Re: [gentoo-dev] [RFC] Features and documentation

[Donnie Berkholz <dberkholz@gentoo.org>]

On 16:43 Wed 28 Nov     , Alec Warner wrote:
> On 11/28/07, Donnie Berkholz <dberkholz@gentoo.org> wrote:
> > Here's my understanding of what you said: Because people will break
> > rules and violate standards, we shouldn't have any.
> >
> > Is that accurate?
> >
> 
> Kind of.
> 
> Most people follow most rules.  Most people break a subset of rules.
> 
> You are essentially adding an unreasonable (in my view) rule that I
> expect nearly everyone to break or ignore, thereby adding little or no
> value to the project as whole.  Most people care about documentation
> in the abstract sense, almost no one cares *enough* to write any ;)
> 
> Forcing people to write documentation won't get it written, people
> will continue to act like we just saw and either the rule will get
> ignored, or someone will change the rule, or people will leave because
> the rule is enforced aggressively and it has ruined the ability to
> contribute to the project.

The Linux kernel seems to still have contributors, despite its 
requirement. It seems like people decide to leave after nearly any 
change Gentoo makes these days, so I'm not even sure how much we should 
consider that unless we want to stop all development and do nothing. 
(But I guess that also would be a change, so people would quit.)

> This is why I offered to write the GLEP for Diego and Cardoe, because
> I know they are not interested in writing it themselves.  Thats why we
> have a doc-team that for some sick reason enjoy writing and
> maintaining documentation.

You've made some great points here about working with people who enjoy 
dealing with docs. What I'm saying is that we should work with these 
people before committing rather than after.

Thanks,
Donnie
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