Blog About It
November 28, 2005
“Blog about it.” I’ve heard this a dozen or so times from Chris Messina; he tells me this whenever I complain that it’s difficult to learn how to manage a wiki, or cope with bad user documentation.
So when I started having trouble with a complicated knitting pattern — knitting patterns are notorious examples of very bad technical writing — I decided to see if anyone had blogged about it.
Sure enough, there are lots of blogging knitters (or knitting bloggers). Three of them had blogged about my troublesome pattern. And of the three, one had gotten nearly one-third of the way through the project, and her toddler had grabbed the edge of her knitting and used it to pull himself up, resulting in fifteen rows being unravelled.
As it happened, fifteen rows was about the amount I had to un-knit in order to get back to the point where the pattern had stopped making sense. Feeling less alone, I un-knitted the complicated rows of yarn-overs and knit-2-togs, and began again. The project is coming together nicely now.
So, maybe I’ll check around and see if anyone has blogged about trying to learn how to garden a wiki.
technorati tags: knitting, wiki gardening
December 13, 2005 at 9:11 am
[...] Charles Fenwick and Mark Swan continue to both make very significant contributions to confirm Flock bugs are valid and verify bugs are fixed. The projects success will be their success. It is awesome having Vera as a full time Flocker, and in the office. She has wonderful energy and experience to share. [...]
December 13, 2005 at 6:47 pm
And don’t forget to link to the blogs of the people that you mention! It’s good blogger etiquette!
June 15, 2006 at 12:45 pm
A friend sent me your bits on Shanghai, as we were there a year or so ago. I found your knitting blurb and thought you’d be interested in another friend’s blog http://www.licketyknit.com/
Your observations about Shanghai are interesting and accurate. Amazing to be in a place that’s moving forward at such a staggering pace, except for certain areas where the government prohibits forward motion. Will read more of your blog as time permits. Thanks.