[Zope] Zope is in trouble

[Gregory Dudek]

I have been a Zope developer & user for several years.  Zope is great  
and it has had a major impact on my work.  All this to say I am an  
experienced Zope user and supporter.

I think the Zope is in major trouble and the Zope.org web site is  
badly in need of attention.  I started using zope in 2001
at Xerox PARC and the helpful and persuasive resources at zope.org  
were a major factor.  Today, zope.org is full of dead links and it very
hard to use unless you are already experienced.  Getting started with  
Zope today is harder now than is was, even though the actual software  
is better.

A key factor is that from the zope.org web site it is not clear if  
the community is healthy or not, and the general impression is that  
the project is stalled since so many links are dead and defunct (and  
in fact I am not so sure of the zope community health myself any  
longer, despite the ongoing zope postings here).   In my opinion,  
making zope.org look healthy and be usable is the MOST important  
obstacle for the Zope community.  I believe this is both a symptom  
and a cause of disarray in the Zope user/developer community.

Zope was always a bit hairy to get into, without saying anything  
about Plone development or Zope 3, I just want to point out that  
without a clear simple up-to-date main web site, things are looking  
really bad.  I introduced some zope-based material in an introductory  
computer science course a few years ago with moderate success, but am  
starting to doubt it would be appropriate any longer.

I am not criticizing the people on this list or the other Zope  
developers: I have enormous appreciation for what has been built, I  
just would hate to see is dwindle in vitality and use.

Greg

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Appendix (Examples)

Specific evidence (these are just examples):
   1) search for something, say "user folder" on zope.org
        Pages you get are dated 2001, 2000,  2003, ....

        Let's try link 3 for the extensible user folder (one of the  
formerly more popular and useful items in the first few listed).
           Click the "more info link":  dead page (Insufficient  
Privileges)

     2) Click "Zope Products" on the sidebar.  Most of the listed  
products are old.

     3) "Resources" Sidebar Item. Click "Zope Links".  -> Site Error