Re: Setup of a new wiki - the beginning of a stronger userbase?

On Wed, Feb 09, 2005 at 08:09:00PM +0000, Andrew Suffield wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 09, 2005 at 09:44:22AM +0100, Sjon wrote:
> > Andrew Suffield wrote:
> > >On Mon, Feb 07, 2005 at 10:44:19PM +0100, Spider.007 wrote:
> > >
> > >>Users would be enabled 
> > >>to add documentation to the project more easy using a Wiki
> > >
> > >There is not a need for users to write low-grade documentation. There
> > >shouldn't *be* any users, and there's nothing worth documenting right
> > >now.
> > 
> > Maybe the way I formulated my mail was not correct; I know that 
> > Y-Windows will not have any end-users soon; however, there are 
> > developers / testers / alpha-users also who might find it interesting to 
> > setup  Y-Windows for testing purpose.
> 
> I can't imagine anybody who can't figure this out on their own being
> able to do anything useful. It's not exactly complicated.

Trying to drive that message home this way isn't helping, and it isn't
working, either.


I think that a wiki could be useful. For example to pass on and work on
larger text, or even to just store the entire body of information that
we have so one can stand back and look at it all in once, as well as
bring both people fresh and longer involved up to speed.

This can even help convey the fact that the state this project is
in means that it is _not_ ready for prime time, despite ending up
on /. twice. This is a point you like to hammer home every way you
can, understandably so, but doing so on every opporunity can get a
bit tedious. As you'll agree, writing something should preferably be
done right once, then easily accessible many times. And that includes
documenting good ideas and less-than-ideal facts alike.

This _can_ be done nicely through a wiki, altough it isn't the only tool
that could. It would be even better if such a wiki could be pointed to
from the y-windows.org domain, even if it is just a wiki.y-windows.org
CNAME my-y-wiki.freehosting.yahoo.50megs.com. If only to prevent the
little that there is to fragment. This cuts both ways.

Not only can enthousiasts float their balloons, the balloons can also
be shown to not be realistic, to defy the laws of physics, or to need
shelving until there is enough groundwork done. I'm sure there'll be
enough people on this list that can help out here; it doesn't all have
to come down on the poor few people with @y-windows.org email addresses.

It comes down on harnessing what you have into what little and seemingly
unuseful can be done now, instead of throwing it all out with lots of
noise and losing goodwill and support through that.

In short, yes, a wiki could be useful, even if it isn't a panacea. But
it can also be agressively killed dead *again*, and with no substitute
tools, doing that will certainly not help advance anything. And that
includes not helping drive home the message that y needs lots of work
by competent low-level hackers before ye average slashdotter will see
something vaguely working because, it's not the /. crowd that writes.


-- 
  j p d (at) d s b (dot) t u d e l f t (dot) n l .