Hi All,

This is a proposal to start over with building a clear documentation for all very valuable and precious Drupal.org
Contributors as Members, Doc-Team, Site Maintainers and also Visitors that may want to contribute but do not have
a clear and simple documentation reference for knowing what and how they can give their precious contribution.

I my self as a Member, Doc Team member and Site Maintainer see in my daily contribution that there are really a lot of missing documentation to provide my contribution. I amoften in the position to post an issue about how and when
I can take an action for updating documentation or bring to attention to other members on where they can find suitable documentation to clear out their tasks.

As we have a Getting Involved that clearly point out the section goals we should think of making a Drupal Org Teams - Best Practice Section where to collect all useful informations and documentation fro this kind of participation on the Drupal.org Project.

Therefor I ask your feedback on this behalf.
Kind Regards

CommentFileSizeAuthor
#19 Book Contributors.png6.76 KBWolfflow
#11 Drupal.org_Teams_Documentation_Collapsible_Tables.jpg139.43 KBWolfflow

Comments

Wolfflow’s picture

Wolfflow commented

Hi, as I have posted this I should also explain my idea about this Proposed Documentation Section.

I imagine to collect here all Content Management Documentation divided by Department that
have as argument the different aspects of contribution Levels of memberships type.

This would be a very short documentation reference with also the use of Summary Tables
and Policies Listings about our default procedures on Drupal.org.

I can imagine that such a Documentation Section will also be of great Help for us so as when making
Issues regarding general User Accounts Queries, as to refer to a particular part of this section
so that we do have an overview of the progress.

I have started on Build a general summary Table that may be a suggestion on how to divide and
compose this Documentation Here

I know that a lot of other important Task have much priority and therefor if there is a positive
feedback and agreement on that I would be disposable to take care on that but also with your help
because I'm not aware on every Documentation that may be collected and moved in this Section.

I also would suggest that Statistical Information Nodes about Drupal.org can find a better place here.

Thanks for your Attention
Kind Regards

Wolfflow’s picture

Wolfflow commented

Forgot to say that one of the main reason for this proposal is also to divide clearly the handbook: About Drupal from the Drupal.org Content Management matters: Drupal.org FAQ.

Wolfflow’s picture

Wolfflow commented
After almost 4 month of intensive search, research, reading and surfing on Drupal.org with the precise intent to get an overview of what exactly is the organization structure of the Site and also get a general figure on how the different participating members and working groups are acting and managing the Site, I can try to summarize my experience.

First of all I want to precise that I'm not a professional in the field of Community or similar organization management knowledge. My motivations due only to my passionate and genuine interest in the software "Drupal" and now after being almost a member of the community for the last 2 Years i feel, think and act as one member of a big Open Source Family that follow great tasks and goals and are generally very loyal and dedicated individual that work hard to make out of Drupal, the best CSM out there.

Drupal Plumbing Community - reads(for me): "Do it yourself"

Everyone in life heard this sentence for the first time in life, but when really comes the moment that this actions comes to have a really positive influence in your life?

Seem to be a long time before I came over to expose my honest feeling about my own "do it your self" feelings and thoughts. Many of the colleagues I'm working with during the last months on Drupal.org know very good my tendencies to writing.

Oh my dear how many of them had to laugh on my strange writings, lacking of sense sometimes to a really embarrassing degree. How many of them have spent some time to try to understand what I was meaning with my no native English.

That is their Job and do it really with a passionate and honest dedication that is still missing in the World there outside. We could start discussing about the many groups of people doing their Jobs on a volunteer base in the real world but I cannot simply dismiss the fact that to many of us are thinking that "the Job is going to be done, I'm feeling good".

What I want to focus on and try to underline here with this story is:

I guess we are almost 300 of us doing the Job of supporting people who really have interest of learning how to implement an application. What that does mean? More the 300.000 people that formerly expose their interest in Drupal registering them self one's on Drupal.org are surfing to find an answer to their questions.

What about the millions who every month are looking on Drupal.org for informations? And don't find it?

So I think you got a bit my very simple point of view and why I'm telling you my story on how I began to understand what does real mean "Do it Yourself" on Drupal.org.

When I started to surf on Drupal.org I felt like entering a zone being bombed. Pieces of informations everywhere, an overwhelming quantity of descriptions, paragraphs, articles and millions of links to somewhere. Strong motivated by reading what all Drupal can do and implement I was enthusiastic and began to read over and started with my first installation.

As any beginner not aware of anything else as to desire to see my ideas come to pages on a own Drupal self made home page i did it the first time on my own Internet space on a provider.

So what happen? You mean of course "When did you stop at what point?" Can you remember?

I do, can you? That was the point I really started my "Do it Yourself".

When You start getting uncomfortable?

Exactly here. I started searching on Drupal.org and after a while not getting the right input from the search utility I stated thinking on why I do not find what I'm looking for with the "Search Tool"? You imagine my joy finding out a lot of posting obout the "Search Tool"? I can laud laugh at yet ;-)

That was a venture that I will not forgot, when I went reading through the posting and found that I can also post, but seriously that wasn't necessary yet. I'm surely not on the level to ask something with my bad english on a Site that support 300.000 people? Do I? OK I can use the "Google search tool" an pointing it on drupal.org.

Suddenly happened that i was really diving in the Site, that's because I really trimmed myself to love Drupal, I had read so many fantastic news about. Believe me guys You get 22,600,000 refers on Google. (this is now, todays search). And what happen now? I mean of course then, when I begun with Drupal.org.

