Does Mallard = Loss of Editorial Control?

[Kyle Nitzsche]

Hi All,

Please take these remarks in the spirit of working together to create 
the best possible outcome for Ubuntu, Ubuntu users, Ubuntu variants, 
Ubuntu customizations and Ubuntu-Docs.

Mallard's brilliant addition is plugability. That is, a package can add 
content to previously installed content. A package does not need 
permission to do this: the framework supports it intrinsically. That is 
its strength, and, in some cases, its weakness.

Consider this applied to System Docs:

 * Packages other than ubuntu-docs packages can add content to the 
Ubuntu Help Center
 * That content may be technically incorrect
 * It may contradict content in Ubuntu Help Center
 * It may be written poorly or to different standards
 * It may not be localized
 * It cannot be prevented

Now consider the user experience:

 * Users may not be able to differentiate the official content from the 
new content
 * Content that they used to find in one location has moved (as new 
plugged topics fill in guide pages)
 * They cannot get rid of content that suddenly appears or revert to 
pure ubuntu-docs

In the context of help for applications that support plugins, like 
Gedit, this sort of thing seems really helpful, in that one could write 
a plugin, write a help topic for it, and then install that topic into 
the existing help for the application.

However, I think this is not the appropriate model for system docs that 
require a higher degree of editorial control for correctness, style, 
consistency, etc.

Setting aside concerns about source format (docbook vs mallard), 
limiting build options and output formats to those supported by mallard, 
and etc. I think this is the biggest potential problem with mallard for 
ubuntu docs: it represents a loss of editorial control in the area that 
most requires high quality content: system docs.

Perhaps there could be a separate on-disk help meta topic/package  that 
uses mallard and who purpose is to receive help topics written by users. 
Mallards' arguably simpler syntax is appropriate for this. It could be 
presented as not the official help, but user submitted topics.

Cheers,
Kyle