On 8/12/2011 08:47, Nóirín Plunkett wrote:
2011/8/12 Jürgen Schmidt<[email protected]>:
On Fri, Aug 12, 2011 at 12:19 AM, Simon Phipps<[email protected]> wrote:
Maybe. But I see no reason why this list needs the protection of being on a
controlled access page and would suggest doing so is what needs justifying.
I have not seen a reasoned counter to my proposal for it to be on the
community wiki, so will probably create such a page soon (unless someone
else wants to).
I think Rob has already pointed out why the list of tags besides the mailing
list is a good idea and i support it.
Just so that silence isn't assumed to be assent, I think both Rob and
Simon have good points, but I support the idea of putting the list of
tags in a location that's more accessible to new contributions (ie,
the wiki), even if that means it has to be one extra click for folk
who visit the website.
Noirin
The recent changes to the ML page provide an accidental illustration of
why most things belong on the wiki: web pages tend to get shabby and
out-of-date.
The ML page[1] changes were very nicely done. Following the "these
guidelines" link like a good little newbie led me to the ASF page[2] on
email tips. In the "Other email guidelines" section, I also followed the
links; one[3] gave me a 404 error. Link rot.
My hypothesis — I call it the Curse of the Web Page — is that such decay
is inevitable in a high-barrier-to-change environment, without a
dedicated corps of maintainers (a dull job). Old hands (who could fix
things) are unlikely to access the page at all (they already know this
stuff), or they're looking for something specific and wouldn't notice
problems elsewhere. Newbies, mousing around, /will/ notice, but can't
fix it. The Curse is not limited to links: typos, spelling, and other
infelicities are all evident on Apache pages; they need a little TLC.
On a wiki, the technically adept newbie might fix the problem right
there; others would just leave a note on the Talk page.
[1] http://incubator.apache.org/openofficeorg/mailing-lists.html
[2] http://www.apache.org/dev/contrib-email-tips.html
[3]
http://cocoon.apache.org/community/contrib.html#Contribution+Notes+and+Tips
(busted link, 404)
--
/tj/
