discuss: status report author checkup
Subject:
Re: status report author checkup
From:
David Lawyer ####@####.####
Date:
10 Aug 2005 07:06:04 -0000
Message-Id: <20050810070544.GB1458@lafn.org>
On Mon, Aug 08, 2005 at 03:02:54PM +0000, Machtelt Garrels wrote:
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> Hello Everybody,
>
>
> At the time when I started the checkup, about two weeks ago, there were
> +/- 450 documents in our HOWTO list
> (http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/howtos.html). As an arbitrary
> limit on up-to-dateness of the document, I considered that if the document
> was updated this year, the author would probably still be alive. About 30
> authors updated their documents this year.
> All the others were contacted. By now, over 110 authors answered. Most
> of them (over 80) said that they would update their document during the
> coming weeks or months, or that it is still up to date.
>
> Fifteen authors have asked to archive their document because it is no
> longer current and can not be updated because the technology discussed is
> no longer in use and they don't get any feedback any longer. Fifteen
> others are looking for a new maintainer.
>
> That leaves me with a list of nearly 340 authors, to whom 132 mails
> bounced. The others didn't answer (yet). In other words: a good half of
> our authors didn't reply. For now, I'll give them credit because of the
> holiday season. I'll keep you posted on this.
Great job!
The half that didn't reply: This doesn't mean that these people have
read the email. Perhaps half of this half didn't even read the email
and most of these didn't even read the heading. What happens to many
is that they become overwhelmed by email and just don't look at much
of it. They could have mail lying around a year or two old which they
haven't had time to look at. Something like this is happening to me.
Another problem is that many authors don't know if what they wrote is
out-of-date. Or rather, each has a probability distribution in mind as
to just how much out-of-date a doc is. I've pointed out before that a
frequently updated doc may be out-of-date too. Just updating based on
typos and dead urls, etc. found by a few readers isn't enough to keep
a doc up-to-date. So one of the reasons for non-response is that the
author just doesn't know if the doc is out-of-date.
Another problem is authors who have multiple howtos. The email to me
didn't say which howto it pertained to. Two of my howtos have links to
a number of other howtos, and these howtos are out-of-date. People
will click on the links and get stale info, although I've warned them
in some cases. This is a kind of out-of-dateness.
So the survey could have been more complex with more choices, although
it was pretty good since it allowed people to answer in sentences and
describe the status of their docs in their own words. I think the
last time something like this was done, David Merrill did it, and the
date was about 2000 ?? I think he only emailed in case a doc hadn't
been updated in a couple of years. So this survey covers more of our
collection.
David Lawyer
