[wp-docs] printed version?

[Lorelle VanFossen]

I had written a beautiful reply and then my laptop crashed.  Boy, we're 
really getting going with preparation for the upcoming WordPress Backup 
Week!

So, in short, per a request from Matt, please check 
http://codex.wordpress.org/User:Lorelle/Articles_Wanted. This is a table 
of contents for the online manual of a competitor. We used it to start 
to generate a reference guide for holes in the documentation. Please 
review it, link a document that covers the topic next to the topic 
title, and check and mark which of these have been already added to the 
Task List. If you find a topic that deserves an article, please mark it 
as for the TASK LIST (Codex:Tasks) and add it to the task list.  If you 
see gaps in the documentation where articles need to be added to match 
WordPress features and functions, add it.

I've started a tentative "index/master table of contents" at 
http://codex.wordpress.org/User:Lorelle/TOC but it is missing a lot of 
new documentation.  I've asked MichaelH to review it and add more 
documents to the list and I'm asking all of you to review it and think 
about what holes there are in the documentation. Then add them to the 
Articles Wanted and Task List.

In order to offer any form of "book", be it in pdf form or otherwise, we 
have to fill in the blanks.  Here are some of the biggest holes in the 
documentation as I see them:

* WordPress as a CMS (dealing with e-commerce, mailing lists, 
subscribers, link checking, stats monitoring and other related CMS topics)
* Developers Documentation - we need more docs on functions, database 
manipulation and information, and more advanced user topics.
* Advanced User Topics: If you have been paying attention, while the 
forum continues to get beginner questions, many people are discovering 
the Codex to answer the really simple stuff other than "my install is 
borked". The majority of the questions are about queries, feeds, and 
more sophisticated topics, topics in demand by the advanced user. Go 
through the forums and find the consistently requested ADVANCED topics 
and let's make a list to add these to the documentation.

And one more thing, and this is really important so I hope you are all 
paying attention.

Until very recently, the majority of documents added to the Codex were 
written 1) for fun (hey, I have an idea and want to share it), and 2) as 
part of a DYI project (I solved it and here is my solution).  We now 
need YOU, the documentation team volunteers, to 1) start writing because 
the work must be written, and 2) recruit others to help write the 
documentation that needs to be written.

To fill in these gaps, we have to write because the need is there, not 
because we "want" to. That means we need a list of what needs to be 
written, and we need people to take on these assignments. I'm not ready 
to start recommending deadlines, but expect it to come soon, especially 
as it gets closer to the release of 1.6. I'll cover that in another 
thread, but if we, as a team, want to provide quality information, take 
the pressure off the forums as the sole source of official WordPress 
help, and share the support burden, we need to write for purpose, not 
just for fun.

Oh, don't worry. We'll make it fun, after all this is volunteer work, 
but let's focus on the tasks that need to be done and do them well.

Lorelle