[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Wiki page for Freeciv manual

[Christian Knoke <chrisk@xxxxxxxx>]

----- Forwarded message from "T.J.T van Kooten" <thomas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> -----

From: "T.J.T van Kooten" <thomas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 23:33:14 +0200
To: Christian Knoke <chrisk@xxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Freeciv-Dev] Re: Wiki page for Freeciv manual
X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v4.11)

Proper documentation is indeed a must. CMA is a good example most 
seem to unaware of this feature because (a)the important info buried 
away in a readme, (b) isn't mentioned in the official manual (this is 
were a wiki system could help) and (c) isn't properly explained in the 
game itself either (we need more help popups). 

And we don't need to the start from scratch. Information we have at 
present could serve as a starting point for the wiki. 

However this as much a social problem as a technical problem. I've 
been checking wiki's a bit and the main advice i've read about 
succesful wiki's is that a small group (3-5 people) should try and build 
the main system. Write and update the main pages, set up a main 
structure that's easy to understand for the casual user, don't be too 
critical about new user entries and give credit were credit is due. After 
that the initial founders start to become maintainers. Seeing as I'm not 
a programmer I would gladly help out with that.

The technical side poses challenges as well of course. But i think a 
wiki would work better then the current system were we just hope 
someone gets around to writing some documentation. 

Thomas (CapTVK)

> On Sun, May 11, 2003 at 03:14:18PM +0200, Reinier Post wrote:
> > On Sun, May 11, 2003 at 12:24:03PM +0200, T.J.T van Kooten wrote:
> > 
> > [...]
> > 
> > > Here's an idea on how to improve and keep the Freeciv manual up to
> > > date: "Create a Freeciv manual WIKI page"
> > 
> > Seems a very good idea to me.  Unfortunately my project to explore
> > some wikis (for other purposes) will be limping on for some time. 
> > When I select one we can also use it for Freeciv.
> > 
> > Alternatively we can add wiki-like features to the existing manual.
> > Perhaps that is even better.
> 
> I think documentation needs to be improved in quantity, accessability,
> integration, localization. That means (to me) better structure of web
> doc, adding docs only available as text right now, easy ways to
> translate it part by part (not big html pages as it is now). I was
> dreaming about an xml system to achieve this, but wasn't able to
> present anything material yet.
> 
> Maybe a wiki can help, at least with quantity ... I don't know with
> the other goals.
> 
> Whatever wiki we use, it is IMHO necessary to integrate the existing
> information there. Do everything in one place ... oops, wrong firm.
> 
> A good prove of the lack of docs is here:
> 
> http://www.freeciv.org/poll.phtml
> 
> Christian
> 
> -- 
> Christian Knoke     * * *      http://www.enter.de/~c.knoke/
> * * * * * * * * *  Ceterum censeo Microsoft esse dividendum.
> 



----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
Christian Knoke     * * *      http://www.enter.de/~c.knoke/
* * * * * * * * *  Ceterum censeo Microsoft esse dividendum.