discuss: Linux Documentation needs much work and ideas
Subject:
Re: Linux Documentation needs much work and ideas
From:
Roger ####@####.####
Date:
27 Dec 2012 17:10:03 +0000
Message-Id: <20121227170954.GE2890@localhost2.local>
Your second reference is no longer viewable, at the bottom of this page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Linux_Documentation_Project
Wififying documents have been discussed for a while. One editable and
commentable demo is now (2005) available [1]. Also the Wikipedia was reviwed as
an example for use at TLDP [2]. The conclusion was negative.
The broken link is only the mere example:
[1] -> http://dodin.org/mediawiki/index.php/Partition_Rescue_HOWTO_editable
The explanation for now using Wikimedia is here:
http://www.nyx.net/~sgjoen/Wikipedia.html
And, stated as being conversed back in 2005 -- during about the time TLDP
started quieting.
(This summary was originally posted on the discuss-list 2005-08-14 at TLDP and
turned into HTML for posting on the TARPL pages 2006-08-21.)
1) There were 2 votes to keep and 1 for cleanup versus 2 for transwiki yet the
decision ended up for transwiki.
This voting was performed in 2005, when Wikipedia was likely just starting.
This is 2012.
The brief published, listed the reasons for voting down the Wikimedia (or
Wikibooks) option.
1) Hard to run proper quality assurance.
I would pressume, ensuring oversite to ensure no illegal problems arouse, etc.
I completely disagree. Wiki seems to have a proven track record now. Although
I still prefer ASCII/Text. ;-)
Everybody seems to be using Wiki these days.
2) Cleanup (ie. Poor intentioned Self Promoting Political Agenda. See
"Deletions" below.)
I tend to agree with this point here. Pages are routinely sporadically marked
for cleanup, deprising the value of a printable usable document. However, I
see this occur more so on the Linux distro hosted wikis or private wikis versus
Wikipedia articles and else where. More or less, I see it occur with the site
owner, trying to push his/her own political agenda, and doesn't seem to be a
strong deterrence. Actually, seems to be an in vain attempt at whatever.
3) Deletions (ie Vandelism)
One place I've seen the wiki groups self-moderate. Some authors, would get
irrate and delete their own articles. But with the pages being submitted
remotely, a CVS/GIT based history remains for returning the article.
4) Also it seems to me that it does not scale well with more users that not
only bring in more vandals but also makes the system slower.
My thought is, I thought Wikibooks was remotely hosted. From this perspective,
they're talking about running a wikimedia server for TLDP. Wikibooks was
probably something created after 2005, or just prior and likely wasn't
discussed?
5) On Googling for articles I often find copies at commersial sites that takes
the opportunity to fill the pages with advertising. I have also had problems
using the search engine at Wikipedia.
I can't find the rational for this perspective. I've never really experienced
this here, as the Wiki community somewhat enforces proper citations, etc. The
community seems to perform an adequate job of complaining against ridiculing
something with Go Daddy commercials. ;-)
Like I said, much of the GPL documentation could likely be forked to another
domain, but most likely don't as there probably isn't a strong desire to do so.
As I said, I read once and move on usually. Also, TLDP is where I started
learning, and also initially submitted some documentation as well -- so I have
some respect here. But has grown significantly stale. Is it dead yet? Kick
it. ;-)
If you wait long enough, this tech stuff just might disappear, and you won't
need to migrate the documentation. And, I think this is the plan.
I think the best place for documentation, is probably something CVS/SVN/GIT and
text only. Wikimedia, provides a language translations and embedded functions
for publishing to PS/PDF/EPUB or printing, etc. Wiki data is also web
friendly, where text only within a Git repository is not easily Googled, but is
easily downloaded, edited/changed and published.
--
Roger
http://rogerx.freeshell.org/
