[documentation] wiki style help pages

[ricco at webulite.com]

Hi Shai,

I would not call myself a programmer or a developer. I know some php, and
I maintain my Drupal install, and have done some mode... but I am talking
about (B) improving the usability of the drupal documentation. Since I am
a believer and user of the wiki asepcts of Drupal, I choose "Wiki" +
"Help" as the group, I would create. To imply "Help" with the "wiki"
stuff. But, I would be happy to help with documentation of more that wiki
functionality, if the Drupal system would install a wiki, for all their
documentation.

Thanks for telling me that you can EDIT a wiki handbook if you join the
wiki documentation project. That for example is a pretty amazing
revelation. And you would think that instructions to do that would be on
the very first documentation page off the documentation tab.

... but I just went to http://drupal.org/project/documentation per your
suggestion, and I am logged in, and there is no link to join. I did start
following a few links, and headed to here; http://drupal.org/node/23367
and even there it does not indicate how to become a person that get's an
edit tab of doc pages. There is lots of talk about guidelines and how to
"submit an issues", etc... as you say it is a bit "tricky".

The point being, it certianly is not easy... and perhaps that is why there
are only 240+ people on the doc team. Now on mediawiki.org my mother can
figure out how to add a sentence to any page in about 3 minutes. Why can
Drupal wiki's documentation be THAT easy? the more eyes and hands updating
the pages, they better documentation it will become. And it needs to be
Easy and Obvious for even the beginner to do it.

This page; http://drupal.org/project/issues/documentation/ seems the
closest thing I have found to adding to the documentation. and then this;
http://drupal.org/node/240536 which seems to be a form that allows me to
request to join the doc team, but look at the extra pull downs and check
boxes I need to add. i have to decide what part of the team I want to
join, and what functionality I want to add to... god it just seems so damn
complex, certainly not inviting.  Does this mean if I pick the wrong
component type that I will not be able to edit other component pages, how
can I pick ALL?

As you can see I am crying out for either direction to the hidden way of
viewing things differently than i have been to see what you see... or
trying to point out, that the documentation system is too complex to be
inviting to get people to join.

Second... do the documentation pages allow FREELINKING, ie [[happy page]]
? I got the impression that this was not supported in the documentation.

I would be happy to join the #drupal-support or some other channel if
someone can walk me though understanding this.

Cheers! Ricco


> Hi Ricco,
>
> I'm still confused after reading your e-mail which of the following is
> your
> primary passion right now:
>
> a. making Drupal, the software, a really great platform for wiki
> implementations
>
> or
>
> b. improving wiki functionality for the documentation sections at
> Drupal.org
> .
>
> Though you can argue that a and b are certainly related, I think it would
> help folks to understand which of the two is your first interest in order
> to
> figure out the best way for you to get involved.
>
> As an FYI, in order to see the "edit" tab on documentation pages at
> drupal.org, one need only join the documentation team, by submitting a
> request at http://drupal.org/project/documentation.
>
> It can be a little tricky figuring out exactly how and where to help in
> Drupal, especially at the beginning. But I really hope you figure it out.
> I
> myself am very much interested in developing wiki functionality on a
> couple
> of sites right now and I too think that Drupal can be way more powerful
> with
> easier UI than Mediawiki.
>
> All the best,
>
> Shai
> content2zero <http://content2zero.com>