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Greetings!
We have just recently started using MailMan (http://www.eLists.org). We switched from MajorDomo. It is a significant improvement. Although I am a programmer, I'm not very familiar with Python - however I am a fairly good tech writer (http://www.kyler.com). Which leads me to...
How does one get involved? It appears you could use some help with the documentation.
Ken Kyler
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"KK" == Ken Kyler <ken@kyler.com> writes:
KK> We have just recently started using MailMan
KK> (http://www.eLists.org). We switched from MajorDomo. It is a
KK> significant improvement. Although I am a programmer, I'm not
KK> very familiar with Python - however I am a fairly good tech
KK> writer (http://www.kyler.com). Which leads me to...
KK> How does one get involved? It appears you could use some help
KK> with the documentation.
Ken,
Glad to hear that you'd like to help out with Mailman documentation. You should definitely get in touch with Chris Kolar (who is on this list). He posted the following URL with his fine start at documentation:
http://www.aurora.edu/~ckolar/mailman
David Thiessen also edited a version of the Mailman Users Manual but I can't dig up the reference right now.
While I really appreciate and applaud both efforts, we need to talk about a couple of things. First, for us to include any documentation with the Mailman distro, it'll have to be GPL'd and FSF-assigned. I can email the forms for anybody who needs them, but you need to know this in advance in case you can't or won't be able to do this.
Second, there's the matter of the format for the documentation. Because we're GNU, we need the docs in a "free" format. Unfortunately PDF isn't "free" as far as the FSF is concerned. Most ideal would be texinfo, which I believe is the GNU preferred documentation format. I've hacked enough texinfo to know that that's not the most convenient format to write. I think that PostScript and HTML are both okay, so I'm not sure if it's enough that a non-free source can be translated into a free format.
I would encourage those who are working on documentation to get together and coordinate efforts. Post URLs for drafts on this mailing list. If you think you need me to create a little focused sig list to help you out, let me know.
And thanks! -Barry
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I'm comfortable with the GPL, etc - email me the forms.
As far as format, I use primarily a windoze machine so I would prefer plain ascii or html.
Ken
http://www.aurora.edu/~ckolar/mailman
David Thiessen also edited a version of the Mailman Users Manual but I can't dig up the reference right now.
While I really appreciate and applaud both efforts, we need to talk about a couple of things. First, for us to include any documentation with the Mailman distro, it'll have to be GPL'd and FSF-assigned. I can email the forms for anybody who needs them, but you need to know this in advance in case you can't or won't be able to do this.
Second, there's the matter of the format for the documentation. Because we're GNU, we need the docs in a "free" format. Unfortunately PDF isn't "free" as far as the FSF is concerned. Most ideal would be texinfo, which I believe is the GNU preferred documentation format. I've hacked enough texinfo to know that that's not the most convenient format to write. I think that PostScript and HTML are both okay, so I'm not sure if it's enough that a non-free source can be translated into a free format.
I would encourage those who are working on documentation to get together and coordinate efforts. Post URLs for drafts on this mailing list. If you think you need me to create a little focused sig list to help you out, let me know.
And thanks! -Barry
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"KK" == Ken Kyler <ken@kyler.com> writes:
KK> We have just recently started using MailMan
KK> (http://www.eLists.org). We switched from MajorDomo. It is a
KK> significant improvement. Although I am a programmer, I'm not
KK> very familiar with Python - however I am a fairly good tech
KK> writer (http://www.kyler.com). Which leads me to...
KK> How does one get involved? It appears you could use some help
KK> with the documentation.
Ken,
Glad to hear that you'd like to help out with Mailman documentation. You should definitely get in touch with Chris Kolar (who is on this list). He posted the following URL with his fine start at documentation:
http://www.aurora.edu/~ckolar/mailman
David Thiessen also edited a version of the Mailman Users Manual but I can't dig up the reference right now.
While I really appreciate and applaud both efforts, we need to talk about a couple of things. First, for us to include any documentation with the Mailman distro, it'll have to be GPL'd and FSF-assigned. I can email the forms for anybody who needs them, but you need to know this in advance in case you can't or won't be able to do this.
Second, there's the matter of the format for the documentation. Because we're GNU, we need the docs in a "free" format. Unfortunately PDF isn't "free" as far as the FSF is concerned. Most ideal would be texinfo, which I believe is the GNU preferred documentation format. I've hacked enough texinfo to know that that's not the most convenient format to write. I think that PostScript and HTML are both okay, so I'm not sure if it's enough that a non-free source can be translated into a free format.
I would encourage those who are working on documentation to get together and coordinate efforts. Post URLs for drafts on this mailing list. If you think you need me to create a little focused sig list to help you out, let me know.
And thanks! -Barry
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I'm comfortable with the GPL, etc - email me the forms.
As far as format, I use primarily a windoze machine so I would prefer plain ascii or html.
Ken
http://www.aurora.edu/~ckolar/mailman
David Thiessen also edited a version of the Mailman Users Manual but I can't dig up the reference right now.
While I really appreciate and applaud both efforts, we need to talk about a couple of things. First, for us to include any documentation with the Mailman distro, it'll have to be GPL'd and FSF-assigned. I can email the forms for anybody who needs them, but you need to know this in advance in case you can't or won't be able to do this.
Second, there's the matter of the format for the documentation. Because we're GNU, we need the docs in a "free" format. Unfortunately PDF isn't "free" as far as the FSF is concerned. Most ideal would be texinfo, which I believe is the GNU preferred documentation format. I've hacked enough texinfo to know that that's not the most convenient format to write. I think that PostScript and HTML are both okay, so I'm not sure if it's enough that a non-free source can be translated into a free format.
I would encourage those who are working on documentation to get together and coordinate efforts. Post URLs for drafts on this mailing list. If you think you need me to create a little focused sig list to help you out, let me know.
And thanks! -Barry
participants (2)
-
Barry A. Warsaw
-
Ken Kyler