[Zope] Zope Good/Bad News Article

[J. Atwood]

Hey Paul,

Just read your article (http://www.pault.com/zope.html)  and really 
enjoyed it (besides comparing Java to Macs... yikes!). I agree that 
DC needs to really work with Zope Product Developers and help them as 
much as possible. I build and maintain a product and there are times 
when working with a new release or debugging something new in Zope 
that I would love to have a full fledged contact at Zope. You are 
correct that the first thing that people ask about Zope is "What 
products are there for it?" and the answer is "A lot" but not all of 
them well supported, useful or documented.

DC should encourage and then force developers to be a bit better 
about documentation. I have seen product developers put up a  new 
product with the full amount of documentation about it being "here it 
is... have fun." This certainly does not help all of those people who 
want to install and use Zope products. DC can encourage better 
product development and documentation by doing simple things such as 
T-shirt contest for best product documentation, tip, how-to and all 
the rest. Maybe a monthly thing that gets and keeps everyone 
involved. Did you see how much time people spent over at ZopeZen.org 
just to get that T-shirt. A sense of fun and excitement can go a long 
way.

I also like the idea of a Zope Product Zone that links from the home 
page. "Downloads" does not really get the point across to most people 
of the depth of stuff there. Basic stuff such as how to analyze the 
stats and how to find a good Zope hosting provider would also go a 
long way.

Anyway.. I wanted to thank you for you thoughts and ideas. I have 
CC'd the Zope mailing list (where all the developers really live) so 
as to share the response and encourage more.

Thanks,
J