Dilemma: how much general info about the web?
Whole day I was struggling with this question: how much general information regarding the WWW should I include in the introductory chapters?
I am fully aware there is a huge amount of information out there, even with a simple search anybody could find it. But in the WordPress Support Forums I have had to answer question like:
OK, I downloaded the WP files, they are on my Desktop, now what? I don’t understand what all that blabla is about server and config file. Where should I upload it? Do I need a domain? How do I upload the files. I am completely new to this, so be gentle…
You can imagine the desperation of any helper when seeing a question like this. Where to start? What should I explain first? - and the same questions are very valid even in the case of a book that is targeting the non-technical beginners.
Do they have any basic understanding how the web works? Have they ever heard at least the “word” html?
Strictly speaking, you don’t need to understand how a static HTML web page works as opposed to the database driven dynamic web sites. On the other hand, if you do know the difference - you will never end up in the Forum saying “I saved all the files from my old host/server and installed it on my new server/domain but my blog is empty! HELP, pleeeeease…”
Those are the idiots who never realized that nothing is stored in their files. Except your customized theme you can throw out all your files. You can find them anywhere, no need for them. Really. Everything that is dear to you - is in the database. Therefore I ended up with a brief comparison of the traditional HTML sites and the database driven dynamic sites using PHP. I could understand this basic concepts when my programmer son explained to me the first time… even without understanding one line of PHP code. I think my readers are not dumber, so they will understand it as well.
The many, many hours spent in the Forum gave me this enormous advantage: I know precisely what kind of mistakes to expect from a newbie. If you see the same mistake repeated by hundreds of users, you know there must be a problem, so better address it to help them.
Yes, I know, it also means there is a problem with the documentation, which is mainly written by geeks for geeks - with a few exceptions. Let’s leave that for a future post…
Tags: database documentation dynamic web sites html newbie mistakes php wordpress
