editors

[Paul W. Frields]

On Thu, 2004-08-12 at 13:56, Karsten Wade wrote:
> Here are some further ideas about the role of an editor:
> 
> * Helps writing adhere throughout the creation process to the
> (unwritten) Style Guide(lines).

Speaking of which, the eos-guide is "done" in the sense that it is now a
complete (and, I believe, correct to the best of my abilities)
recreation of the original S&W 1918. However, it obviously needs to be
revisited for "Fedora-izing." That's my next project, I promise. :-)  I
haven't put it in Bugzilla because in order to Fedora-ize it, my plan is
to simply create an FDP patch that will be applied to the original XML.

> * The relationship between authors and editors will take many forms. 
> Some people will create a pairing, two or more people who work together
> regularly on a set of docs.
> 
> * Two people can edit each other's document.  This is often a good way
> to get a technical edit.
> 
> * Before going live, a document needs two editorial sign-offs -- writing
> style (grammar, spelling, etc.) and technical content.

Good points, these. For example, the Samba/LDAP tutorial needs someone
who works in a more mixed environment. I don't have any systems at work
that are running Windows with which to test this stuff.

> * Should there be an editorial board?  Such a board would oversee the
> Fedora docs, make sure we are adhering to our standards, filling in
> holes, following or advancing our process, etc.

[...snip...]

I'd like to volunteer for the board; it's what I had in mind when I
volunteered in the first place. Of course, I've found out since how much
work there is to do, and I'm glad that there are so many ways to get
involved.

I for one would not choose to have a separate editors list. I would also
say the board should have some guidelines to help make decisions on a
less ad-hoc basis. Having said that, I don't want to create so much
advance detail work that it's impossible to actually get to the real
work. But at least a statement of principles would be enough to get
started. That would also give authors/editors proper guidance for when
things are ready to go to the board.

> * Also, much of the editing traffic can be in bugzilla, as each document
> will have it's own bug throughout it's lifecycle.

Perhaps, then, XML patches for docs in Bugzilla should be uploaded to
Bugzilla for review by the authors/editors. Does that put too much of a
strain on Bugzilla's storage?

-- 
Paul W. Frields, RHCE