Re: [gentoo-doc] Wiki, Take #whatever

[Ben de Groot]

Josh Saddler wrote:
> Ben de Groot wrote:
>> I for one, am very much for a an officially Gentoo-hosted wiki. The
>> unofficial wiki has been a very valuable resource, even with its
>> shortcomings. I think we should bring it on board and offer the security
>> of our infra resources.
>
> Nope. The gentoo-wiki.com owner has already stated on the forums that he
> doesn't see a need for it to be hosted on our infrastructure. More to
> the point, he told our infra guys this when we offered him a box (he got
> a better overpowered offer elsewhere).

Did he do that after the recent debacle? I think he would be more
interested now. (Yes, people can change their mind...)

I don't think it would be worthwhile to start a competing wiki and
divide the userbase.

>> I am of the opinion that we should see the wiki more or less as we do
>> the forums. It is a place where users can contribute to the Gentoo
>> community. I would expect most of our users are internet-savvy enough to
>> understand the nature of a wiki as user-generated and user-editable
>> content, and therefore not being as reliable as say our official
>> documentation.
>
> Unfortunately, they do *not* understand this. Just look around the
> forums. Users are greatly surprised when wiki or forums tutorials break
> their boxes, then get busy pointing fingers and wondering why no one's
> updated the article. Or they notice that no one really knows; there's
> not a "solution" as such for their issue.
>
> If users see a wiki on gentoo.org, it seems more like it counts as
> "official, verified" information. Maybe the smarter ones  recognize that
> like the forums, it's limited and unofficial, but by and large we
> *cannot* depend on users understanding this.

Well, then it is a case of educating the ignorant, I'd say.

> And really, I don't know that I trust the users, given what
> gentoo-wiki.com has turned into. We've seen how far most the users can
> go, and it's not enough.

>> We could add a disclaimer to the footer along the lines of: this wiki is
>> open and free for everyone to edit, therefore Gentoo cannot guarantee
>> the accuracy of its content.
>
> That's shooting ourself in the foot right there. Personally, I don't see
> the point of a resource that cannot be verified nor vetted for
> correctness. In my view, documentation simply must be accurate,
> otherwise we are doing ourselves and our users a disservice.

So in essence you are against an open wiki, that can be freely edited by
users. In that case you're turning a wiki into just a different backend
for the official documentation project. There may be merit in that, but
it is a completely different project, and not a wiki as commonly
understood. And not something I am particularly interested in.

-- 
Ben de Groot
Gentoo Linux developer (lxde, media, desktop-misc)
Gentoo Linux Release Engineering PR liaison
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