Gentoo Forums
Gentoo Forums
Gentoo Forums
Quick Search: in
Gentoo Wiki Summer of Documentation
View unanswered posts
View posts from last 24 hours

 
Reply to topic    Gentoo Forums Forum Index Gentoo Chat
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
yngwin
Retired Dev
Retired Dev


Joined: 19 Dec 2002
Posts: 4572
Location: Suzhou, China

PostPosted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 4:27 pm    Post subject: Gentoo Wiki Summer of Documentation Reply with quote

Gentoo Wiki Summer of Documentation

Gentoo has always been known for its excellent documentation, though in recent years it has suffered from an understaffed documentation team, as well as data loss and spotty availability of the unofficial wiki.

Gentoo has its own official wiki now, since November last year. So let's work together, developers and users, to make this an excellent resource to live up to Gentoo's fame.

We therefore want to announce that this summer is our wiki's first Summer of Documentation. From today, June 15, and for the next 100 days, until September 23, we will make an extra effort to improve existing articles, identify missing ones, and add new articles.

Goal
Our goal is to have at least 500 informative wiki articles by the end of this summer. Our statistics page currently lists 227 content pages. So yes, our ambitious goal is to double this! But with your help and that of other users, we are sure we can make this happen!

What can you do?
  • Have a look at the Requested Articles page and either add to the list, or start a new article.
  • Improve existing articles. Check recent changes for spelling, grammar or content errors that you could correct.
  • Motivate other users to join our effort.

_________________
"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves." - Abraham Lincoln
Free Culture | Defective by Design | EFF


Last edited by yngwin on Sat Jun 16, 2012 3:51 am; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
mikegpitt
Advocate
Advocate


Joined: 22 May 2004
Posts: 3224

PostPosted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 5:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This is a great idea! The Gentoo wiki used to be the premier place I would find documentation about various topics, but after the server crash years ago it never really recovered. These days I find more info on the Arch wiki than the Gentoo wiki.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
yngwin
Retired Dev
Retired Dev


Joined: 19 Dec 2002
Posts: 4572
Location: Suzhou, China

PostPosted: Sat Jun 16, 2012 3:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

So what kind of info have you been unable to find on the Gentoo Wiki? If we have a better idea of what's missing, we can add the more relevant things first!
_________________
"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves." - Abraham Lincoln
Free Culture | Defective by Design | EFF
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Fitzcarraldo
Advocate
Advocate


Joined: 30 Aug 2008
Posts: 2034
Location: United Kingdom

PostPosted: Sat Jun 16, 2012 12:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I also think this initiative is an excellent idea. Gentoo's on-line official documentation was second to none, but in the last few years has definitely been losing the lead in some areas (the Arch Wiki is one example, I think). This year, though, the quality of the Gentoo official documentation seems to be picking up again, thanks for all the hard work you guys are putting in.

Regarding the Wiki, and going somewhat off-topic, I am well aware of the following message on the unofficial wiki:
Quote:
2011-11-09 wiki.gentoo.org Launch

The Gentoo developers have launched their own wiki over at wiki.gentoo.org.

Gentoo-wiki.com plans to continue running alongside the official Gentoo Wiki with it's large collection of existing articles in multiple languages and active community of editors.

Editors of both wiki's should be aware of the differences in licenses. gentoo-wiki.com licenses its content under the CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license while wiki.gentoo.org has chosen the CC BY-SA 3.0 license. The extra non-commercial clause means that articles cannot be copied between wiki's without the explicit permission of all authors.
AllenJB 23:32, 9 November 2011 (GMT)

but, really, in my opinion it is just illogical and inefficient to have two major Wikis running in parallel. Now that there is (finally, after so many years) an official Gentoo Wiki, I think a way should be found to put as much information as possible (that is up-to-date) from the unofficial Wiki into the official Wiki and to close the former down. AllenJB has done a fantastic job and I could understand him resenting the suggestion, but there has to be a way; it just doesn't make good sense to continue like this. Hope my comment is taken in the constructive spirit in which it is intended.

