FC2 doubtful quality?

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Thu, 24 Jun 2004, Sean Estabrooks wrote:

> On Wed, 23 Jun 2004 23:07:45 -0600
> "Rodolfo J. Paiz" <rpaiz at simpaticus.com> wrote:
>
>
>> For the record, I also think the wiki thing is a good idea. Never seen a
>> wiki yet <grin>, but the way the post was written made it sound like a good
>> idea.
>
> There is already a WIKI with some Fedora subject matter here:
>
> http://www.fedora.us/wiki
>
> It might be worth taking a look at to generate ideas about its use or how
> a new wiki might be organized.   It looks pretty straight forward and it
> would be great to have a central place where people could help
> keep documentation current.

ah, i hadn't seen that before.  at first glance, it's still not what i was 
imagining, since it seems to have an initially confusing layout.  let's 
say, as a newbie, i go there.  i desperately need help with topic X.
upon arrival, i have to choose between a couple links:

   FedoraDocuments
   WikiHomePage

which one?  they both sound tempting.  so i pick the first one, at which 
point i get a whole lot more choices, none of which are obvious.  do i
want the User Documents, under which i find the HOWTO and the Users FAQ?
or, wait, there's the Volunteer Documents.  do i want the Volunteers FAQ?
or, wait, my topic is kind of, sort of related to hardware.  maybe i 
better check out the Hardware Info link first.  argh.

but if i knew beforehand this was a wiki, i might have chosen to visit
the Wiki Home Page, where i can see what a wiki is, how to use it, how to 
sign in, see recent changes ... etc.  at which point, i kinda feel that i 
have the right to scream, "Where's the freakin' content!?"  (yes, i'm 
exaggerating to make a point.  so sue me. :-)

personally, the layout i've seen that i like the most is max k-a's
www.fedorafaq.org.  you go there and, after a short intro, you're at the 
content.  perfect.  my only issue with it is that it would be nice to have 
it more hierarchical and refined -- i think it's too general to have an 
entire section called "Problems and Their Solutions."  but max clearly has 
the right idea -- get to the content right away, don't make readers dig 
their way thru introductory fluff.

as i mentioned before, it's not even necessary to have all the content at 
the wiki site.  clearly, there's lots of good content out there, it's just
scattered around.  parts of the wiki can link to external pages if that's
the best solution (given permission, of course).

as i see it, the two most important things to have are:

1) a nice, usable hierarchical layout
2) the ability to add new entries quickly as the need arises

this might very well involve a small group of moderators who ride herd
on the content, who might need to shuffle or refine sections every so 
often, but for the most part, it should be world-editable, as long as
contributors read a short intro describing what entries should look
like.

this kind of site is not meant to take the place of the eventual, official 
docs.  it's also not meant to replace the idea of a forum, like 
www.fedoraforum.org.  a "forum" is where you present problems, argue back 
and forth about their solution and finally figure out what the heck to do
about it.  the wiki is where you would *publish* that final solution.

anyway, time for coffee and real, billable work.  :-)

rday