fedora-list guidelines

[Karsten Wade]

On Thu, 2005-03-31 at 12:26 -0600, Gustavo Seabra wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I am new to this list. the reason I'm posting here is the following:
> 
> At the 'fedora-list' there has been a recent community effort to
> formulate a document with the "guidelines" for posting to that list.
> After a number of drafts and discussions, this document has reached a
> more mature form, and has been put in the form of a web page:
> 
> Original:  http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~seabra/linux/FedoraRules.html
> Mirror:     http://www.cwelug.org/fedora/FedoraRules.html

This is great.  It is succinct and useful.  Thanks for bringing it here.

> It is already considered "official", in the sense that it grew from
> discussions in the list that have reached a consunsus. As a next step,
> we would like to make this document know for most users of the list.
> For this, the suggestions we have are:

One immediate option that might make sense is to use the Wiki at
fedoraproject.org.  This works if the document is still in flux
somewhat.  Then it has an official-looking URL, and the others can
mirror that.

However, if it's solid and not likely to get as many edits, then it
seems to me like a perfect document for fedora.redhat.com/docs.

More on this below ...

> 1. Monthly reminder: having a link or a text-only 
>     version of this document sent automatically 
>     monthly to all subscribers;

We can ask the Fedora list admin to include a link to the URL within the
monthly mailing list reminder that Mailman sends out automatically.

> 2. Part of a welcoming message: Either include a 
>     link in the welcoming message, or send a separate 
>     e-mail with the text-only version of the document
>     to every new subscriber;

There is a welcome message to new list subscribers, and a custom message
can be edited.  I'd suspect the list maintainers would like to have a
helpful URL.

> 3. Linked to sign-up page: maybe there could be a link 
>     in the sign in page?

Same as above, it's a simple matter in the Mailman text.

Let's get the document at a permanent URL, and then finalize the
request.

> 4. Link in the sugnature. (in **MY** opinion, this would
>     likely be the most effective of all.) It would help if
>     there could be a link in the signature added by RedHat
>     to all messages  distributed. The signature could then
>     look something like:
>     --**
>     fedora-list mailing list 
>     fedora-list at redhat.com
>     To unsubscribe: http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list
>     Before posting to this list, please check  << link here >>

Same as above, simple matter via the Mailman interface.

> 4. Submission to Fedora-docs: That last suggestion was made 
>    to make this documet more "official".

Yes, this is a good way to complete the circle.

> So, that's where we are now. Please consider this message as a
> "submission" Unless there's another way to do it). We would really
> appreciate if the people responsibe could take a look at the page and
> consider accepting it, if it seems appropriate.

Now the hard part. :)

We can accept the submission, and the document will be easy to put into
DocBook for maintenance.  This has the advantage of providing the
maintainer with a reference implementation in DocBook, in the
maintainers don't know DocBook yet.

Someone needs to step-up to maintain this doc, keep it alive, handle bug
reports against it, and update it as new ideas and changes come along.
If the time comes to pass it along, the maintainer needs to be
responsible and not drop the document.

Are you interested in this?  Or someone else involved in the writing of
the document?  Take a look at this to see the process we use:

http://fedora.redhat.com/participate/documentation-quick-start/

We can get a writer to help with the conversion to DocBook and to get
the author/maintainer started.  Of course, the list is here to help with
ongoing learning of DocBook, writing, etc.

- Karsten
-- 
Karsten Wade, RHCE * Sr. Tech Writer * http://people.redhat.com/kwade/
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