Something that I have come to appreciate about Mozilla is that its chat channels on IRC are incredibly positive, helpful and relevant. As there are so many areas in developing and using Mozilla projects, several channels exist that allow you to join a channel when it is specific to your area of discussion.
Recently I went to the Joomla channel because I am working on a project for a friend in Joomla. Now, this is my first time working with Joomla. I have attended a brief “Hands on” workshop at the Ontario Linux Conference and I’ve read some of Dan Rahmel’s “Professional Joomla”. I was having trouble understanding the way that Joomla uses plug-ins. Basically there’s a plug-in that can recognize a snippet of custom code in an article – ie: {images view|gallery} or something like that. What I wanted to do was to be able to put that code in a module so that I could position it on the page in the way that modules can be positioned. I can’t find a way to position articles.
So I go to the Joomla channel in the hopes that talking with real person will help – much as going to the mozilla channels has helped in the past. I know that the #seneca channel is special because it is targeted at students who are learning, but the Joomla channel said at the top “Be patient, as your question – if no answer, try giving more info” (paraphrasing). I assumed that I could ask my question and get at least one person to talk it out with me.
Wrong.
What I got instead was a big fat nothing. NO response. NO acknowledgement. I asked politely if I should provide more information, and someone (who had been talking away about someone being gay) said “Oh, i didn’t see the question”. So I rephrase it and ask again – then nothing again. What?!
In frustration, I ask “is anyone here knowledgeable about plugins?” and a half hour later, at which point I had moved on to other tasks since there was no reply yet again, I get a private message from someone who says “ya, what you want?”. I didn’t bother responding. I created an html workaround to what I wanted to accomplish and moved on.
Needless to say, this experience was disheartening for a moment. But then I saw the positive side. I am a small part of a channel or two on the mozilla irc that is friendly, helpful and welcoming. So that’s nice to notice and appreciate.
