Re: New unofficial document - oamp.pdf

[Sunny Raspet <slr@mordac.info>]

Most of this thread has been answered quite well by Nick and the other
people who chimed in.  Though the whole thing is clearly trollish or
stupid (pick one, depending on how charitable you're feeling), and
affords plenty of opportunities to rip it apart, this particular bit
particularly got on my nerves:

<snip a whole load of utter bullshit that no one needs to read again>

Mark Farquaad <markfarquaad@gmail.com> reflected:
> On Fri, 31 Dec 2004 20:59:34 -0500, Nick Holland
> <nick@holland-consulting.net> wrote:
> > There is a limited number of people who are technically
> > semi-competent, can string words together in semi-coherent manner,
> > can write for non-expert users and are willing to not only work for
> > free, but with substantial out-of-pocket expense (you DON'T want to
> > see my electric bills).  Oh, and be willing to take time out of what
> > they could be doing for money...
> 
> That's my whole point!!!!
> I want to make the situation for those people, INCLUDING YOU!
> better! This can never be done by any amount of work I contribute,
> but only by creating a new structure which allows and motivates
> more people to contribute. 
> And you know, the people are out there, you know that.
> It's a question of not scaring people away by having good structures
> which make it easy to contribute, while still ensuring quality.

Despite what many people think, good documentation is not "easy".  Good
documentation does not come quickly.  Good documentation is not
something created in five minutes by passersby.

Without trying to pick on the efforts of the people at
openbsdsupport.org, when you look at documentation created by committee,
that's an excellent example.  There is no editing for style, content, or
grammar/spelling.  There is no fact-checking.  There is no good basic
reference material; there are only "recipes" for stuff that *might*
work.  Then again, it might not.  And the footer of the page actively
discourages (to my mind) the help of editors.

I couldn't put it better than Nick did.  There are a limited number of
people with the time, energy, motivation, and talent required to write
coherent documentation.

And yes, I said talent.  While it's nice to think in kindergarden terms
of "everyone has something to contribute" and "everyone can help"... the
simple fact is, everyone *can't*.  Any documentation, for instance, that
you wrote?  From your style in these emails, Mark, I am guessing that it
would require more editing than it was worth.

That said, Nick, being a generous person, is willing to work with people
in the hopes that they will get better.  I've made exactly one
reasonably decent contribution to the FAQ; the section on CARP.  I don't
really want to think about how long it took him to edit it, considering
the changes.  And I have written professionally (in fact, the piece is a
re-work of one of my published articles).  
I seem to remember (though this could be my brain acting up) that
someone connected with the project has publically stated that some new
developers require more time than they're strictly worth.  And yet there
are new developers all the time.  The same goes for the FAQ.  Nick has
no problem helping people out and answering their questions about how to
contribute, even if he could do it himself in less time.  He does,
however, require that some small minimum of effort be shown[1].  Once
that's there, he's the nicest editor/Guy in Charge that I've ever worked
with.  ;)

The people that CAN write and ARE worth the time and DO have the time? 
They will contribute, and they will not be "scared off" by a list of
guidelines.  They will, in fact, appreciate them very much.  I wish said
guidelines been written before I submitted my piece; I might have been
able to spare Nick some time.  As it stands, when I get time to write
more content (and that's coming, if slowly), I will take advantage of
them.

It's that simple.

[1]: And writing stupid, rambling emails to misc@ does not count as
"effort", per se.

-- 

-Sunny Raspet