Style Guide (was not Re: fedora-docs-list Digest, Vol 6, Issue 25)

[Karsten Wade]

On Mon, 2004-08-23 at 05:02, redwire at therockmere.com wrote:
> >
> >> On Thu, 2004-08-19 at 21:34, Karsten Wade wrote:

> >
> > * Because of concerns over support, availability, redundancy, and
> > security, we don't want non-FDP doc or source repositories to be seen as
> > "officially" connected to the project.  For example, if someone's SCM
> > gets compromised and a rootkit trojan is loaded into document tarball
> > ... well, bad things could happen.
> >
> If RH is THAT worried about contamination, then maybe THEY should release
> SOME documentation...

Red Hat releases plenty of documentation, but not about Fedora.  It is
up to the Fedora docs project to release documentation.  That's us. 
Doesn't matter what is after the @ in an email address.

> You may not want the appearance of some site appearing to be 'official',
> but I think that this is a little bit of a scare tactic.

The desire for documentation that comes from Fedora and is closely
aligned with the overall project from the inside ... that request is
coming from users.  It is not FUD.

You, like anyone else, are welcome to make as many docs repositories as
you desire.  You can feature the FDL docs from the Fedora docs project.

I'm just not going to recommend that people here spend their time
working on non-FDP docs repositories.  We have a huge amount of work to
accomplish and don't need more distractions.

> Thousands of programs are released via apt, rpm repositories and yum...
> ALL without the fear of contamination or appearance of impropropiety. And
> all done with the help of willing participanting websites AND
> ENCOURAGEMENT from the authors. MANY run with the sole support of the
> webmaster.

Yes, and the same is true of documentation.  However, the wise RPM
consumer will want to get packages from a safe and proven location. 
Concern about trojaned packages is not just some delusion.  There is a
reason why packages are signed and MD5SUM values are provided from
proper mirrors and repositories.  That's just a reality, not a slight
directed at your website.

> Why is the thought of spreading the information such a fearful subject?

I think you have misinterpreted this discussion.  AFAIK, no one has said
anything about being afraid of spreading information and knowledge. 

I did say that I thought your idea sounded like it was breaking off from
this project, instead of just providing temporary support services. 
Your email about FedoraDocs.com shows that you are in fact starting a
separate project.  Good.  This is one of the many good facets of open
source, the ability to go one's own way.

My concern is that spreading ourselves thin into various one-off docs
projects that don't know how to support themselves in the long term is a
waste of our energy, and does little for the community other than to
create yet another site with aging docs.

We all share the responsibility in the FDP for the lack of progress so
far, just as we all share responsibility for the progress we've made and
will continue to make.  As much as anyone, I _know_ how lame the last
ten months have been.  Two full releases with zero documentation[1]. 
Shameful.  But I know just as vehemently that losing our direction now
will mean the death of the project as it now stands.  Maybe that would
be a good thing eventually if we can't get our act together, but not
yet.

- Karsten

[1]
Okay, I'm exaggerating  to make a point.  We've had stellar release
notes, the Jargon Buster, the SELinux FAQ.  Still, pretty thin compared
to what we could have done in the same amount of time.



-- 
Karsten Wade, RHCE, Tech Writer
a lemon is just a melon in disguise
http://people.redhat.com/kwade/
gpg fingerprint: 2680 DBFD D968 3141 0115  5F1B D992 0E06 AD0E 0C41