On a different documentation subject, I find the Gentoo Linux x86 Quick Install Guide handy and it would be nice if there were an amd64 (multilib) version too.
_________________
Clevo W230SS: amd64, VIDEO_CARDS="intel modesetting nvidia".
Compal NBLB2: ~amd64, xf86-video-ati. Dual boot Win 7 Pro 64-bit.
OpenRC udev elogind & KDE on both.

Fitzcarraldo's blog
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
mikegpitt
Advocate
Advocate


Joined: 22 May 2004
Posts: 3224

PostPosted: Sat Jun 16, 2012 2:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

yngwin wrote:
So what kind of info have you been unable to find on the Gentoo Wiki? If we have a better idea of what's missing, we can add the more relevant things first!
Not sure off hand... It used to be years ago the Gentoo Wiki was a top Google result whenever I was searching for some howto. I'll do more thinking though...
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
yngwin
Retired Dev
Retired Dev


Joined: 19 Dec 2002
Posts: 4572
Location: Suzhou, China

PostPosted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 6:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Fitzcarraldo wrote:
I also think this initiative is an excellent idea.

Thanks! I hope you will join the effort.

Fitzcarraldo wrote:
Gentoo's on-line official documentation was second to none, but in the last few years has definitely been losing the lead in some areas (the Arch Wiki is one example, I think).

mikegpitt wrote:
It used to be years ago the Gentoo Wiki was a top Google result whenever I was searching for some howto.

I've noticed this too. Gentoo resources used to come out on top, and now it usually is the Arch Wiki. That means they did an excellent job, and congratulations to them! Obviously, having good resources is only good, and we are not in a direct competition with them, but it would be nice to see more Gentoo results returning... So let's try to make our wiki an excellent resource for Gentoo users!

Fitzcarraldo wrote:
but, really, in my opinion it is just illogical and inefficient to have two major Wikis running in parallel. Now that there is (finally, after so many years) an official Gentoo Wiki, I think a way should be found to put as much information as possible (that is up-to-date) from the unofficial Wiki into the official Wiki and to close the former down.

I think we should simply try to make the Gentoo Wiki the most awesome resource there is. If it really takes off, others will join us.

At this point I can understand the reluctance of some people to join the effort, because the official wiki is still so small. I hope that is something we can change with the Gentoo Wiki Summer of Documentation initiative.

As to the older unofficial wiki, in the past they have always refused to come under the official Gentoo umbrella, whenever we tried to cooperate or offer them hosting. So I am not expecting their cooperation now.

Since the licenses are incompatible, we can't just copy-paste the content. But individual authors can simply relicense their original content by submitting it to the new wiki. Edits by others than yourself can't be copy-pasted. But obviously you can improve content on our wiki, according to information from other sources, without literal copy-pasting.

Fitzcarraldo wrote:
On a different documentation subject, I find the Gentoo Linux x86 Quick Install Guide handy and it would be nice if there were an amd64 (multilib) version too.

I have been thinking along the same lines, so I've added it to our Requested Articles list.
_________________
"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves." - Abraham Lincoln
Free Culture | Defective by Design | EFF
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
yngwin
Retired Dev
Retired Dev


Joined: 19 Dec 2002
Posts: 4572
Location: Suzhou, China

PostPosted: Sat Jun 23, 2012 7:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

So this first week we had 10 new pages:

If you see any room for improvement, please go ahead.

I also want to ask your opinion about how can we get more people involved?
_________________
"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves." - Abraham Lincoln
Free Culture | Defective by Design | EFF
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
khayyam
Watchman
Watchman


Joined: 07 Jun 2012
Posts: 6227
Location: Room 101

PostPosted: Sat Jun 23, 2012 10:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

yngwin wrote:
I also want to ask your opinion about how can we get more people involved?

yngwin ... I'm please someone started on the zsh page as I wouldn't know where to begin, but I'll be sure to add-to/improve what's currently in place.

