Good questions. The paucity of quick answers here is an answer in itself. :)

That said, most c5 discussion is now done in slack:
https://concrete5.slack.com/unreads/...

One or two of the professional core devs are active in slack, so you can get most insightful help if you ask the right questions. Many other knowledgeable folks hang out there too.

There's an on-again-off-again initiative to address the loss of information associated with using a chat app for support.

Yes, the documentation is lagging. The great majority of v5.7 documentation is still applicable. Some updates have been made to reflect more recent API changes. There's also various suggestions about how to improve the information flow from code changes through to documentation.

The product is very well supported in terms of active development (new features and bug fixes). Documentation and other support is weaker. Unfortunately, it's sometimes necessary to look at the core source code to nut things out, or even debug your way through it, if you're trying to develop anything fancy.

You've probably found most of the relevant resources (possibly excepting slack). There are several helpful youtube clips on the official c5 channel too; once again, dated but still generally applicable.

Probably obviously, I have a love-hate relationship with c5. You've uncovered most of my peeves. However I keep coming back to it because the code base is just so elegant and thorough. That bestows huge advantages to third-party developers, so take that into account too!

I'm totally with Gondwana.

There is a really active community on slack. So for sure one of the best entry point to get some informations really fast. So if you can't find it on google, in the official documentation or the forum it will be there.
It's also nice to share ideas and experiences and so on, the guys are really active. BTW also on Youtube as you see herehttps://www.concrete5.org/about/blog/community-blog...

There are a lot of people working to fix the leak of documentation and to find a solution for a proper flow of documentation/experiences/best practices out of some random discussions to the official documentation.

And at the end, it's really quiet handy to get informations/how tos out of the core code or by debuging. The thing is really nice structured and understandable.

Thanks Gondwana and Lemonbrain for your quick and helpful replies.

I agree the code base is elegant, this is what attracted our attention in the first place. I'm going to check out the Slack channel and start poking around the code a little more.... I'm hoping our team is able to go this direction as the "main competitor" product is.. well.. not as elegant to say the least. ;)

Thanks again for your timely replies,
Jason

Whilst the documentation could be better, the things most site developers need to do - theme a site, create a few custom block templates and perhaps one or two completely custom blocks or attributes, are the areas where documentation is good enough and where most updating is happening.

Also, for new themes there are (free) and easy starting points with "Cloneamental" and "Elemental Cloner", and for custom blocks the various "Block Designer" addons. Even if you don't end up using it, looking at the code generated is cheap training for developing your own blocks.

There are also good themes and addons in the marketplace that can either be used as-is or serve as starting points for what you actually need. The vast majority of sites can be implemented with an adapted marketplace theme, a marketplace block or two, and little if any custom code.

Few projects need more advanced custom code. As with anything new, don't try and run before you can walk. By the time you have a few blocks and a theme worked out, you will have a better feel for the architecture and archaeology on the core will be a lot easier.

As ever, JohntheFish makes a critical point that I overlooked. Indeed, most 'normal' sites can be cranked out using vanilla c5, so no need to delve into the less-well-maintained areas of the documentation. You don't have to get your hands dirty with php unless you want something special. Plus, there's heaps of people who can answer 'design' (ie, using c5) questions; but obviously a smaller number who can answer 'develop' (ie, extending c5) questions.

Plus, because the core contains so many 'block types', there's often no need for plug-ins, etc. I've fielded several web sites that cost $0 to develop.

Confident the average cost of plugins across dozens of sites we've delivered comes in under $20 :D