Barriers to entry

[Donovan Rebbechi <elflord@pegasus.rutgers.edu>]

I am writing expressing some concern about the fact that it seems so
difficult to get any of my documents on the website. 

I was initially told that I had to learn "sdoc" to write anything for the
website, and later, that I had to be on a certain list as well. I was
pointed to a (useless) URL for information on "sdoc" whatever the #@@#
that is.

What are you guys doing ? I don't tell the others at independence
(such as the project leader ) that
they need to learn html prior to submitting articles for the website. This
is EXTREMELY DUMB and
creates barriers to entry for those that want to help. I just ask for
files to be submitted in either plain text, or very low markup html, and
spend about 5 minutes per document editing them for the website. 
Using some goofy format other than html is worse, because no-one knows
sdoc to begin with. It's like asking them to submit in Chinese. 

However, with the SEUL websites, I find myself in a catch 22. I'm supposed
to learn this goofy sdoc thing and yet the sdoc-docs are no-where to be
found. 

I have numerous documents that you might find useful but I'm not going to
wade through layers of bullshit to have them submitted to the site. 

Given that it's very difficult to find people who are actually prepared to
do something and not just spout, I find it odd that you seem to be making
life unnecessarily difficult for people who want to help .

-- Donovan

----------------------------------
Donovan Rebbechi, 
Project Independence Web Designer  
http://independence.dunadan.com