[documentation] Open editing/limiting creation?

[Addison Berry]

On Nov 7, 2008, at 12:30 AM, Angela Byron wrote:
> However. We should also think about "what if?" for create book page
> permissions globally locked down to only docs team members.

Overall I'm inclined to not cut it off entirely, but I'm definitely  
open to talking about that as an option. I'd really like other team  
members to weigh in on this. :-) My responses inline.

> This would offer several benefits:
>
> 1. No more spam/test pages appearing in the getting started guide,  
> which
> is most peoples' first impressions of Drupal's documentation. Not  
> cool.
> Of course, your proposal would deal with this too, but it requires  
> code.
Some code, not that much I'd say. Check if the person is on the team  
and, if not, form_alter the parent selector.

> 2. .... Requiring non-docs team
> members to add an issue for pages they'd like to add, with the text of
> the page in there, would allow docs team members to review new  
> additions
> and head these situations off at the pass (oh, actually this page
> already exists at X. Why not edit that so that it includes the nice
> clarifications you have here?). In this way it would sort of be like  
> the
> patch contributor / module maintainer roles we have with development
> projects.
I feel like requiring people to make an issue means people simply  
won't do it at all and they'll just post on their personal blog,  
dispersing the info even further. According to handbook stats more  
pages are created by non-team members: "Of the 23 added, 16 were  
created by people not on the documentation team" I'd rather let people  
make the pages and then we do that same monitoring and feedback  
without making them do the hoop dance. It would be similar to patch  
review, but docs is not code and trying to make docs follow code  
processes and conventions is one of the "problems" we are currently  
trying to get away from honestly. ;-)

> 3. With editing open to anyone, there is no longer a big incentive for
> joining the docs team, I don't think.
Well you still need to be on the team to use the doc format, which  
allows images.

> While the docs team at the moment
> is a powerhouse of awesomeness, over time people get busy with things,
> and it's important to constantly have an influx of new blood. So  
> making
> a "Ok, we trust you enough based on your edit contributions to give  
> you
> create page rights now" thing might be a nice way to reward those who
> are doing a great job.
Fewer people create new pages than most other activity in docs. I do  
plan to make the doc team more "special" as we move forward but I  
guess I personally don't see that as much of a reward. Perhaps I'm  
wrong on that one though and so it is something to consider.


- Addi (add1sun)
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