I have somewhat of an aversion to wiki's and so have never looked into the markup, I'd probably prefer to write something in a staging area that could the be reviewed before being let free into the wild, didn't the forum used to have such an area, and/or would it be a good idea to have such a thing?

best ... khay
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
a3li
Retired Dev
Retired Dev


Joined: 02 Sep 2008
Posts: 122
Location: 독일

PostPosted: Sat Jun 23, 2012 2:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

khayyam wrote:

I have somewhat of an aversion to wiki's and so have never looked into the markup, I'd probably prefer to write something in a staging area that could the be reviewed before being let free into the wild, didn't the forum used to have such an area, and/or would it be a good idea to have such a thing?


You can create a page in your user space for that. For example, my user page is "http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/User:A3li", I could create "http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/User:A3li/Random Topic" and draft things there.

If you need any help with the markup, the best place to ask is probably #gentoo-wiki on freenode. Quite some contributors hang around there.
_________________
I am Confuism. Do not bother me.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
yngwin
Retired Dev
Retired Dev


Joined: 19 Dec 2002
Posts: 4572
Location: Suzhou, China

PostPosted: Sat Jun 23, 2012 3:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

khayyam wrote:
I have somewhat of an aversion to wiki's and so have never looked into the markup, I'd probably prefer to write something in a staging area that could the be reviewed before being let free into the wild, didn't the forum used to have such an area, and/or would it be a good idea to have such a thing?

You could also add something to an article's talk page, if you want it reviewed, for example for Zsh: http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Talk:Zsh
_________________
"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves." - Abraham Lincoln
Free Culture | Defective by Design | EFF
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
khayyam
Watchman
Watchman


Joined: 07 Jun 2012
Posts: 6227
Location: Room 101

PostPosted: Sat Jun 23, 2012 7:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

a3li, yngwin ...

Thanks for the tips, I wasn't aware that I could use user:khayyam as a drafting area, and thought that "talk:" would be more for the likes of "fixed link to .." rather than a place to prepare the document. As I said, I'm not really familiar with mediawiki, or wiki's in general, (my one experience being a wiki instituted by a collegue that soon became a sprawling mess). Anyhow, I'll see what time I have next week and hopefully make a start.

best ... khay
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
yngwin
Retired Dev
Retired Dev


Joined: 19 Dec 2002
Posts: 4572
Location: Suzhou, China

PostPosted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 4:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

After 25 days, a quarter of the way in to our Summer of Documentation, we have added 80 content pages! I'm very happy to see so much activity, and if we can keep this up for the next 75 days, we should reach our target of 500 content pages.

Is there anything you were looking for, but didn't find on our wiki? Let us know!
Do you have any tips to share? Please add your knowledge to our wiki!
_________________
"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves." - Abraham Lincoln
Free Culture | Defective by Design | EFF
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
disi
Veteran
Veteran


Joined: 28 Nov 2003
Posts: 1354
Location: Out There ...

PostPosted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 6:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

khayyam wrote:
yngwin wrote:
I also want to ask your opinion about how can we get more people involved?

yngwin ... I'm please someone started on the zsh page as I wouldn't know where to begin, but I'll be sure to add-to/improve what's currently in place.

I have somewhat of an aversion to wiki's and so have never looked into the markup, I'd probably prefer to write something in a staging area that could the be reviewed before being let free into the wild, didn't the forum used to have such an area, and/or would it be a good idea to have such a thing?

best ... khay


Hehe, there is an extensive bash page, even though I use zsh as my main shell :roll:
_________________
Gentoo on Uptime Project - Larry is a cow
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
yngwin
Retired Dev
Retired Dev


Joined: 19 Dec 2002
Posts: 4572
Location: Suzhou, China

PostPosted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 2:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

We're doing pretty well so far. But we still have 77 pages to go until September 23! So please consider contributing!
_________________
"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves." - Abraham Lincoln
Free Culture | Defective by Design | EFF
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Gentoo Forums Forum Index Gentoo Chat All times are GMT
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum