[documentation] About/Getting started/Getting involved handbooks

[Addison Berry]

Well,  I've had the conversation once before and it was left that we  
would probably get rid of the About book and just split it up between  
Getting started and the new one. I changed my feelings on it with more  
time to contemplate it and now that we are preparing to actually do  
the major reorg very soon, I wanted to make sure we were all on board  
with how we should do it.

I'm not really concerned about "marketing people" and what they do or  
do not do/want to do, but I do want the material we already have to be  
easier for evaluators to find.

Basically I just wanted to be clear, myself, on whether to "take over"  
the About book for the new one or not. Seems like the general idea is  
not. That is the main clarification that I needed.

- Addi


On Aug 11, 2008, at 12:08 PM, Steven Peck wrote:

> Haven't we had this discussion several times already?
>
> I had thought the About Drupal was to be about the Drupal community /
> drupal.org and that all the marketing gunk that no one ever works on
> more then few minutes would be separated out?
>
> I know we've had people volunteer to do it before but then they go
> poof 3 days later.
>
> Steven
>
> On Sun, Aug 10, 2008 at 6:57 PM, Brenda Boggs
> <brenda at alligatorsneeze.com> wrote:
>> I also like option #1.  The "About" section needs to be prominent,
>> something evaluators can find very quickly, and that'd really be  
>> easiest
>> if it's in it's own section.  The description needs to be more  
>> clear on
>> what exactly is in the section.  Maybe even something along the lines
>> of, "Before You Start" rather than "About".  If nothing else, a few
>> prominent links such as a section on "What Can Drupal Do?" or what  
>> have
>> you on the main handbook page.
>>
>> Brenda
>>
>> Addison Berry wrote:
>>> OK, so here is the last major discussion point that came out of the
>>> August 8 IRC meeting. Sorry for spamming the docs list. ;-)
>>>
>>> As mentioned in the Summary email we raised the subject of what do
>>> about the new Getting Involved book in relation to the existing  
>>> About
>>> and Getting Started books. The two options we were discussing were:
>>>
>>> 1. Create the new book in addition to About. Rework the About book.
>>> 2. Have the new book replace the About book. Move non-contributing
>>> kinds of things to Getting started.
>>>
>>> The idea/argument behind #1 is that we would retain an About book  
>>> and
>>> that the contents of it would be shifted to focusing on information
>>> for "evaluator" types. This would have things like an overview of  
>>> what
>>> this Drupal thing is and "marketing" stuff for lack of a better  
>>> term -
>>> things like the Case studies/showcase site listing and "press" kinda
>>> stuff, if it exists. This wouldn't be a big book.
>>>
>>> Option #2 is to just not have an About book anymore. We would  
>>> "take it
>>> over" for the new Getting Involved book and move anything that isn't
>>> for Getting Involved into the Getting Started book instead.
>>>
>>> My feeling is, and general IRC discussion leaned towards, option #1.
>>> The reasoning for that is that I feel like the Getting Started book
>>> should be mostly focused on actually doing stuff to get started and
>>> not have lots of extra information to sift through. I'd prefer that
>>> stuff about Drupal be in an "About" book and stuff about actually
>>> using Drupal be in the "Getting Started" book.
>>>
>>> We need to make a decision on this relatively soon, as we hope to
>>> launch the new Getting Involved book in the next few weeks. So,  
>>> PLEASE
>>> DISCUSS.
>>> --
>>> Pending work: http://drupal.org/project/issues/documentation/
>>> List archives: http://lists.drupal.org/pipermail/documentation/
>>>
>>
>> --
>> Brenda Boggs
>> Drupal Consulting and Web Development
>> http://www.alligatorsneeze.com
>> brenda at alligatorsneeze.com
>> P: 760.201.3550
>> IM: denel003
>>
>> --
>> Pending work: http://drupal.org/project/issues/documentation/
>> List archives: http://lists.drupal.org/pipermail/documentation/
>>
> --
> Pending work: http://drupal.org/project/issues/documentation/
> List archives: http://lists.drupal.org/pipermail/documentation/