Re: Idea: Master Debian FAQ (newbie-centric)
On Sun, Oct 22, 2000 at 02:22:35PM -0500, William Jensen wrote:
> As a newcomer to Debian I, like many since I've joined this list, ask typical
> newbie questions about the some basic things.
> Each one of those topics probably has a handful of "how do I" associated with
> it that a very new user would "typically" ask to this list. First off I'd like
> to ask if someone has already gathered a FAQ like this for Debian. If not,
> I'd like to volunteer my time in creating (when I have the knowledge) parts
> of the FAQ.
i KNOW there are some random, scatterd documents out there (info, manpage, html,
pod, /usr/share/doc/*, etc) but they are not centralized. there is also a
task-newbie-help package (dpkg -L task-newbie-help) but it's surface-scratch
only, at best. there's another, debian-guide (purportedly within the former,
but no so's you could tell) which has much more meat to it.
apt-get install task-newbie-help debian-guide
but to have some recently-scarred newbies construct such a document
tree would be far preferable to having the seasoned gurus document
stuff from their perspective. where newbies need, for example,
how to connect using a modem
the gurus write
using a ppp connection
which might not 'hit home' to newbies who don't know what ppp is for.
--
maybe a good place to coordinate all this would be on sourceforge.net?
> Some basic questions come up though and these I throw out to you,
> the Debian community:
>
> 1. Who would house/display the FAQ so it is always available.
i volunteer LINUX.SERENSOFT.COM as one mirror. the more the merrier!
> 2. Who can contribute and how?
just about anyone should be able to throw ideas at us -- but we need
some folks with serious editing chops and a multi-eyeball review
process to reduce slipups. aegis is a neat versioning/control/develop
system. might also come in handy.
there's also wml, a powerful way to craft html (or any text output)
that might make it easy to modularie the whole mess. that's what
debian-www apparently uses to maintain the debian.org site!
apt-get install aegis wml
> 3. Who does quality control checks?
if *you* write something, *someone else* (preferably in the plural) should
review it. if *i* write something, *you* should proof it. author and proofer
must not be the same person. (try it on a deadline sometime to see why!)
> 4. How do you submit an article to be included?
sourceforge.net (or anyplace like it) might be a good way to go.
> 5. What would be a successful structure/format?
here we could probably drop some questions on debian-doc mailing
list to get pointers from the long-haired pros.
> 6. Would the Debian main page hold a link to this if it's done well and tailored
> toward Debian?
i'd hope so. you never know, but the debian team seems to be pretty
willing to work with folks who're trying to help the cause.
> If your interested in this project or have suggestions please feel free to
> contact me on the list here or privately at jensenb@charter.net. It would
> be a shame to let all the talent that people on this list have stored in their
> heads go to waste by being burned out by constant repeats of the same question.
quite!
unfortunately, i'm headed out-of-town for about a week, so i'll have
eight hundred messages to weed thru when i get back... keep the flame alive!
--
self-reference, n: see self-reference.
will@serensoft.com *** http://www.dontUthink.com/
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