Write documentation for Azure, for FREE!
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https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/web/doc-a-thon/default.aspx?wt.mc_id=AID721128_QSG_EML_260506
The Canadian Open Source Doc-a-thon is an opportunity to collaborate virtually (via Github) with the Canadian technical community and build your reputation as an expert by reviewing and improving Azure documentation.
Sounds awesome! But wait, what do I get out of such an exciting opportunity?
What’s in it for me?
- Pursue a technology you believe in
- Build your reputation as an expert
- Try something new
- Make improvements that impact everyone
- Team up with people in your community
- Or do all of this!
SWEET!!
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@bb36e
They missed the most valuable bullet point...- Exposure!
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Riffing aside, I think this is probably good for people looking for something, anything to add to their resume or Github account. But I dunno, it just seems a little cheap of MS.
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They wouldn't need as much documentation if their portal UI weren't so shitty.
What they need badly! is UX designers.
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@blakeyrat WHAAAAAAAAAAAT?
Azure portal looks like a goddamn dream when you compare it to the trainwreck that's the AWS portal. Is it even a portal? Azure UX is way ahead of AWS UX IMO.
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@bb36e The way I look at it, this is a good thing. Some of the documentation is broken AF. If it means getting my hands dirty, Fine! Fuck it! I'll do what's needed. If that helps me get better using Azure then all the better cos sure as fuck I ain't gonna use the other alternatives.
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@stillwater That's probably true (I haven't used AWS in a few years) and yet both UIs are utter garbage.
I've never seen the Google Cloud Platform one, but I assume it's yet another few notches into shitty.
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@blakeyrat Ridiculously simple things that should be obvious to find need 1835 steps to discover in AWS. When pointed out the AWS advocates just pounce on you cos you want things simple. Azure does not pull of any BS like that when it comes to UX. Maybe your Idea of a better UX is vastly different than mine. GCP is probably shitty though.
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@stillwater Two votes so far for probably shit for GCP UI. Seem it also could use documentation. May as well stick that in the Azure documentation as well, give the cheap bastards what they're paying for.
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@stillwater AWS does this thing where every little tiny functionality is a "product" and it lists all the products in a huge grid even though 90% of those products have only one specific use that ties into another product.
To Microsoft's credit: they ATTEMPTED to make their UI more like "here's all the stuff that corresponds to your solution", but at the same time it also does the tons of "products" thing that spam the shit out of your Resource Groups.
For example, if I have a virtual SQL Server in a Resource Group why are all its databases listed there individually also? Why is the database server's "shared pool" (basically an object representing how it's billed) listed separtely?When I have a WebApp in one, why is the app's "Shared Dashboard", DNS zone, Application Insights all listed separately?
It's like at some level they understood "hey this would be easier to use if all the stuff relating to one product was in one place and there was no clutter" but then added the clutter anyway!
And while I'm thinking of it, why are they sometimes called "WebApps" (for example when making a deploy from VSTS) and sometimes called "App Services" (for example when looking at the resource group list.) That's not even getting into the AWFUL OAuth-based authentication system, which is fucking awful.
Anyway I have complaints. No UX designer ever looked at this, and if one did he's incompetent and should be fired. No user testing was ever done.
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@blakeyrat Eh, more likely they let marketing push the usability back until the focus groups started turning violently on the researchers.
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@bb36e said in Write documentation for Azure, for FREE!:
Open Source Doc-a-thon
I can't imagine any ways that this could fail.
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@bb36e I sent MS some snarky and sarcastic feedback on one of their documentation pages several months ago that said something along the lines of "You've had years to get this right, and you clearly have demonstrated you complete inability to provide good documentation. Can you please just give me access to edit your documentation so I can help others who are struggling just as I am? PLEASE?"
I am so sorry they took my feedback to heart.
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@the_quiet_one if they silently turned it into some sort of wiki, they would get the free workforce without this "docathon" stuff
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@the_quiet_one said in Write documentation for Azure, for FREE!:
@bb36e I sent MS some snarky and sarcastic feedback on one of their documentation pages several months ago that said something along the lines of "You've had years to get this right, and you clearly have demonstrated you complete inability to provide good documentation. Can you please just give me access to edit your documentation so I can help others who are struggling just as I am? PLEASE?"
