[documentation] Issue Queue vs. Listserve, Roles for Each

[Mr. Meitar Moscovitz]

On Jun 2, 2008, at 1:14 AM, Angela Byron wrote:

>> Another way to think of all this is that the list serve is for  
>> vetting
>> and the queue is for action.
>
> Exactly! :)
>
> -Angie

As a general rule, this makes a lot of sense to me (especially as a  
newcomer). The question that raises, though, is 'When is something  
considered "actionable"?'

I would imagine that any issue with the docs that can be "fixed" in a  
quick pass would be "actionable" but doesn't need discussion on this  
list or on the Docs issues, but something that needs more work (i.e.,  
restructuring, reorganizing, or adding lots of missing content, etc.)  
would probably be well-served by having some discussion about it.

In my (admittedly brief) surfing of docs issues, I haven't been seeing  
lots of links back to this lists' archives. I imagine it might be even  
more helpful for docs issues that began as listserve threads have a  
single link that points back to the archives to provide background for  
people new to the issue.

But then again, maybe I was just looking at the wrong docs issues  
while browsing. :)

Either way, I think aggressive, pervasive interlinking between docs  
issues and listserve threads would be helpful on all fronts.

Angie makes the good point that:

>> *Issue queue*
>> *for non-documentation team members:
>> --file as "bug" something that is a mistake in the docs section of  
>> the
>> d.o. handbook. (If the person is on the docs team, that person should
>> just fix it; no need to post in the queue.)
>
> Actually, docs team members can (and, imo, should) do this just as  
> well.
> It's best to have a list of all of the docs problems that were too
> complicated to fix in one quick pass in one place.

I'm not that familiar with Drupal's Issues system, but it seems to me  
that it mirrors functionality from other systems I'm used to like  
Bugzilla and Trac. In those cases, I'd never make any significant  
change that doesn't have a ticket or bug report attached to it. Does  
it make sense to create a doc issue, assign it to myself, then make  
whatever changes I thought were appropriate to the docs, then close  
the doc issue, without anyone else ever needing to see it? I'm not  
sure if there's some overhead to that (other than clicking) that I'm  
not aware of.

Obviously, that's a bit crazy for things like fixing typos or  
formatting corrections, but it does seem to make sense to me if  
something biggish needs to happen, and that addresses Angie's point of  
having "all the docs problems that were too complicated to fix in one  
quick pass in one place," which can only lead to Good Things, methinks….

Hope that's a clear explanation. I can never tell when I've had this  
much coffee….

Cheers,
--
-Meitar Moscovitz
Drupal: http://drupal.org/user/265715
Personal: http://maymay.net
Professional: http://MeitarMoscovitz.com