release notes life cycle

[Dale Bewley]

When looking at the Beat content, it's somewhat confusing and cumbersome
to determine what is complete for the pending release and what isn't.

For example, http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs/Beats/PackageNotes is
not assigned to anyone, but some work has been done since F9. It's easy
for one to assume at first glance that this page is up to date. However,
most of the content is still F9 content.

http://fedoraproject.org/w/index.php?title=Docs%2FBeats%
2FPackageNotes&diff=53835&oldid=12111

It might be nice if Beats were reset to empty before beginning work on
the next version release notes.

I may do that as the first step when I begin looking for slots I can
hopefully fill in F10. The criteria I would use for finding F9 content
would be edits made around May 2008 and earlier.

At some point this all migrates to docbook on docs.fp.o, after that is
set in "stone", what has been the practice in the past? What is the time
horizon when updates to previous release notes on the wiki becomes less
productive than work on the next release? 

I would think at that point the Beats should be lobotomized and a call
for Beat authors for the next release made. It should happen early
enough that authors don't have to dig through the entire development
cycle of bugs and email for clues, and can hopefully document changes
during development. One month after GA? At Alpha release?

During the period where Beat pages are empty, with the help of a
template, perhaps the wayward user could follow a link at the top of the
page to the current docs.fp.o page.

Thoughts?
--
Dale