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</style></head><body>Hi All, Greg, Matt,<BR>
<BR>
I am one of those who wants to do Manuals, but don't know how/where to start<BR>
<BR>
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<BR>
<BR>
Similar to<BR>
GSoC Student Guide : <a href="http://write.flossmanuals.net/gsocstudentguide/what-is-google-summer-of-code/" target="_blank">http://write.flossmanuals.net/gsocstudentguide/what-is-google-summer-of-code/</a><BR>
and<BR>
GSoC Mentors Manual : <a href="http://write.flossmanuals.net/gsoc-mentoring/about-this-manual/" target="_blank">http://write.flossmanuals.net/gsoc-mentoring/about-this-manual/</a><BR>
<BR>
Possible titles:<BR>
Technical Writing for FLOSS projects<BR>
Which can be broken up into 2 projects<BR>
Writing Technical Documents<BR>
Writing Everyday use Documents<BR>
Copy Editing for FLOSS projects<BR>
<BR>
Often FLOSS software projects, have documentation from a Technical perspective, not how to use the software in everyday use<BR>
<BR>
also: How to update the manual ( Maintenance )<BR>
<BR>
Another document could be:<BR>
Why would you write Documentation for FLOSS Manuals<BR>
Have a intro, then get authors of existing FLOSS Manuals to give their take on why they wrote a manual<BR>
<BR>
Thanks<BR>
William<BR>
________________________________________<BR>
From: Discuss <discuss-bounces@lists.flossmanuals.net> on behalf of Gregory Pittman <gpittman@iglou.com><BR>
Sent: 03 January 2018 02:41<BR>
To: <a href="mailto:discuss@lists.flossmanuals.net">discuss@lists.flossmanuals.net</a><BR>
Subject: Re: [FM Discuss] Hi folks<BR>
<BR>
On 01/02/2018 06:36 PM, M R wrote:<BR>
> Hi Greg (and whomever else):<BR>
><BR>
><BR>
> Thanks. One of the follow-up questions I had is about the relationship<BR>
> between a given Floss documentation project and the 'official'<BR>
> documentation supported by that software's own organization. Two<BR>
> examples (since I happen to be familiar with these tools): Audacity and<BR>
> Blender. Both of these organizations have documentation sites (online<BR>
> manuals, wikis, tutorial pages) that are far more detailed and<BR>
> comprehensive (not to mention more current to latest releases) than the<BR>
> respective Floss doc projects. I'd add the same for GIMP, actually. So<BR>
> on the one hand, this offers a great deal of scope for adding more<BR>
> detail, additional chapters etc to the relevant Floss books. On the<BR>
> other hand, it somewhat begs the question of why we'd be doing this in<BR>
> the first place? Some of the Floss doc projects I've seen are not<BR>
> specific to a particular technology, or focus on some niche use of that<BR>
> technology, so in those cases they're clearly not duplicating other doc<BR>
> efforts elsewhere. But when it comes to basic user manuals on tools<BR>
> that are already very richly documented....I am just curious about who<BR>
> is reading the Floss documentation vs the official documentation. For<BR>
> me personally, Floss is promising as a way to build up a technical<BR>
> writing portfolio, so I'm happy to have the opportunity to add a few<BR>
> chapters to the Blender or Audacity or GIMP books, or indeed maybe write<BR>
> a whole manual for Unity3D, which is an open-source tool I know pretty<BR>
> well and not yet represented on Floss. But I do have to wonder who<BR>
> might actually *read* such docs, as opposed to simply going to the<BR>
> makers' own documentation.<BR>
><BR>
><BR>
> I'd be interested in answers from anyone on the list. It's clear that<BR>
> the original Floss project in the late aughts had an important place in<BR>
> open-source documentation, esp in Dutch and other non-English European<BR>
> languages. 10 years on, I'm not as certain. But I'm very open to being<BR>
> convinced.<BR>
><BR>
<BR>
I'm hoping there will be plenty of answers other than mine. To some<BR>
extent, flossmanuals fills a need where no good manuals exist. Beyond<BR>
that, I've seen a number of comprehensive manuals associated with<BR>
projects that are hard to absorb as a new user. There may be a need for<BR>
a particular point of view. Part of what you need to decide is whether<BR>
you think that something you're working on fills a need.<BR>
<BR>
Personally, I'm involved with the Scribus project. There is an online<BR>
manual that comes with it, a wiki, and Christoph Schäfer and I wrote<BR>
what's been dubbed the "Official Manual", which is/was a physical book,<BR>
and it cost money to purchase. Meanwhile there was a group of French<BR>
speakers who got together and wrote a flossmanual, Scribus. I liked the<BR>
approach, focusing on taking a user through one or more projects with<BR>
Scribus, so I translated it into English for flossmanuals.<BR>
<BR>
One might argue that there never are too many manuals, though I would<BR>
say that each should justify its existence. Also, existing manuals<BR>
become dated. The one that Christoph and I wrote in 2009 is now in many<BR>
ways outmoded by new developments in Scribus.<BR>
<BR>
Greg<BR>
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