[wp-docs] For new Jewel and other want-to-contribute-but-dont-know-how folks

[lorelle at cameraontheroad.com]

Jewel, and the others who want to contribute but don't know how folks out 
there lurking,

Like most of you, I loved the possibilites of WordPress - and didn't cringe 
at the "free" part, but guilt kept nagging me.  I decided to look around and 
see what I could do.  I didn't know a php from a pot to piss in, but I've 
been doing technical writing for years so I figured that a poke and a prod 
at the occassional missed spell and bad grammer might ease my guilt at the 
"free" part.  Especially since I was having so much fun (albeit many a 
moment of pulling hair) with WordPress.

I realized that some of the folks writing the material in the Codex were 
hardened criminals - I mean hardened WordPress gurus, calloused and 
desensitized to the stress and determination of the "newbie".  (I can 
picture the developers now, hunched backs from hauling years of PHP code in 
sacks slung over their backs, sweat pouring from their brow, grease from 
digging into the innards of mySQL and back-breaking code sequences.....Ain't 
I the clever word girl, today!  ;-)  ) The hard stuff was coming out but the 
simple "how do I make sense out of this massively insane nested list thing 
in the sidebar" type issues weren't being addressed very well in the new 
codex.  As a newbie in WordPress, I could ask the dumb questions that the 
masses were asking, and make sure that the dumb answers would start 
appearing in the Codex to help other newbies like me.

In other words:

NEWBIES WANTED

Leap in, give us your "how comes" and "what fors".  This isn't the place to 
get technical support, but if there is an issue that isn't being covered, we 
need to know.  If there is an issue you needed to know about and figured 
out, which probably applies to a couple other thousand folks out there, then 
write something up.  Massacre and destroy the English (or whatever) 
language, just get it down and the rest of us will fix it and save other 
people the grief you suffered in the learning process.

Now that I've been hanging around for a while, they sucked me in from being 
a lurking editor to a contributing pain in their buns, so if you enjoy it, 
you will stick around.  But we need your contribution, okay!  Pick up a 
shovel and start digging.  We need you!

And don't worry.  Like all freebie volunteer efforts, we're no different. 
The abuse will come soon enough. hee hee.

Lorelle