Unified documentation site - I need your input

[Tom Mann]

bookfair.ubuntu.com ?

[az]

I have the basic functionality started:

http://demo.ubuntu-rescue-remix.org

The theme sucks, as well as the rating scheme is based in some places on hits, while others on the fivestar rating. But anyway, this is what I am thinking of.

Currently, you don't need to link your article to a site, but maybe I'll enforce that eventually. Maybe I'll make it a dropdown list. That would be ugly, though.


Thoughts?

[Frak]

Kind of going technical into it, but you could use Flash to do some of the work for you, and by flash I mean using Flash4Linux and the Gnash player. Both are open implementations of each other and fully GPL compliant.

And from using Flash before, IMHO, the interface is familiar to Flash 8-CS3. (It looks nearly the same, except for the button style, but that would be the only difference)

[az]

Since there is no open standard for Flash, I try to avoid it whenever possible. Anyway, I am not a developper.

[az]

bookfair.ubuntu.com ?

What about Ubuntu-top-forty.org?

[picpak]

I have the basic functionality started:

http://demo.ubuntu-rescue-remix.org

The theme sucks, as well as the rating scheme is based in some places on hits, while others on the fivestar rating. But anyway, this is what I am thinking of.

Currently, you don't need to link your article to a site, but maybe I'll enforce that eventually. Maybe I'll make it a dropdown list. That would be ugly, though.


Thoughts?

A nice start, but a little confusing. An excerpt from the post would be great. I mean, a topic called "LAMP server" doesn't mean anything to the new user.

Think something like the Ubuntu documentation equivalent of elbo.ws.

[az]

A nice start, but a little confusing. An excerpt from the post would be great. I mean, a topic called "LAMP server" doesn't mean anything to the new user.

Think something like the Ubuntu documentation equivalent of elbo.ws.

Yes, I could put a very short teaser. But for now, it's really ugly when I do that. To make it pretty, I would need to work on themeing. I won't do the theming, until the usability is there since I would have to work on the theming every time I change the usability....

[mattheweast]

(editing this post due to a initial misunderstanding about the site's aims)

It's a nice idea but I'd like to see a way to integrate this sort of approach into the main Ubuntu help website. Obviously, links to external sites can be used on the wiki to supplement existing articles and some kind of rating system might be productive if implemented in the right way. It might help to give an idea of reliability as described here - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HelpWikiQualityAssurance

Have you got any ideas about how to improve the help wiki so that it can become include the functionality you are looking to create in your site?

[az]

(editing this post due to a initial misunderstanding about the site's aims)

It's a nice idea but I'd like to see a way to integrate this sort of approach into the main Ubuntu help website. Obviously, links to external sites can be used on the wiki to supplement existing articles and some kind of rating system might be productive if implemented in the right way. It might help to give an idea of reliability as described here - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HelpWikiQualityAssurance

Have you got any ideas about how to improve the help wiki so that it can become include the functionality you are looking to create in your site?

Hi Matthew!

Not really.

I don't really know if the wiki can offer the features that are needed. But who cares? I think the wiki does what it is supposed to do very well - that is to be a wiki. The problem is that a wiki doesn't serve all the different needs.

What is needed is for folks to think of one place when they are searching for help. I think that a dynamic site (similar to digg, as mentioned) where people can rate content would work best. The best-rated or most popular content is shown more prominently than the less popular ones. This would allow for a Darwin-type quality-control effect.

It doesn't matter whether the upstream web site is run by mediawiki, wordpress or Moin Moin. Documentation is backend-agnostic.

You wouldn't be able to have complete control over that upstream content, but the alternative is to completely ignore it. And that won't prevent people from creating it, nor prevent them from using it and finding it helpful.

Is there any chance the docteam would want to run a CMS like this? Can you think of a good name for it? I am reluctant to register an "ubuntu-library" domain name, since that is exceptionally boring (apologies to those who prefer it...)

[mattheweast]

Hi Matthew!
What is needed is for folks to think of one place when they are searching for help. I think that a dynamic site (similar to digg, as mentioned) where people can rate content would work best. The best-rated or most popular content is shown more prominently than the less popular ones. This would allow for a Darwin-type quality-control effect.

I'd like the place for people to think of when searching for help to be the help website. And I agree that rating and comments can be useful for improving documentation pages, if used properly. I do think that it can be made part of a quality control process for the help wiki.

It doesn't matter whether the upstream web site is run by mediawiki, wordpress or Moin Moin. Documentation is backend-agnostic.

I agree

You wouldn't be able to have complete control over that upstream content, but the alternative is to completely ignore it. And that won't prevent people from creating it, nor prevent them from using it and finding it helpful.

Not completely ignore it. I think the best approach is via discussion, and where possible, integration. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Documentatio...dentDocEfforts

Is there any chance the docteam would want to run a CMS like this? Can you think of a good name for it?

I don't think so - the docteam doesn't have the resources to do so, and personally I think the best approach is to create a single resource which address all the needs that people have. I believe that is possible. It needs efforts to be focused in the right place though.