[wp-docs] Documentation Drive

[Lorelle on WordPress]

We've done these in the past and they have been very successful and very
not. :D They key is that they be coordinated and very clear in their
intention and structure.

People who write really awesome articles on WordPress want to "own" the
content. They also tend to want credit and links back to themselves to
further their reputation and often get paid jobs as a WordPress expert.
Finding a way to make this process work without the "I" and credit and make
it a team effort is the challenge.

The most successful approach has been when we work on the documents together
as a team across a one to two month "swarm" time (
http://www.scottporad.com/2009/06/24/want-to-get-more-done-heres-how-do-less/)
it is very successful as one comes up with an idea, writes it up in a
specific section off the table of contents, people add to it, edit it, and
develop the idea further though conversations in the IRC for docs. When it's
ready, it's moved into the final spot on the Codex and added to the TOC.
It's very intense and really works well.

Call to actions for people to submit their documents like a competition or
just encouraged to do so have been very unsuccessful. It's the stimulation
that comes from working with like minds that seems to encourage
participation rather than "here's my article" and the docs team having to
edit the "I" out of it. Boring work for all involved.

I'd love to take the energy from the WordPress 3.0 release to get the docs
team rocking. So that's a look at the past. What can we do now?

Lorelle


On Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 6:51 AM, John Blackbourn <johnbillion+wp at gmail.com>wrote:

> Mark Jaquith mentioned that 'We're even considering "taking a release
> off" to work on WordPress.org'. [1]
>
> If this is the case, maybe as part of this it would be a good idea to
> co-ordinate a documentation improvement drive. Kind of like a bug hunt
> but a not-very-good-documentation-hunt instead. In fact it could take
> just the same format as a bug hunt, but rather than going through
> tickets, volunteers would go through Codex articles and update or
> improve them as necessary. We could even identify areas that need new
> Codex articles writing and do that at the same time.
>
> I've also noticed [2] that the Info Page for each of the mailing lists
> are completely void of information (probably one of the main reason
> wp-hackers gets its steady stream of threads that don't really belong
> there). I don't know if Mailman allows for these pages to be
> customised, but they could be used to provide a big pile of
> information about exactly what the mailing list is and where best to
> get support in cases where the mailing list isn't appropriate.
> Information to go on these pages could be written as part of the
> documentation drive.
>
> Does this sound like a good idea? I think many members of the
> community would be willing to help out as we all know the docs need
> improving but I know personally that the motivation to do it is low (I
> do try!). A co-ordinated effort by the commnunity would give a big
> lift to all those involved.
>
> John
>
> [1] http://lists.automattic.com/pipermail/wp-hackers/2010-June/032370.html
> [2] http://lists.automattic.com/pipermail/wp-hackers/2010-June/032372.html
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