Dominoblog - give me the dirt

Steve Castledine  26 February 2010 10:04:46

The subject is slightly tongue in cheek, but the question is a serious one.

I've read on more than one occasion this week the line "difficult to use" for DominoBlog. So I need to find out what is the part that is difficult to use. From a user standpoint creating a blog entry should be no more difficult than creating a new email. Creating a new blog is no more difficult than "File > Application > New" (not that I like that, but its the same for all Domino applications).

So I can only assume its not that process that is a problem, but if it is let me know. I guess the tricky side is the flexibility of creating a Domino web site exactly how you want it without using Designer. However, like any software that creates a web site, you cannot avoid html. Maybe there are specific things you want to do but want them automatic? Maybe its just documentation on some keys things, if so what?

So this is an open discussion, tell me your pain points, tell me what you need, your ideas on making it easier, anything.

OpenNTF gives us a unique opportunity in that I can get you some of this directly without waiting for a build cycle, funding and someone to translate into x number of languages. I will put aside some vacation day/s to get some of these things improved or maybe just documented. With some of the bigger things then why not volunteer and we can build as a community team.

I do understand there is a "enterprise" gap which Lotus Connections mostly fills, but you need it slightly better for DominoBlog. I personally do not like "File > Application > New" as in the enterprise those pesky admin's have mostly made this redundant for browser based apps as they don't want you creating applications here, there and everywhere. I did design a "template deployment app" where an admin can set controls and sleep at night knowing users are doing things to their rules, however so far it has remained on the beer mat it was written on (next to my housework rota). This needs kicking off (community project anyone?).

So the floor is open, however in the meantime some helpful links:

There is user help in Lotus Notes under Help > Help Contents > Lotus Notes > Web logs



Download Blog Template from OpenNTF
Full list of blog related articles on this site
Wiki Article on themes and tags
Converting a theme from Wordpress part 1 and part 2
Switching on anti spam (100% effective against non manual spam)
Dominoblog 8.01 upgrade presentation
Intranet Journal - Setting up DominoBlog
Podcasting with Dominoblog

Will add more as I remember them

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