[CentOS-docs] [CentOS-devel] What to do with wiki.centos.org ? (let's discuss it)

Thu Aug 25 15:41:31 UTC 2022
Phil Perry <pperry at elrepo.org>

On 25/08/2022 16:32, Phil Perry wrote:
> On 25/08/2022 16:10, Trevor Hemsley via CentOS-devel wrote:
>> On 25/08/2022 15:28, Robby Callicotte via CentOS-devel wrote:
>>> On Thursday, August 25, 2022 8:46:18 AM CDT Neal Gompa wrote:
>>>> I second this. Our quick docs could use MkDocs like the SIG stuff
>>>> does, and the RHELish stuff can use the Antora system the RHEL docs
>>>> folks want to use.
>>> I agree with Neal here.  This seems to offer a good balance.  At this 
>>> point I
>>> would argue that the MR/PR nature of git is ubiquitous and is part of
>>> everyone's workflow.
>>
>> So far I've seen lots of "yes, use this" type comments so I'd like to 
>> ask how this compares in user friendliness to the current wiki 
>> (assuming that you can get to it because the spammers are taking a 
>> rest). I've never used any of the alternatives that have been proposed 
>> so far. Are they wikis? Are they usable for a non-technical user? The 
>> wiki, you press a button and you can edit content directly and see 
>> what it will look like before you save it. You can link to other pages 
>> easily, you can format content how you want it easily, often just at 
>> the press of a button.
>>
>> None of what I've heard so far sounds even remotely as usable as what 
>> we have now.
>>
>> Trevor
> 
> I agree.
> 
> Git-type work flows, pull and merge requests may be second nature to 
> those working within Red Hat, or other developers, but they are not 
> familiar technologies to most non-technical, regular users.
> 
> The Wiki has served as a key point of entry for contributing to the 
> CentOS project for non-technical users for exactly the reasons Trevor 
> highlights. A user can easily read and follow the documentation 
> presented on the Wiki, and can easily update it to fix any errors they 
> may encounter at the press of a button. If we lose that ability then we 
> lose a valuable entry point for new contributors to the project.
> 
> And lets not forget - developers do not write (or maintain) web-based 
> documentation. That is the reason documentation sucks on most open 
> source projects - developers want to do cool stuff, not spend all their 
> time writing documentation. So lets not give too much weight to the 
> opinions of those who have never contributed anything to the Wiki.
> 

I think my point above is further highlighted by the fact this 
discussion is taking place on the centos-devel list, not the centos-docs 
list.

> Fabian - please can you give us stats for the top contributors so we can 
> seek and appropriately weigh their opinions?
> 
> Thanks
>