discuss: Goodbye!
Subject:
Goodbye!
From:
"Rodolfo J. Paiz" ####@####.####
Date:
8 Apr 2005 16:19:47 -0000
Message-Id: <1112977183.6675.45.camel@rodolfo.gt.factorrent.com>
Everyone:
With a small hint of sadness, I will shortly be unsubscribing from the
LDP lists. In the roughly 10 months I've been here, I have not found the
time to make a more significant contribution (for several reasons) and
so I believe it is best that I focus my efforts elsewhere.
One of the things that has stopped me from doing more on the writing
side is the strongly-felt need/insistence on distribution agnosticism.
I've been a user and administrator of Red Hat (and now Fedora) Linux
systems for about nine years now... I don't know Debian or Slackware,
and I don't care to learn at this time. And there really is a strong
undercurrent of discouragement to docs that don't cover many distros! I
shall leave it to you to determine whether this is a mindset you desire
to keep.
The other thing that dissuades me from spending more time on LDP is that
there is a high level of organizational uncertainty. I actually applaud
the fact that you all are struggling to find a way to organize
yourselves and hold high a standard that has been known worldwide for a
decade or so... but I offer three suggestions:
1. Remember that the point of debating is to reach a conclusion. Try
to avoid the endless-discussion trap.
2. Get all the interested parties together (set up a separate,
temporary mailing list, for example) and hash out some of the eternal
arguments once and for all. Example: Linuxdoc vs. Docbook! My God, it's
like top- versus bottom-posting... it *NEVER ENDS*. Pick one, see
what/who breaks, help them fix it, move on. BTW, my vote is for Docbook.
But see #1... solve these things once and for all, they're distracting
to you and everyone.
3. LDP is short of people and volunteers. Try to get as many of those
people involved as much as possible in document writing, review, etc.
(serving the "customer") as opposed to management. Recognize and
eliminate distractions. See #1 and #2.
Since I honestly do not feel that the things I could contribute are very
welcome at LDP (given my single-distro specialization), I will be moving
to the fedora-docs list to write docs for the distro I do know. :-)
However, if someone keeps a list of people you can call in need, keep my
name on that list. Then, if you need anything, do let me know and I'll
be happy to help with a review, an edit, or something.
Good luck on everything. I wish you well, and I wish you forward motion.
My special thanks to Tille (Machtelt Garrels) and Rick Moen, from whom I
have probably learned the most.
Cheers,
--
Rodolfo J. Paiz ####@####.####
