WARNING - do not update to 6.0

... that there's a good reason that Drupal doesn't have an 'auto-update' or 'auto-disable' functionality for all modules.... it involves sites eating themselves during the process because they're dependant in some way on a module being enabled.

Thanks all for the comments - points well taken.

But I'll just say this about videos and the forum as a means of teaching and disseminating information:

Videos have their strong points BUT they can't be commented on, easily edited, or updated because it's a lot of work to redo it. If someone does a video they should have a parallel written tutorial to accompany it that can be commented on and edited. The poor English benefits no one if it's in a video but if it's written it can easily be amended with feedback.

When someone posts an issue in these forums there's only a loose system of categorization. It is presumed and desired that everyone research their issue before posting to see if has been tackled elsewhere first, but this is not an efficient process. Sure someone could periodically read all of this and distill it into a common thread or section, or someone could manually sort it all out and write a comprehensive answer in the manner of a FAQ or something, but that's a lot of work and it doesn't get done. I've wasted hours poking around the forums looking for answers and eventually figure it all out, often because I was pointed to another relevant thread by someone else.

I'd prefer that questions be more formally submitted to a (large) committee and then distilled into a coherent question and answer forum. That would be far more efficient and beneficial to the community.

@occi64 wrote:

I had a really terrible time with the "upgrade" to 6.0. Everything showed up as an error.

Well, um, maybe if you want help, you could post some details on what exactly those errors are??? No one is going to be able to help you if you just say that "everything showed up as an error."

There are really only two possibilities:
1. You made a mistake somewhere when following the upgrade instructions.
2. You've found a bug in Drupal 6.0 that needs to be fixed.

It would only take you a few minutes to post this, and you stand to benefit from it. That's not much to ask, given the hundreds of hours of volunteer time that some people put into making Drupal 6 happen.

I've done a fair amount of testing of Drupal 6, and in my opinion, the upgrade instructions are well-written. But if you find them confusing or difficult, then maybe you can suggest ways to make them better and easier to understand? What specific parts were confusing to you? As someone who is not a computer geek, you can provide valuable input here, since most of Drupal was written by computer geeks ;)

Instead of just complaining, it's much better to offer constructive criticism -- I can assure you that the Drupal community will respond.

- wordpress plugins do not require any separate update system, plugins are easy to enable/disable how hard can it be, Drupal should use Wordpress as a model for easy CMS, powerful doesn't mean anything if its not simple

I'm a WordPress plugin author myself. Plenty of WordPress plugins do require an update step. In WP, this must be handled either manually by the user, or within the plugin code itself. Drupal just handles the upgrade for all modules on its own. Frankly, I prefer it that way - there's one standard way of doing it all.

I'll be waiting on upgrading sites that depend on modules for which there isn't a 6.0 release yet. This should be obvious to anyone with half a brain. I'm starting new sites on 6.0, and it's generally going just fine.

The only reason it's apples and broccolli is because you are changing arguments midstream.

Drupal is made for developers who like to play with code rather than produce something user-friendly and stable, only a developer type would prefer complexity over simplicity

comments like this make me laugh and show a lack of understanding about many things concerning the process and the philosophy regarding Open Source software in general let alone Drupal.

You stick to that argument. While other people actually interested in pushing Drupal forward. Not just for their own development but for the beneift of the community, which actually includes YOU. They do this while you sit there, with your feet up talking about how much time you don't have but can find time to throw out posts like yours above.

it just makes good common sense to focus less on analyzing code and more on stability, user-friendliness

Analyzing code, is exactly what produces stability & user friendliness. How else do you expect to get from A to B? just throw it together with no rhyme or reason?

Most of these types of uncontructive complaints (I understand constructive critisism) sound more to me like the whinning of a three legged dog trying to bury a turd on a frozen lake.

You just want what you want, using the words "many others" where it suits you to try and strengthen your point. Which is what exactly ? That you want Drupal to do more out of the box than it does.

Then you throw a bow on it all with two words. Drupal rocks.

Do you have any idea at all, how many core contributors there are?
The hours spent working on Drupal for the benefit of people like yourself? (and more grateful than people like yourself.)

The fast food generation amazes me. It really does.

The difference between people who contribute and those who don't is simple and can be taken into most any context.

for the fast food generation: a context that may make more sense.

A guy goes to get a free hamburger
The burger doesn't have any ketchup

The guy has three choices: The first one those many people you refer to choose even if they do one of the latter two.

bitch because his burger doesn't have ketchup

get ketchup himself
eat it without the ketchup.

What I've found in researching posts like this one, where by labels are thrown around, @ everyone but commenter and wild assertions made, is that the poster has no desire to learn and is easily frustrated by things they don't understand. Specifically the philosophy and concept behind that which they are choosing to be critical of. Ultimatly missing the entire point. To cover up for that they rattle on and on, and change arguments midstream exposing themselves as someone who would just prefer to pop the top and have everything they want handed to them without having to do any thing other then set a few settings in a UI. Anyone who deviates from this idea is worthy of being associated in some odd light with reagrds to trying to make things difficult on purpose, because they like to do it.

BAH! ... That's just crud.

now here's what I'll suggest to you, download the earliest version of Drupal you can find. See how far its come with the contributors of past and present, experience the enhancements between each verion. Maybe than you will be more grateful toward those same coders who give you drupal, those same people you haven't said much/if any good about.

_____________________________________________________________________
My posts & comments are usually dripping with sarcasm.
If you ask nicely I'll give you a towel : )

Now you are just saying silly things, calling names and trolling for no good reason. Please do stop calling names in the forums.

I do not know php. I am not a developer. I have used Drupal for more then 4 years without being a developer. This is Open Source software. Development occurs as people contribute to it. Things that users want get worked on as those who are interested in it do the work.

Work towards lowering the technical skill level required to implement sites goes into each versions. Note I said lowering. Implementing a good web site still takes technical knowledge and/or a willingness to learn. Making complex things simple is very hard. Very very hard. To pretend otherwise is silly or a deliberate suspension of belief.

Usability input goes into each version of Drupal. Sometimes it is more then others, it all depends on peoples willingness to get involved in the development cycle and discuss work flow, make mock ups at time when these thoughts can be discussed and implemented.

We (the Drupal community We) are not wasting our time. We are not wasting your time. We have not yet implemented press gangs to shanghai new members onto the good ship Drupal. Though it is an idea that may yet prove to have merit.

-Steven Peck
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Test site, always start with a test site.
_{Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain}

And you continue calling names.

Thread locked.

-Steven Peck
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Test site, always start with a test site.
_{Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain}