Alrighty, this site is part knowledge-base, part-wiki, eventually-part-forum, and part-blog. They will likely be verbose thoughts. I like to think out loud, and I like to have as much context as possible. That being said, I think most posts here will be longwinded, but ideally will have TL;DR; sections, recaps, and quick-tips as well. Hell, I might even implement a view that shows different level of detail depending on what the user wants. That'd be an interesting project...
Anyways, you can already see my writing style. I aim to be professional and clear, but also conversational and free-flowing. This is because I love explaining things, but also I'm neurodivergent (gasp). If you didn't figure that out from the name of the site, welcome!
So if you don't like my approach on things, or you have another way of doing it, I welcome your input! If there is information on this wiki that is not to your personal taste, but it is not a security-vulnerability, technical oversight or apocalpyse-prone-loophole, I encourage you to either share your opinion in a constructive way, or move on. I know some choices I make will defy convention. As long as it's a subjective thing, or a style thing, I think that's okay.
In general I've been pretty frustrated with online technical documentation and education. There's a few categories of options available from what I can see, and they all have their unique traits, and their own drawbacks. I'm not trying to fix everything out there, but I am trying to present information in a way I personally haven't seen often.
There are a million sites and blogs that share info for how to do something, but leave out the information on what's happening, or why the info is relevant for solving a challenge. I want to include that information, as well as the crucial aspects of "how do I undo that?", "what if it didn't work?" and "what's actually going on?".
The categories I can think of:
Technical tutorials are great, but in my own experience, they are often less-than-practical. Most first-party tutorials and documentation is a good starting point, but is too sterile to be of use for a real-world application and getting up to speed quick.
If I am forced to watch one more tutorial that is in a monotone voice, and shows no-edge cases, I think I might switch careers and become a professional rock-eater. (idk, just roll with it).
First party documentation when it exists is a great reference, but is often so dense, that even if you're experienced, it's a slog to parse and understand how to apply to your situation. Or it can be too far either direction on the complexity scale from what you are capable of working with.
Forums are incredible places of knowledgeable users, and a repository of knowledge from past problems. My main problem with them, is everyone is so goddamn opinionated. Someone could have a solution tthat works, but isn't the perfect solution and it will get mocked and dragged for no reason.
That and people present their solution as the perfect solution often, without the understanding or context that every situation is different.
I've also read far too many forum posts where someone asks a question, and then is left unanswered, or the thread is otherwise left hanging.
Community tutorials I find to be the most valuable source of information. People who have first-hand knowledge with a product and are sharing a specific use-case for it are indispensible. That's how I got my career started in tech, VideoCopilot was the greatest at the time source for animaton and VFX tutorials all in one place. They had character, charm, useful information, and they showed the real-side of things, but at an accessible level.
My favorite thing in a tutorial is when something doesn't go to plan, or is broken, and then the person shares the troubleshooting process. I swear I learn more from detours troubleshooting than the actual video most of the time. It gives you more of the "why" and not just the "what-to-do".
These are so hit or miss. There's plenty of sites that show you tutorials for "how to do X in macOS" or "These 5 secret settings you missed on Android" or whatever. And there's a million blogs that have outdated or incomplete information. (Mine will probably be included in that last category for a while)
There's nothing wrong with that, but I feel like we're approaching the same level of cruft that the average online recipie has but for tech tutorials. Clickbait ariticles, tons of ads, etc. All of these things drive me up a wall when i just want to remember the syntax for a command and the manpages aren't helpful.
Okay, so that's enough ranting about the state of online information. I learn pretty much everything online so clearly something is going right, but I also frequently will run into problems where I run my head into a wall for 3 weeks, and then figure out it was some simple thing all along.
I want to make this site be a useful repository of information that is kept as up-to-date as possible, and is open to discussion. The goal is kinda a hybrid of a knowledge-base, a wiki, and a forum. I want a place where it's not just information from a single source, there is room for dicussion and experimentation, and that mistakes are welcome.
That's how I learn. I try things, I make mistakes, and I improve and learn. I think more people should be comfortble with that gameplay loop of life.
As someone with ADHD, I pickup projects all the time, and then they get left to the wayside, or forgotten until the problem arises again. I wanted to start sharing some of my work open-source for a few reasons.
So all that being said. If you've found this site, and find these things useful. Swing by again sometime!