information and continual updates and improvements within this structure (I think) a FAQ section does not have this flexibility.
CS-cart is a sophisticated and complex bit of evolving software with many elements to it. It is just not possible to capture every element of it with one person sitting down and writing an answer to a FAQ. If people then start adding to this it then becomes a mess again. Maybe fine in the short run but limiting in the long run.
Everyone can contributes to the wiki and it needs multiple contributions.
A wiki is not for one off problem solving - that is when the forum kicks in.
Like everything the tool needs to be used to understand its strengths. Think of letters - the telephone - email - instant messaging - forums - all different ways of communication with strengths and weaknesses.