fedora-docs-list Digest, Vol 6, Issue 3

[Karsten Wade]

On Wed, 2004-08-04 at 11:01, Dave Pawson wrote:
> On Tue, 2004-08-03 at 20:32, Karsten Wade wrote:
> 
> > 
> > I think you are correct, and are welcome to start up a docs repository
> > of Fedora documentation.  You can even have every single thing that is
> > in the Fedora docs project, thanks to the FDL.  You may come here
> > looking for contributors, help, and ideas, although you may be told it's
> > no longer on topic.  But what you describe is starting to sound like a
> > fork to me, and as such is outside of the scope of the Fedora docs
> > project.
> 
> Not how I read it Karsten.
> 
> > That said, if we want a short-term CVS holding tank to build a new
> > fedora-docs tree for submission back into the permanent Fedora CVS, and
> > you want to setup and administer that, I don't think it can hurt.  As
> > long as it's understood that it's temporary.
> 
> That's how I heard it.

Okay, I'm sold on the value of the second.  I still don't think it's a
good idea to worry about hosting separate "unofficial Fedora docs"
repositories.  The One True CVS will open up before the end of time, I'm
sure, and in the meantime we can probably find a way to get changes
posted to fedora.redhat.com.

> > This example illustrates my point.  When FC2test1 was coming out, I was
> > helping Ed Bailey with the release notes, and many of us realized we
> > desperately needed an FAQ for the test release.  With the timing of the
> > test release, there wasn't time for me to write the FAQ and go through
> > the process to publish on fedora.redhat.com/docs.  We also needed to be
> > able to add and fix questions/answers in the FAQ on very short notice,
> > like immediately.  With no good solution in site, I decided to host it
> > on my people.redhat.com page.
> 
> What makes you think things will change over time?
> Shouldn't the publishing cycle react to keep up with the things its
> describing?
>   Do you expect RH to provide more people on the docs front? 
> I don't. 

Heck, RH isn't really "providing" any people on the docs front right
now. :)  Really, I'm sure there are others like me whose "real work"
inside Red Hat only marginally touches upon Fedora.  I write books for
Enterprise Linux, and the toolchain, processes, and content for that
work is only related to Fedora docs by the sharing of the word
"DocBook".  When I say that I'm here speaking for myself, I mean that.
;-)

That's not to say the outlook is bleak!  Actually, it appears to me that
our stodgy corporate documentation process has some problems fitting
with the real Fedora docs project.  It's good that everyone is shooting
holes into it, especially if those get filed as bug reports so they get
taken care of. :)

> > Now I have a small logistics problem.  That URL is the well known and
> > propagated URL.  It should be on fedora.redhat.com/docs/selinux-faq (or
> > something like that), and when I do move it over there, I will have to
> > figure out how to move visitors from people.redhat.com to
> > fedora.redhat.com, or face keeping multiple sites live indefinitely.
> 
> Or run a redirect?

It's not that there isn't a solution to my problem, it's that it
requires some intervention and maintenance, and I don't want to wish
that on everybody else's docs.  Kinda messy.

- Karsten
-- 
Karsten Wade, RHCE, Tech Writer
a lemon is just a melon in disguise
http://people.redhat.com/kwade/
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