Ubuntuforums

[Andrew Zajac]

On 5/11/05, Sean Wheller <sean at inwords.co.za> wrote:
> On Wednesday 11 May 2005 20:04, Andrew Zajac wrote:
> > With respect to a user who just clicked on an mp3 and does not
> > understand what to do next, to which one of those documents should I
> > contribute?
> >
> > Is there going to be a way that a user can find stuff with a little
> > more ease? Is three going to be a way for normal people to easily
> > contribute a tidbit of information?
> >
> > There seems to be so much going on with respect to the wiki reform,
> > doc team portal - Even just looking at the docteam wikipage does not
> > give me insight as to what is going on. It seems overwhelming.
> >
> > My original point was to find a simple way for topics being discussed
> > and solved on Ubuntuforums to find their way into the documentation.
> > What do you suggest?
> 
> Taking this back on list.
> 
> Overwhelmed is normal and expect.
> 
> Don't be phased, ask for help as you just did :-)
> 
> No simple way to contribute to stuff in SVN (canonical can you hear us :-))
> 
> If you see someting you would like to work on, chat to us and we will help get
> you up and running. Sorry about wiki, I don't go there. If you want help to
> contribute to the docs in SVN, myself and others are here to help. You can
> also just send it in an email or if it is a long doc, as OpenOffice.org
> Writer.
> 
> Hope this helps,
> 
> Please do not top post. The mail is archived and it is sooo much easier to
> read when everyting is a bottom post :-)
> 
> Enjoy, have fun.
> --
> Sean Wheller
> Technical Author
> sean at inwords.co.za
> http://www.inwords.co.za
> Registered Linux User #375355
> 
> 
> 
I did not mean to take this off the list.  I am getting used to the
gmail interface...  Also, Gmail top-posts by default!

"Overwhelmed is normal and expect"
Yes.  That is the problem.  

What I would like to see is a way for ubuntuforum members to be able
to port the technical support over to an official doc-team project. 
This is how the unofficial ubuntu guide came to be.  Is there a reason
why that project (or one just like it) cannot be supported by the doc
team?

Perhaps using the current tools, a wiki project could be overseen by
the doc team which is a collection of forum tidbits.  Obviously, the
indexing would have to be done "by hand", but there are a lot of forum
members to recruit for such tasks.  The current unofficial ubuntuguide
is maintained that way by one person.

Overwhelming to contribute content is one thing, but it is currently
very difficult to _find_ information.  We see this on the forums.  It
is much easier for a user to ask on the forums than to wade through
all the different sources of documentation.

Also, if the documentation for the technical support we offer on the
forums was overseen by the doc team, this would promote
standardisation.  Some people tend to slag off the forums because the
quality of support may not always be consistent.  This would be a
solution to that.