[Python-Dev] Moving the developer docs?

[Jesse Noller]

On Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 10:53 AM, Barry Warsaw <barry at python.org> wrote:
> On Sep 23, 2010, at 10:43 AM, Jesse Noller wrote:
>
>>On Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 10:35 AM, Barry Warsaw <barry at python.org>
>>wrote:
>>> On Sep 23, 2010, at 10:06 AM, Jesse Noller wrote:
>>>
>>>>-1 on wiki; wikis are where good information goes off to die.
>>>
>>> Well, *all* documentation requires vigilance to remain relevant and
>>> current. I'm sure you don't think the Python wiki is useless,
>>> right? ;)
>>
>>I do. I visit it as little as possible. :(
>
> Bummer.
>
> There's no reason it *has* to be useless though.  The Moin developer now has
> shell access, so if there are technical problems with wiki, like its theme,
> performance, or lack of features, we can get those fixed.  If it's the content
> or organization that needs improvement, then we can recruit from the much
> larger Python community than those that have write access to the core svn.
> Let's honor and encourage folks who are really good at tending to wikis and
> give them the tools they need to make the wiki excellent.
>
> Of course, if the consensus is that wikis are just a waste of time and do more
> harm than good, then we should shut ours down.  (I don't agree it is though.)
>
> -Barry
>

To be honest; while I have a strong dislike for them - I think they
work fine for unofficial sources of information, I don't think they
work well for official "we stand by this" style information. So, no, I
don't think it's totally useless, but I do think it's an information
sinkhole, and I would never seriously publish anything I had to stand
by to a "completely public" wiki personally.

The larger community, however, probably finds it useful to have it as
a resource, even as scattered and spottily curated as it can be - I
just don't think it's a good location for official
developer/development docs. I don't think we have the needed curation
resources to keep on top of the willy-nilly editing wikis incur.

jesse