Move Debian PowerPC web pages to the Debian wiki
Hi Everyone/Adrian,
I'm looking at pages like https://www.debian.org/ports/powerpc/ and
https://www.debian.org/ports/powerpc/inst/pmac. I believe the pages
are under control of the Debian webmasters. I think the pages should
be moved to a wiki so the community can maintain them.
The biggest reason for a wiki-based page is community updates. New
information can be added to pages as it becomes available. The
community can add the content so maintainers don't have to spend time
writing docs.
Wiki's also have a confounding property (to me) that they converge on
the right answer over time even though experts are _not_ curating the
content. There's supposed to be an IEEE or journal paper that explains
the phenomenon, but I've never read it. (I don't know the title and I
have not been able to locate it).
Wikis provide exceptional dissemination of long term,
less-frequently-changing information due in part to search engine
indexing. Search engines provide indexing of wikis, and the indexing
is superior to other mediums, like mailing lists. Search engines
usually return wiki content as a top search result. The quality search
results reduces mailing list messages and reduces work for maintainers
since they don't have to answer [the same] questions time and time
again.
On the other hand, mailing lists are great for break/fix, like
immediate problems on installing Debian 10 on a PowerMac. As soon as a
problem is encountered it can be addressed interactively. Once the
break/fix has been resolved, new information can be added to the wiki
for long term dissemination.
The biggest detraction for webmaster-controlled content is outdated
content. It's fairly obvious the Debian webmasters are not following
threads on the PowerPC list, and they are not updating content.
Because of the outdated content, users will constantly encounter
problems and constantly generate ailing list messages.
A lot of people don't like wikis, like the Apache folks.
Unfortunately, the Apache folks who forgo wiki's don't know how to
manage information in the modern era. Wikis are great for
dissemination of long term information, like how to install Debian on
PowerPC or how to install Debian on a PowerMac.
Folks like Apache are harming their own projects because they lack
expertise in managing information and personal dislikes. Don't be like
Apache.
Jeff
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