[FM Discuss] Hi folks

Wed Jan 3 00:40:10 PST 2018

Hi there,

This is a great idea. Here’s a suggested way to go about it but just a suggestion.

I’ve cloned the out of date manual here http://write.flossmanuals.net/floss-manuals/
To here http://write.flossmanuals.net/flossmanuals
I’ve added a chapter at the end with the updated workflow in a nutshell.

The manual is VERY out of date and hasn’t been on the front page for a while but we can use this as a base and a way to work out what is still relevant or what needs re-doing.

I’ve also created a gitlab repo which we can use as an issue tracker / wiki to help communication if there is more detail than is appropriate for this list but for the moment let’s use this list for communication.
Please let me know if the permissions are appropriate and if people want to be admins on this.
https://gitlab.com/flossmanuals/fm_booktype

Thanks
Mick

Mick Chesterman
Educational Innovation and Enterprise Tutor &
EdLab Project Developer
Department of Childhood, Youth and Education Studies.
Manchester Metropolitan University
Web: http://edlab.org.uk<http://edlab.org.uk/> / Twitter: @EdLabMMU
Phone: 0161 2472060

Please note: My working days are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday

From: Discuss [mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net] On Behalf Of William Walter Kinghorn
Sent: 03 January 2018 05:02
To: discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net
Subject: Re: [FM Discuss] Hi folks

Hi All, Greg, Matt,

I am one of those who wants to do Manuals, but don't know how/where to start

Matt, you say that you have Technical Writing and Copy Editing skills, could you possibly start a manual (or 2) that will help me (us, as there are possibly more than just me) to get ourselves going

Similar to
GSoC Student Guide : http://write.flossmanuals.net/gsocstudentguide/what-is-google-summer-of-code/
and
GSoC Mentors Manual : http://write.flossmanuals.net/gsoc-mentoring/about-this-manual/

Possible titles:
Technical Writing for FLOSS projects
Which can be broken up into 2 projects
Writing Technical Documents
Writing Everyday use Documents
Copy Editing for FLOSS projects

Often FLOSS software projects, have documentation from a Technical perspective, not how to use the software in everyday use

also: How to update the manual ( Maintenance )

Another document could be:
Why would you write Documentation for FLOSS Manuals
Have a intro, then get authors of existing FLOSS Manuals to give their take on why they wrote a manual

Thanks
William
________________________________________
From: Discuss <discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net<mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net>> on behalf of Gregory Pittman <gpittman at iglou.com<mailto:gpittman at iglou.com>>
Sent: 03 January 2018 02:41
To: discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net<mailto:discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
Subject: Re: [FM Discuss] Hi folks

On 01/02/2018 06:36 PM, M R wrote:
> Hi Greg (and whomever else):
>
>
> Thanks. One of the follow-up questions I had is about the relationship
> between a given Floss documentation project and the 'official'
> documentation supported by that software's own organization. Two
> examples (since I happen to be familiar with these tools): Audacity and
> Blender. Both of these organizations have documentation sites (online
> manuals, wikis, tutorial pages) that are far more detailed and
> comprehensive (not to mention more current to latest releases) than the
> respective Floss doc projects. I'd add the same for GIMP, actually. So
> on the one hand, this offers a great deal of scope for adding more
> detail, additional chapters etc to the relevant Floss books. On the
> other hand, it somewhat begs the question of why we'd be doing this in
> the first place? Some of the Floss doc projects I've seen are not
> specific to a particular technology, or focus on some niche use of that
> technology, so in those cases they're clearly not duplicating other doc
> efforts elsewhere. But when it comes to basic user manuals on tools
> that are already very richly documented....I am just curious about who
> is reading the Floss documentation vs the official documentation. For
> me personally, Floss is promising as a way to build up a technical
> writing portfolio, so I'm happy to have the opportunity to add a few
> chapters to the Blender or Audacity or GIMP books, or indeed maybe write
> a whole manual for Unity3D, which is an open-source tool I know pretty
> well and not yet represented on Floss. But I do have to wonder who
> might actually *read* such docs, as opposed to simply going to the
> makers' own documentation.
>
>
> I'd be interested in answers from anyone on the list. It's clear that
> the original Floss project in the late aughts had an important place in
> open-source documentation, esp in Dutch and other non-English European
> languages. 10 years on, I'm not as certain. But I'm very open to being
> convinced.
>

I'm hoping there will be plenty of answers other than mine. To some
extent, flossmanuals fills a need where no good manuals exist. Beyond
that, I've seen a number of comprehensive manuals associated with
projects that are hard to absorb as a new user. There may be a need for
a particular point of view. Part of what you need to decide is whether
you think that something you're working on fills a need.

Personally, I'm involved with the Scribus project. There is an online
manual that comes with it, a wiki, and Christoph Schäfer and I wrote
what's been dubbed the "Official Manual", which is/was a physical book,
and it cost money to purchase. Meanwhile there was a group of French
speakers who got together and wrote a flossmanual, Scribus. I liked the
approach, focusing on taking a user through one or more projects with
Scribus, so I translated it into English for flossmanuals.

One might argue that there never are too many manuals, though I would
say that each should justify its existence. Also, existing manuals
become dated. The one that Christoph and I wrote in 2009 is now in many
ways outmoded by new developments in Scribus.

Greg
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