Subject:
Re: status report author checkup
From:
jdd ####@####.####
Date:
12 Aug 2005 09:57:21 -0000
Message-Id: <42FC727F.6040306@dodin.org>
David Lawyer wrote:
> I don't understand. Would there be a wiki for each howto
>
I think many non wiki users misundestand the effectiveness
of this media.
get a look at http://www.wikipedia.org/. you (yes, _you_)
can edit any of this wiki pages. Read the pages, do you
think it's stupid or of no value?
in fact, happily, there are much more intelligent people
than stupid ones and the probable troubles are very quickly
corrected by the users themselves.
The used wiki, mediawiki, is a very good one, a bit
difficult at first approach, but for example, it provides
for any page a "discussion page" where comments can be
written by users
for
> discussion of that howto and of Linux problems within the
> scope of the howto?
I think we need only one wiki, on one place (ibiblio is a
very nice place). each author that wants it could open his
own page. mediawiki offers a self indexed system (names
"category"), but it's possible to have some sort of index
pages. Most of the time one can let the users make this - it
works :-)
I've got a problem with this, since some of the email I
get is
> asking for help by people that haven't even read the
> doc., some is poorly written, some don't provide enough
> info on their problem, some are asking for help with a MS
> Windows OS, etc. In other words there is a lot of noise
> and readers shouldn't be exposed to this noise.
they should!! they can also give an answer :-). But a wiki
is _not_ a forum (like phpBB), it's not for real time
discussion. not for asking questions, but for giving
answers. It's more like a FAQ.
> Except for a howto that not being maintained. Then
> people could look at the comments and see that the author
> is not responding, then that's useful.
each page is dated and the number of visits quoted. this can
also be a valuable mean of seeing the interest about the HOWTO.
It would be nice to have someone from LDP read over all the
> comments on all the howtos, but that's a full-time job.
usefull, but not necessary at all. _anybody_ is a proof
reader here.
> At present, if the author uses a mailto url in the doc,
> then just a click will start an email to the author.
it's up to him to do so or not
> This is why I think it best to use LinuxDoc.
I have always be in touch with you on this subject, but this
is not what the ldp choose to do :-(
> paragraphs need no tags. I've looked at wiki markup and
> think that LinuxDoc markup is no more complex. But I
> guess there are more people around that know wiki markup
> so I think that a wiki->linuxdoc converter would be nice
> too.
beware, there is no "wiki markup", nearly each wiki have
it's own markup. mediawiki tend to be the most used wiki in
hudge projects (for example, it's used on the new novell's
opensuse.org).
it has an automatic TOC system. any word enclosed in "==" is
a title, the more "=" the smaller title. html tags are
allowed, new pages are given by [[name of page with space
allowed]]. With this in mind, one can type.
and any browser can do :-). The problem is more to have a
local copy.
But I don't advocate to write a HOWTO entirely with a wiki
(not now).
> I'm not sure that the wikis would be used all that much
> and it puts a burden on every author to check out his
> wiki frequently for comments or modifications.
not at all. author can be mailed in case of modification if
he wants to or don't care at all, or once a year.
I receive from time to time propositions for additions to my
HOWTO, they are added... years after if ever. on a wiki
discuss page this could have been done almost immediatly.
> howto, and never know there is a wiki for comments, since
> they never read the part of the howto that links to the
> wiki.
I don't think individual wikis are so good. a central wiki
place would be much better, and don't forget google indexes
very well the wikis. (my own personal one was indexed a week
after it was created :-)
> I assume that all howtos would contain a link to their
> wiki comments.
in mediawiki, any page have it's own comment page, used or
not. these are discussion pages, to be added to the HOWTO if
necessary and if the author wants.
it's even possible to make the real howto read only to force
discussion page use (but I don't think it's a good idea)
> that would make the wikis more valuable. This database
> could be used to email the author the changes made to the
> wiki.
each media wiki user, author or not, can - if he wants to -
be mailed (there is a "watch this page" feature
in fact mediawiki is done for minimal admin burden. The own
mediawiki help page is self done. The fr translation, for
example is fairly incomplete, because no user come to
complete it (I add some lines sometime :-)
and this is good. if the users can't do the job, the job
will not be done. this is a good system.
make a try, open the wiki, advertise it and watch... if
nobody cares, it will die by itself.
sincerely
jdd
--
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