I'm quickly loosing confidence in being able to create websites in SS because of the poor documentation.

I can't seem to get modules such as Newsletter or Gallery working. I'm sure if there was bettwer documentation then I'd be able to get it all up and running.

Things that are missing as regards to documentation are:
Where exactly do you place the extraced folders and files
What do you need to rename (a lot of support docs say "oh - you need to rename the folder blah blah..)
Which file do you need to edit to include the updates (_config.php - but which one in which folder structure)
Which release of SS does a particular module support
What are the latest trunk releases and where do you extract the files to?

Screen dumps of the major steps would be very welcome.

Where exactly do you place the extraced folders and files. What do you need to rename (a lot of support docs say "oh - you need to rename the folder blah blah..)

There is no general 'How to Install Modules' page with 'Just extract it to the root folder, heres a screenshot of what the folder structure should look like'. Its really straightforward but if you have never done it before you still have to find out somewhere. Each INSTALL file contains the instructions but it would be handy to just have a global install info page. I might knock one up tonight.

Hi Sam..

I don't mind writing up some documentation on how to use the modules etc. if this is all that's standing in the way of them being supported modules.

At the moment, I'm going to be using the newsletter, gallery and google analytics modules or code to implement some websites.
Let me know what I would need to do to help contribute.

Regards,
Wil.

Thanks for the offer to help with docs, Gravitational FX.

The following wiki pages provide the documentation as it currently stands:
http://doc.silverstripe.com/doku.php?id=modules:newsletter
http://doc.silverstripe.com/doku.php?id=modules:googleanalytics

You can sign up for an account on the wiki to edit those pages.

As for whether that's all that stands in the way of them being supported modules, well, no, it isn't - you also need someone who is going to fix bugs, etc! However, we are trying to find a maintainer for the googleanalytics and newsletter modules right now.