Hi Tobie, Having one official FAQ on the prototypejs.org website sounds great.
The mechanism sounds a bit manpower-intensive, though, particularly for you. For example: I send you a FAQ entry, you glance at it and post it, and then I see a typo in it -- doh! Fixing my typo then means my emailing you and you taking the time to go fix it; that's just a waste of your time. I'd rather see something more directly community-managed, with history and a log of what user did what (for accountability), etc., etc. -- e.g., a wiki or similar. Now, of course, we can have that on prototypejs.org. There's lots of wiki software out there, or wiki.prototypejs.org could be hosted on a wiki service like WikiSpaces or similar. But then we start getting into someone (you?) spending the time to set that up and maintain it, yet another user list to manage, etc., and I'm sort of trying to avoid adding things to peoples' plates. At the end of the day, I'll happily use what's there. :-) For me, it's more important that it be fairly (but not completely) open than that it be actually on prototypejs.org; if we can have both without too much effort, great, but otherwise I'd go for the quick and easy solution for now. -- T.J. Crowder tj / crowder software / com On Jun 17, 1:09 pm, Tobie Langel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi again, > > An anonymous wiki clearly wouldn't work, you're absolutely right. > > I've thought a bit more about this and end up thinking I'd be in favor > of a unique FAQ page on the Prototype website. > > Maintaining two different FAQs and figuring out where what belongs is > just going to be a pain. > > I also think that these FAQs would belong on the prototypejs.org > website as it's the point of entry to the framework. > > We probably should separate those FAQs in a series of categories, for > example: > > GENERAL > - What is Prototype? > - Under which license is it released? > - How do I download it? > > CONTRIBUTING: > - where can I report bugs? > - what versioning system is Prototype using? > - how do I download the source code? > > COMMON GOTCHAS: > - I'm getting a foobar error, what does that mean? > - My Ajax.Request doesn't work (SOP) > > etc. > > I'm willing to set up and maintain a FAQ page on the website provided > new FAQ's are emailed to me directly in Markdown format. > > Let me know what you think. > > Best, > > Tobie > > On Jun 17, 12:22 pm, "T.J. Crowder" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Hey Tobie, > > > Sounds great! > > > For me the key thing is to have at least one FAQ that the community > > can contribute to directly. If we can do that on prototypejs.org > > without taking someone's time away from other things, that's a clear > > winner. If not, though, just linking to the FAQ from prototypejs.org > > should be plenty good enough. > > > Your two FAQs thing makes sense to me if we can clearly define the > > difference in mission between them. Perhaps that difference might be > > as simple as: One of them is maintained by core and "official", the > > other is maintained by community and therefore caveat emptor. :-) > > > Sadly, I'm not enough of a believer in humanity that I see a > > completely open, anonymous wiki -- which means dealing with user > > management, permissions, etc. Hence my taking the easy way out and > > using a Google Group page (for now, anyway). > > -- > > T.J. Crowder > > tj / crowder software / com > > > On Jun 17, 10:26 am, Tobie Langel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > Hi T.J., > > > > Why not host in on the prototypejs.org website ? > > > > Ultimately, we might actually need two FAQs: > > > > One, general, on the Prototype website, another one, more specific > > > (problem solving related, really) on the Google groups page. > > > > Thoughts ? > > > > Tobie > > > > T.J. Crowder wrote: > > > > Hi all, > > > > > In the discussion about renaming/replacing this group, a few of us > > > > mentioned a FAQ. If there's a FAQ somewhere, it's reasonably well > > > > hidden. :-) In that other thread, kangax wrote: > > > > > > I have started on a FAQ some time ago. It's fairly basic, but could be > > > > > a good start > > > > > Excellent! We have a starting point (and knowing kangax, his > > > > "starting point" is probably where most people thing "Yeah, okay, > > > > that's good enough for now."). > > > > > In terms of hosting it and keeping it possible for people to improve > > > > it, I see a couple of options: > > > > > 1. Fairly obvious, we could host the FAQ on Google Groups as a "page" > > > > attached to the users group and allow either members or (if there's a > > > > problem with malicious edits) managers to edit it. > > > > > Pros: A) It's attached to the group and so quite easy to find if > > > > you're using the web interface; B) Google Groups pages are fairly easy > > > > to edit; C) Groups provides reasonable controls over the pages along > > > > with basic versioning; D) Same member/manager/owner stuff that applies > > > > to the group applies to the pages. > > > > > Cons: A) The UI is nice for simple things but doesn't even provide a > > > > means of doing preformatted sections or anchors, both of which seem > > > > important for a code-related FAQ -- instead, you have to use the Edit > > > > HTML feature; B) It's attached to the group, rather than to Prototype > > > > (yes, I know that was also a "pro"). > > > > > 2. I can't help but notice that GitHub provides wikis for projects, so > > > > if the core team want, we could put it somewhere on > > > >http://github.com/sstephenson/prototype/wikis. I'm probably not > > > > familiar enough with GitHub to do a proper pros and cons for it, but: > > > > > Pros: A) It's attached to Prototype rather than the group; B) It's a > > > > proper wiki. > > > > > Cons: A) Completely different set of users and permissions (Git vs. > > > > Group); B) Less obviously associated with the users group. > > > > > Off the cuff, I lean toward hosting it on the group's "pages" despite > > > > the failings of Google's editor (I mean, we can all just about edit > > > > HTML, right?). We can also use Pastie (http://pastie.org) for > > > > questions/answers involving any significant amount of code, although > > > > usually it's oneliner stuff we can do inline. > > > > > I lean toward the pages rather than GitHub for two reasons: A) Having > > > > the same members/managers/owner stuff for the FAQ as for the group > > > > seems like a good idea, B) Of the two choices above, for me > > > > associating it with the group (user land) rather than GitHub > > > > (developer/committer land) makes sense. > > > > > Thoughts? > > > > -- > > > > T.J. Crowder > > > > tj / crowder software / com --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Spinoffs" group. 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