8 reasons why you should *not* write for the php.net manual

8 reasons why you should *not* write for the php.net manual:

  • You get more page hits by publishing your work on your blog
  • You get a free pass to conferences by converting your work into presentation
  • You get paid to submit your work to magazines & commercial websites
  • You get a "trading card" and considered a star
  • The community will know your name
  • You can flame the documentations without needing to do anything about it
  • You can copy&paste parts from the manual and sell it (see point#3)
  • You can license your work to forbid any commercial use or further improvements

:)

Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 14, 2007 at 1:10 PM

    I like to the getting paid part...

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousOctober 14, 2007 at 3:06 PM

    I'm glad that most people who DO write for the PHP Manual don't think like you.

    If they did, there would be no manual and, with no manual, there would be no PHP as we know it.

    Were you not a main contributor to the manual, I would find this post rather insulting to the other developers who contribute their time and effort to the PHP documentation.

    Rant over. Keep up the good work. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. AlexOctober 14, 2007 at 11:51 PM

    Nice ;-)

    Manual, per se, is complete when it is nothing to remove from it, not when everything possible added.

    I strongly believe that manual should contain the best articles, when most of the PHP-related information just is not in proper format (tutorials, short reviews, etc).

    ReplyDelete
  4. bjoriOctober 15, 2007 at 4:29 AM

    PHP Manual Reader: Thats kinda my point.
    More and more people are thinking about themselves and publish their work on their blog or sell it.
    There isn't anything wrong with that, but its very annoying that user need to search for information on blogs, commercial websites or magazines rather than the manual.

    The PHP manual is getting more and more out of date, missing _alot_ of information about new features in PHP, where as if you search for (for instance) "namespaces php" you'll find lot of information on how namespaces work in PHP - but the manual doesn't say a word on namespaces.

    The manual has nothing to say on running PHP4, PHP5 and PHP6 all on the same server, but alot of people have blogged about it.

    These are only two examples that really really should be documented in the official PHP manual.

    ReplyDelete
  5. bjoriOctober 15, 2007 at 4:33 AM

    Alex: I agree, the PHP manual should contain articles, basic "how to use this extension", and quick "tutorials" on using the more "advanced" features of PHP.

    In the next weeks the PHP manual will be restructured making more room for articles/howtos/tutorial/advanced examples/...
    These changes scream out for new content and more people to participate in the documentation effort.

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousOctober 16, 2007 at 8:20 AM

    Irony is lost on some people.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousJune 24, 2008 at 6:59 PM

    hi mentor !

    just want my own trading card :D

    ReplyDelete
  8. UnknownJanuary 5, 2010 at 8:01 AM

    they should implement some sort of rating system on users/comments and segregate the highest rated for the man pages, and put all the other crap into tips, examples, and crap that you need to go out of your way to see.

    ReplyDelete

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