Why, Why, Why

A list of today's Plone frustrations

1. 1. Why did none of the links on the main Cohort 5 main page work for most of yesterday? - yet there was no warning or explanation? I knew it had to be the Plone end but a new users might be confused and think it was something they did - and this could be very stressful! - well I lie it was stressful for me too! All the links on the images at the top did not not work and those on the to do list for all of Saturday until this morning - when someone must of fixed them? Yet there was no message to say that this had happened. All links consistently - on 3 separate computers I tried - returned an error saying it could not be displayed, or you had no permission or some such thing and I had to get to the discussions and modules using an obscure text link 'main page' half way down the C5 home page - but when I had just about had enough and was ready to email someone about it - all now works, but with no 'sorry' and explanatory message! It is almost more frustrating to find it now works before you can do anything about than it not work at all!!!
2. Why have an HTML capable editor for pages you compose online within Plone like KCKeditor or Kupu - I tried both- If none of the formatting or even the colours actually display on the page when you actually publish it? Therefore forcing you to use CSS if you want any control over the formatting at all -WHY THEREFORE GIVE YOU A TOOL TO FORMAT HTML WHICH YOU THEN SPEND HOURS USING , IF IT WAS ONLY A WASTE OF YOU TIME AND IT WOULD HAVE WORKED BETTER IF YOU HAD JUST USED THE DEFAULT WITH A COUPLE OF H1 AND H2 TAGS FOR THE CSS TO WORK WITH. THIS SILLINESS WASTED ABOUT 2 HOURS OF MY PRECIOUS TIME YESTERDAY?
3. Why if there is a character/word limit for comments on the discussion boards why does it not SAY SO? And of more importance, in terms of frustration level - why if to use over the word limit it actually BREAKS the board, does it 'ALLOW' you to post your comment at all? In all other systems I have used if you go over the word limit ( which is usually MUCH bigger than it is on these Plone boards) either you are returned to the compose form with your comment un-posted and a note to say that to post it you will have to cut down the number of words or characters or you get a pop up or alert box saying the same AND you do not lose what you have just spent time writing - none of this makes sense to me as surely an alert box or something could be written into an open source system when you type too many characters in a given area or on a given form, or some effective warning devised??
4. Why is the character/word limit set so low in the first place? We are supposed to be an online community, how can this really develop if everything we want to say has to be crammed into short bursts of 'text like messages - I do not like text messaging format anyway and certainly not as my main way of communicating with other students and lecturers/tutors on a course that is so important to me as a person.
5. Why are there no Plone user FAQs, or help sheets? - not just the tips written by some tutors on single aspects of using the system such as how to set up a message board - but a fully comprehensive reference.? There is the tech area discussion board but the word allowance does not allow an explanation of complex tasks and no answers can be referenced easily with its own URL. Even on the free 'ProBoards' I use there is a FAQs and a forum which can be referenced and cross referenced and users can post images to explain how to do something on the board itself.

I have been so frustrated!

It seems like all I do so far is moan! Well yes why not but I do also have a point, it is frustrating - it is not complaint for complaints sake - Anyway I see this as a place I can offload - I wonder if the Ultralab system has ever been beta tested for user friendliness by testers who use content management all the time?

Perhaps because I have done so much beta testing ( beta testing for Microsoft for my sins and tested windows XP and have been involved in beta user testing Linux stuff, so I am very picky and know the basics of what I expect)

It is not that it is not possible to get used to the Ultralab Plone as it is. I am beginning to ajust and learn what I can and can not do - but just that as a user it could be made better by the adding of a few user warnings/alert boxes etc, much more user information specific to the tasks you are trying to do and a comprehensive onlineFAQs or searchable user database or help.