[documentation] Contributors to docs need more public recognition

[Steve Dondley]

On Mon, May 26, 2008 at 1:12 AM, Angela Byron <drupal-docs at webchick.net> wrote:
> Steve Dondley wrote:
>> With this in mind, I recommend the following:
>>
>> 1) A block down the side to give public recognition to all those who
>> have contributed to the documentation (maybe sorted by the number of
>> revisions).
>> 2) A link at the top of the block to the list of revisions with an
>> encouragement for user to click there to admire the hard work of
>> others.
>>
>> I think this is a modest change that hopefully won't take a lot of
>> effort. I think the payoff would be big.
>
> I don't feel that my concerns raised in the other thread were adequately
> addressed, but I was redirected here, so...

This is the same thread. We are talking about a completely different
proposal, which is to put a block down the side to publicly call
attention to those who contributed to a document page.

> Your initial proposal still requires code to be written, tested, and
> integrated into d.o. Who's going to write this code and do the necessary
> testing? Are you stepping up to take this on?

That is not addressed in the proposal. I have no idea how this would
be accomplished on the site. That would take some research.

>
> And, unless it has an opt-out/in feature of some sort, people like me
> are probably going to stop contributing to the handbooks because we're
> going to get inundated with e-mails from people asking for support on
> pages we wrote 2 years ago. Are you sure that's what you want?

I get unsolicited email all the time from people looking for help. I
write what I alway write if I'm too busy "Sorry, love to help, but I
can't."

Plus, you have to do an analysis: Is it worth it to put up with a
couple more emails per week to help the Drupal project get more
contributors. I say, hell yes!

> And, if it has an opt-out/in feature, then it'll end up completely
> inconsistent across the handbook pages on the site and confuse our
> users, resulting in support requests that we have to divert resources to
> answering.

Well, first we have to decided if this opt in/out feature is really
necessary. I don't think it is.

> What's wrong with just having the revisions tab, again? So far, the only
> complaint I've seen is that anon users can't view it, which is likely
> done for performance reasons, but you could always start an issue in the
> webmasters queue to check.

What's wrong with being as public as possible with patting people on
the back? It will build the project. I don't know one person who would
prefer to contribute the Drupal project in total obscurity. See my
reasons above for why giving people credit for their work is a good
thing and will build the project. Let me ask you a direct question:

Do you think giving people more credit will help Drupal find more
contributors? Yes or no? Because that's what this is really about.

>
> -Angie
>
> --
> Pending work: http://drupal.org/project/issues/documentation/
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>



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