FAQ Discussion

[delli]

this is the best thread for ages.
been missing one of these threads.
great to collect all info under one instead of lookin back and forth in the forums

thumbs up!

[strictlyfocused]

I vote for this thread be stickied ... I would have killed for a post like this when I was new to PMS.

Thanks, otmanix

[delli]

A tut for IMDB would be great aswell...still struggle with that part...installed everything (latest of everything but cant get it to work anyways)
goin on vacation now anyways so I will continue later on with it

[otmanix]

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

Over 1000 views in 3 days for this thread and no more than 2 forum users who write a comment. Is nobody interested in documentation, howto, faq, etc.? Is nobody interested in sharing knowledge with other PMS users? This forum is really strange...

[marco275]

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

Over 1000 views in 3 days for this thread and no more than 2 forum users who write a comment. Is nobody interested in documentation, howto, faq, etc.? Is nobody interested in sharing knowledge with other PMS users? This forum is really strange...

Sorry Otmanix, i did appreciate your tutorial very much only forgot to thank you.


thnx

[extravirgin]

This forum is really strange...

It is appreciated otmanix and you're correct, the forum is a little strange. I don't know who the mods or admin are but I guess quite rightly that shagrath is busy with PMS itself. I'd say that your tutorial and blog should be stickied. And I'm not the first to say that.

[otmanix]

Hi extravirgin and marco275,

thank you for your positive response. It's nice to hear that at least someone thinks documentation is useful.
My intention for the last comment was not to be praised for writing docs but to get some opinions about the howto and suggestions for new topics. Maybe other advanced users are also interested to share their knowledge.
Maybe I write lots of bullshit in the howtos but there's nobody who writes a comment. Therefore I updated the list of configuration options and their descriptions and put it in this thread. But not a single comment about that.
I think there are lots of special interest topics where only few people have good knowledge but many PMS users are interested in. Let's share this knowledge. At the moment I don't see a PMS users community like in other open source applications. That's a pity.

Some ideas:
Their is no howto for certain streaming clients like XBOX360, XBOX/XBMC, Sony Bravia TVs, ...
There are no howtos for correct installation of PMS as a service in Windows, Linux and OS X.
What about special topics like correct usage of subtitles?
Most people don't know howto use mediainfo or analyze debug.log in order to don't ask silly questions here in PMS forum.

If you have already seen some good howtos or helpful discussions please write a comment with a link included...

I don't know who the mods or admin are but I guess quite rightly that shagrath is busy with PMS itself.

I appreciate their work but I also think there's a lack of communication.

Best regards, Otmanix

[meskibob]

Just a couple notes...
a) Thanks for all this effort, and it does actually help. But also realize you're mostly going to get comments on the extreme sides and not from general users where this has been a general help tool. If the thread views go up but there are no new questions, I'd assume it's working.

b) As Shagrath stated somewhere recently he's been "out of commission" for about the past month due to a variety of reasons (eg dead PS3) but should be back in development mode (and looking at forum questions/requests) pretty soon.

c) I have a pretty good memory for issues that keep popping up, so I'll try to link-in the threads that clearly lay out the issue (and hopefully solution) as they come by, and if needed they can be re-drafted into concise help points like the others already in this thread.

d) This forum is still young compared to some other open source communities, so just give it some time.


And for my one current comment:
With it's current size a thread will suffice, but the larger this gets it's going to get cluttered fairly easily and really ruin the effectiveness. It'll probably be better to start a separate, wiki-esque site that can be organized with clear navigation between the various troubleshooting tips and configuration how-tos. That's not really feasible with the current forum setup and I think is outside of the scope of how an effective forum should function.

[otmanix]

Hi Meskibob,

thank you for your response! I think you're right and maybe I'm too impatient with a growing up community. Also thanks for your additional troubleshooting entry!

It'll probably be better to start a separate, wiki-esque site that can be organized with clear navigation between the various troubleshooting tips and configuration how-tos. That's not really feasible with the current forum setup and I think is outside of the scope of how an effective forum should function.

I completely agree with you. The forum is not a good technical solution for documentation, etc.. But the forum is the only place where everyone is able to write sth for the community at the moment. The faq and wiki at code.ggogle.com has only few entries and can only be edited by the developers. It would be a good idea to have a wiki where interested people can share their PMS knowledge.

Best regards, Otmanix

[meskibob]

It'll probably be better to start a separate, wiki-esque site that can be organized with clear navigation between the various troubleshooting tips and configuration how-tos. That's not really feasible with the current forum setup and I think is outside of the scope of how an effective forum should function.

I completely agree with you. The forum is not a good technical solution for documentation, etc.. But the forum is the only place where everyone is able to write sth for the community at the moment. The faq and wiki at code.google.com has only few entries and can only be edited by the developers. It would be a good idea to have a wiki where interested people can share their PMS knowledge.

Correct, which is why I said a separate site should be started, especially since the FAQ and wiki navigation on the Google code page are also kind of limited navigation-wise. I'm thinking something along the lines of the AzureusWiki which uses MediaWiki (free), but I'm not sure if there are additional costs and how difficult it would be to set up.
Edit: MediaWiki may be a bit too powerful for this site currently, so here's a list of other "Wiki Farms" that could be used: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wiki_farms