Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 00:55:55 -0800 From: Studded <Studded@dal.net> To: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au> Cc: John Kenagy <jktheowl@bga.com>, Annelise Anderson <andrsn@andrsn.stanford.edu>, freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: doc "renovation" project volunteer Message-ID: <3510DD9B.1591459B@dal.net> References: <Pine.BSF.3.96.980318181025.10998A-100000@andrsn.stanford.edu> <Pine.BSF.3.95q.980318223140.316G-100000@barnowl.roost.net> <19980319163714.47520@welearn.com.au>
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[ I'm keeping the cc list because I'm not sure who all is on -doc yet. If you are, please let me know and I'll avoid cross-posting in the future.] Sue Blake wrote: > > On Wed, Mar 18, 1998 at 10:58:34PM -0600, John Kenagy wrote: > > > A vision of where this is to go and an overall collaborative authority > > are necessary for success. Shall we talk about this? > > > > The documents must deal first and foremost with the needs of a new user. > > One who does not know much other that they want to try FreeBSD. The > > documentation as it stands now did not help me when I started with > > 2.1.5 (downloaded and installed from dos partition). I agree with John on all points here. I'm sorry if he's missed the discussion regarding "the vision thing," but if he wants to write me privately I'll send him copies of my posts on the current plans and priorities. Mine is not the only voice, however I'm coordinating the short term project on updating the FOO.TXT stuff that goes in the root directory of the CD. > A new mailing list has just been started for newbies. While the > documentation project is important, it is at least as important that > freebsd-newbies list be seen as something _for_ newbies to enjoy rather than > something to keep them either out of the way or doing useful work. I don't see how -newbies and -doc have any relationship at all. They exist for entirely different purposes. > Having said that, I think that as a newbie I can draw on some of its members > to provide a willing documentation readership to give you experts some > feedback, so long as it doesn't overrun the newbies list in its formative > stages. We're an extremely sensitive lot and easily misinterpret. I'm not sure I understand what you mean. You want to be in charge of picking people to review docs? Why can't members of the -doc team who want their stuff to be reviewed just post to -newbies and ask for help? > I have volunteered before to review any documentation that is offered, but > it would be even better to have more than one newbie perspective. What I > propose is to announce in freebsd-newbies when specific help is required, > coordinate that help, and report back here. On the flip side, if newbies say > they're wanting something in particular in the way of docs I can gather > their thoughts together, present them here, and report back to -newbies. > That way you don't get bored or annoyed by incompetence and they don't get > made to feel small or under scrutiny. Of course this doesn't preclude any > other methods, but provides a workable structure. Hmmmm. I know I'll be on the -newbies list, and I would suggest that anyone else seriously interested in producing documentation to be on and read -newbies and -questions. If we're not paying attention to the needs of the users, our efforts will be considerably less effective. Also, although you are welcome to present your perspective on what those needs are, channeling input from various users through one person eliminates the chief virtue of soliciting various perspectives. I don't mean to sound negative, but I can't help thinking that you are trying to make things more complicated than they need to be. Doug -- *** Chief Operations Officer, DALnet IRC network *** *** Proud operator, designer and maintainer of the world's largest *** Internet Relay Chat server. 5,328 clients and still growing. *** Try spider.dal.net on ports 6662-4 (Powered by FreeBSD) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message
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