[haiku-web] Re: Fwd: [General] Add Comunity Project
- From: "Jorge G. Mare" <koki@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: haiku-web@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2009 21:26:07 -0700
Howdy,
Dennis d'Entremont wrote:
>
> That is probably because it is my personal desire to see a fully
> collaborative, anyone-can-contribute (even anonymously), location for
> tutorials, how-to's, and other communited-contributed content.
>
>
> I never thought of it this way until just now. This, IMO, is not such
> a bad option. There's lots of people out there who would probably
> contribute small tidbits here and there to a wiki style environment
> that didn't require becoming heavily involved in the community. I
> think these small tidbits could add up to be quite a bit of useful
> information.
>
> I don't necessarily agree with the anonymous part (I think everyone
> should at least have to register) but it's easier to get people to
> register on the site and have almost immediate access to contribute
> then it is to sign up to the mailing lists, learn the etiquette, and
> then throw in a word here or there and wait for someone to update the
> site.
>
> The easier we can make it to share and get information about Haiku the
> more likely people are to contribute, use and develop for it (IMHO).
In my experience/opinion, using a wiki will make no difference in
improving the quality of the documentation; in fact, I think it could
actually be detrimental for the quality of the content; that was why the
Haiku wiki was taken down in the first place: it had become a nobody's
land full of inaccurate and redundant information, and a place that
many used to express their opinions rather than to convey factual
information. A free for all system (wiki or not), lends itself to this
sort of results, which is why I personally do not like it.
I have the experience with a certain user group where I had installed
and configured MovableType for the website; this system worked really
well for more than three years, during which time it was used by several
content contributors. When I moved on, the person who took over the site
decided to migrate to a wiki; the reason given was that "he wanted more
participation and collaboration from others" (I think the truth was that
he just preferred a wiki over MT). The migration was very labor
intensive and time consuming (he did it manually), plus it generated a
lot of link rot. If you asked me "was the effort to migrate worthwile?",
I would reply with a resounding NO, as in the end the wiki did nothing
to increase collaboration (the site is still a one man thing to date).
The morale of the above (true) story is that if people want to
participate, they would; if they don't it's because they don't have the
time or motivation (or both). Since we moved to Drupal, a lot of people
requested and were granted editing permissions to the website, but most
of them have done little or nothing with it. Moreover, any registered
user can submit content, including documents for users and developers,
news posts, RFCs and conferences: with very few exceptions, we have not
seen a significant contribution here either.
Summary, I don't buy it that the lack of collaboration is a technical
issue associated with the CMS that we happen to use. Granted, Haiku's
website may not be perfect, but perhaps we should analyze what needs to
be improved and pursue such improvements to our existing infrastructure,
rather than to look elsewhere; that's where I think the focus should be
IMNSHO. :)
Cheers,
Jorge
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