FreeBSD FAQ Renewal Proposal
with the impending conversion of the FreeBSD.org pages away from docbook, the specifics here are obsolete. However, MarkLinimon wants to leave this here because the general idea still applies as of 2200620.
Abstract
We have been translating the FAQ to Hungarian and Greek for some time now. During the course of this work, we noticed there is a lot of outdated technical info, that only applies to older outdated versions of FreeBSD and possibly obsolete hardware. Mark Linimon suggested there was a plan to move at least the technical info of the FAQ into a form that could be more easily updated, such as a wiki. Apparently these plans did not go forward due to lack of time. Beyond the original idea we have completed it with addition of different other aspects, like making it more accurate and open for user comments. In this proposal we are trying to investigate the possible alternatives and work out a solution for this problem.
Our goal: Make the FAQ better.
Better is:
- More accurate
- Easier to update
- Consistent across several views, of FAQ text one for each version
- Open for comments
- Handles versions fairly well, i.e. 6.3, 7, 7.1, 8 etc.
- Designed to minimize maintenance time
- Less or more compatible with the actual implementation
Proposers
- ManolisKiagias (manolis@)
- GáborKövesdán (gabor@)
- GáborPáli (pgj@)
Contributors
- Marc Spitzer
- Tom Rhodes
- Mark Linimon
Sample Pages
Possible Implementations
- Wiki-style FAQ
- Forum-style FAQ
- Content with user comments (interactive documentation), based on MurrayStokely/IdeasWebApp
- Spreading the FAQ through other documentation
- Manually tracking mailing list archives
- Manually merging from other documentation (e.g. Handbook)
General Problems
- Workflow
- Periodic snapshots
- Access control
- Measuring importance of a question (by the number of visits)
- Update guidelines (adding or removing a question)