Ubuntu community wiki - Page lifecycle

[Tom Davies]

Hi :)
+1
There is a big drive to this already but it's difficult because a lot of times 
there is valuable knowledge that has built-up over time and may only be relevant 
in such rare cases that a help or HowTo might only be read once every 4 years or 
something.  The info stays relevant but might be on a page named after the 
newest release of the day.  


However, a lot of times the useful stuff is so buried in ancient irrelevant 
stuff that it's unrealistic to hope to extract it and the page needs to be 
deleted to avoid sending people in wrong directions.  For example a page called 
"XorgHoary".  It's difficult to tell which is more irrelevant Xorg or Hoary.  
Radical changes in Xorg make the page dangerous.  There might be 1 useful line 
in there but it's better to delete the entire page than to waste time looking 
for a line like that.  


It would be great if people had a quick skim through pages before marking them 
for deletion and then use copy&paste to put any useful stuff in a more generic 
sounding page.  Also if people could quickly skim read through pages marked for 
deletion before deleting them that would be great.  Perhaps an extra tag could 
be added to say that a page has been skimmed through?  By skim reading i mean 
not spending long, perhaps 5mins for a very long page.  


Also 10.04 is still supported until 2013-April/May and 10.10 until 
2012-April/May
Regards from
Tom :)




________________________________
From: Manuel Buser <subscriptions at manuelbuser.ch>
To: ubuntu-doc at lists.ubuntu.com
Sent: Sun, 7 August, 2011 10:51:53
Subject: Ubuntu community wiki - Page lifecycle

 Dear Ubuntu documentation       people

I'd like to discuss the       issue of cleaning outdated pages in 
help.ubuntu.com/community.
I think that the many outdated pages discourage people to use the       wiki. 
The lack of a concept for a page lifecycle probably       also discourages 
potential contributors, as contributing may look       like a hopeless task.
On the other hand, simply deleting "old" content is problematic,       if we 
want the wiki to be reliable and complete.

Different concepts are used (version-specific pages, e.g. 
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallLirc/Maverick,       or one paragraph 
per version, e.g.: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AiptekTablet)

I try to make some SUGGESTIONS. To be discussed.

SUGGESTION 1: Versioning guidelines.

Each page...
 
	* 1a) ...SHOULD be             designed to cover all Ubuntu releases back to 
the last           LTS (long term support) release. Therefore, the page name           
should NOT contain any Ubuntu version or codename.
	* 1d) ...SHOULD             hold generic content: If possible, cover all recent           
Ubuntu releases in the same text. If needed, add           release-specific 
chapters using a distinct level of headings, newest first.

	* 1c) ...SHOULD use version icons [to be created] just below the page           
title, showing for which Ubuntu release the page has been           validated. 
If needed, version icons may also be added to           single chapters or even 
paragraphs.

SUGGESTION 2:         Archiving concept.

Pages should be cleaned as follows after each LTS (long term       support) 
release. 

 
	* 2a) Copy the             full page to a new "archive" page. Use Editing 
Options           -> More actions -> Copy page. Append "_v2010" to the           
former page name: "v" means version and 2010 is the year in           which the 
page was last modified.
	* 2b)Add an "Archived             page" tag [to be created]: "Archived: This 
page is           archived. It should not be modified. More info..."
	* 2c) Do a cleanup             of the original page: Remove whatever refers to 
versions           older than the previous LTS release. In the first line, add a           
link: "Documentation for older Ubuntu releases was moved to           this 
[archive page]" [link to mypage_v2010]. (NB if the entire           page was 
outdated, the original page would now be empty. In           this case, it is 
recommended to tag it either for deletion, or           for expansion)
The rule to clean       pages after the next LTS would result in the following 
"page       lifecycle":
- 2012, March: The page covers 11.10 / 11.04 / 10.10 / 10.04 (LTS)
- 2012, April: 12.04 (LTS) arrives. Between update and cleanup,       the page 
covers 5 releases: 12.04 (LTS) / 11.10 / 11.04 / 10.10 / 10.04       (LTS).
- 2012, April...September: The page is "cleaned" to the last       release 
(12.04).
Content for new Ubuntu releases is added in 2012-Oct, 2013-Apr,       2013-Oct. 
Then we start over. Thus, a page would cover 1 to 5       Ubuntu releases 


Regards! Manuel
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