I am so sorry they took my feedback to heart.
So when is it going to be fixed?
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@izzion said in Write documentation for Azure, for FREE!:
@bb36e
They missed the most valuable bullet point...- Exposure!
Exhibitionists do it for exposure…
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@blakeyrat said in Write documentation for Azure, for FREE!:
For example, if I have a virtual SQL Server in a Resource Group why are all its databases listed there individually also? Why is the database server's "shared pool" (basically an object representing how it's billed) listed separtely?When I have a WebApp in one, why is the app's "Shared Dashboard", DNS zone, Application Insights all listed separately?
It's like at some level they understood "hey this would be easier to use if all the stuff relating to one product was in one place and there was no clutter" but then added the clutter anyway!I say this is much better compared to what I have in AWS. At the least I get to see every single thing together in one place. In AWS, if you spin off a VM in say US East, US West, US North, Europe etc. You don't have something like a resource group to see where they are all listed. Hell you can't even see all the services you're using in one place like the resouce group in Azure. You have to manually assign them tags so that you can look at what you've actually provisioned. If you do not assign tags manually to shit you've provisioned, there is literally no way to find out except open the main page for each service manually and check.
I once provisioned a few VMs for some ML work, terminated them and then promptly forgot about it. A few days later when I wanted to do it again, I could not generate keys, there were errors related to IP Addresses. Turns out I'd already generated keys. I found that out by going into another service that listed the keys which were not deleted when I terminated the original VMs. Also there were a few IPs assigned to me that I found out by going to a separate page. There is simply no way to see all the related services together. INB4 someone tells me to use tags, no I won't!
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@the_quiet_one said in Write documentation for Azure, for FREE!:
@bb36e I sent MS some snarky and sarcastic feedback on one of their documentation pages several months ago that said something along the lines of "You've had years to get this right, and you clearly have demonstrated you complete inability to provide good documentation. Can you please just give me access to edit your documentation so I can help others who are struggling just as I am? PLEASE?"
I am so sorry they took my feedback to heart.
I've sent snarky comments too. They always stick with "Oh we're so sorry. Thank you for your feedback". No fun.
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@gribnit
From what I’ve used within the GCP so far (mostly the GSuite docs family), the API documentation is pretty good. The OAuth docs don’t quite seem to match what you actually get (I can’t figure out how in the hell to actually get a refresh token instead of needing to reauthorize every hour for a new access token), but the real issue I’ve run into is how limited the Docs API is versus what you can actually do via the editor. It makes no sense at all that you can’t insert or refresh a table of contents programmatically, but can read values from the TOC you inserted through the GUI editor...
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They should extend it for the rest of their documentation, look at this crap
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@sockpuppet7 It's ACA compliant for people who lost their reading glasses. Kinda like my late grandfather's phone with the big buttons.
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@sockpuppet7 said in Write documentation for Azure, for FREE!:
They should extend it for the rest of their documentation, look at this crap
It looks like some source control conflict markers got left in.
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@boomzilla said in Write documentation for Azure, for FREE!:
@sockpuppet7 said in Write documentation for Azure, for FREE!:
They should extend it for the rest of their documentation, look at this crap
It looks like some source control conflict markers got left in.
: That's what happens when you use git for documentation.
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@blakeyrat I THINK app services are allowed connections - more like a set of credentials than anything else.
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Weak troll. Try again.
We've established the docs suck so bad for quite a while now. Oh, for a fun read, I suggest you go read about the closed issues at the bottom of any of the .net core docs. It's pathetic.
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@sockpuppet7 Yes, a lot of MSDN documentation is broken.
Like most Microsoft stuff, when it works it works well, but it often does not.
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@anonymous234 said in Write documentation for Azure, for FREE!:
Yes, a lot of MSDN documentation is broken.
The trick is to move it so often, nobody can see it's broken