Well as I was saying I was jumping like a Kangaroo from one posting to one Issue and again to another Issue: WoW!
Suddenly I found that I could not go further: Why? I meet the lovely word "teaser"!

Please forgive me (mostly my dear colleagues on D.O.) if I have to put some link now and there here in my story. Good am I one who dare to have to know what is a "teaser" mhm. So in my mother language, german (and yes I got only a Mother and no Father, sorry) a teaser sounded like a "Adhesive Tape" you may wonder! (FYI: Tesa International a successfully adhesive tape production company)

Really struggling with myself to try to understand what a "teaser" was meaning I rushed to search again on drupal.org where I could find a definition or explanation to get my mind off that. It will surely sound incredible but I spend almost hours in searching and searching over. Many of you will feel in my foot steps, I guess.

My blood went boiling so I had to stop and take a break. But that's only the beginning my friends.

What did you thought to Do at that stage?

Well I did what every one in my situation would do! I started to use the tools and functions a software like Drupal that is also the CMS software that runs Drupal.org, offer. This was really exiting because you do not get very powerful functionality as a standard Drupal.org member.

Anyway even with my less and low knowledge of the English language and with little wisdom of Drupal I started to pledge and propose to build an Interest Group i wanted to call Documentation Task Force on Groups.drupal.org that is a subdomain of Drupal.org so far I figure out at that time. To my frustration I did not get very success on that. I was advised to start writing and participate in the Beginner-Documentation" Group.

I was overwhelmed also because as a beginner I had to confront at the beginning with suggestion to start first on Drupal Dojo and I saw that this was a Domain outside the direct Drupal.org environment which really get me confused! I was misunderstood sure! But a very good member on Drupal.org had a lot of patience with me and finally helped me to understand that I should take it easy and not demoralize and continue asking and surely I would find my own way on Drupal.org.

That is exactly what happened after one or two month of continuing to read, surf and ask and also contribute a bit in Forum and started my first approaches to review some content on the Drupal.org Handbooks. I was always keeping in mind my very very first task to achieve: INDEX PAGE. But what I understand in a index page could not be started and accomplished overnight: we have millions on nodes in form of documentation pages, forum postings, comments and issue spread all around on Drupal.org.

So an Index page was not realistic to implement on Drupal.org and it was clear to me that also the Taxonomy system applied very early in the Drupal development history was a very sensitive argument that would mean a huge of working and testing and there are not enough volunteers on Drupal.org that can start over with that in a reasonable period of time. But You may wonder this speaks positive for Drupal, because it's so easy to use that mostly all who spend one or two months free of charge and especially native English people can start to buid Site and go directly to gain some money.

So I started to build a Common Terminology subpage section on Drupal.org Handbooks that was the only way I had to disposal to start over with my personal task. Meanwhile the successfully Teams started a drupalorg-redesign-infrastructure Group and before there was the Drupalorg Redesign Plan Drupal Association that leads to the start over of a Documentation-Team Group and before of that ... ?

I just remember that I started to think to contribute on Drupal.org when I listen to the Keynote of Boston by Dries Buytaert. He mentioned the point of necessity to put efforts in the usability field meaning also (I understand it this like) that something must be reviewed on Drupal.org as well.

Conclusions

I can just suggest to whom would like and have interest to see following subpages:

Thanks for your attention
and excuse me if I was so long in this post.

Kind Regards

BTW, I do not take any responsibility if you do not understand my no-native English!!! (A joke !!!)
I really hope you understand me, if not I beg your pardon.

Cheers

P.S. First I wanted to publish this page in the news Forum but finally I realize that I already put to much non interesting stuff there so I publish it here with some hope of feedback.

Wolfflow’s picture

Wolfflow commented

Some issues of mine regarding possible ways to help the identification of the level of qualification of whom is posting answers and information supports in comments, issues etc.: Proposal: As to improve identification on Issue and Comment for every Member

From me and others:

Wolfflow’s picture

Wolfflow commented

As I'm aware that at the moment there is no great interest to discuss this matter in this issue I invite all people that might want to contribute to this task on http://groups.diigo.com/groups/drupal-org-teams.

So we can discuss here about all existing informative documentation that refer to standard and common content management policies that are or will be applied on Drupal.org Community.

Every one is welcome not only Teams Members on Drupal.org, but Visitors, Newbies and Beginners on Drupal.org.

Cheers

HansBKK’s picture

HansBKK commented

Wolfflow, you must feel you've been talking to yourself here. I've read through your posts and commend you for your efforts both in trying to get up to speed on Drupal via the haystack that is the current d.o., and your efforts to help enable more structure for its content.

I appreciate your taking the time to check out Diigo; let's test out its utility on the Reorganizing Theming handbook project, and if that gets some momentum maybe we can expand our efforts to the other even-less-coherent doc topics.

Rather than confusing people with two overlapping groups on Diigo, let's make the distinction that yours (drupal-org-teams) is open to anyone, and is for discussion of your "starting over from scratch" idea, while the drupal-docs one one I originally created is for existing docs team people, and intended to facilitating re-organisation of, and incremental improvements, to the existing d.o. content. Does that sound OK?

Also cross-referencing with my original "let's try Diigo" post

Wolfflow’s picture

Wolfflow commented

@HansBKK , Of course I'm fully OK with your notes, I appreciate very much your offer. Really as I'm really a bit of newbie about all the interdependence on different Society Community Sites I really appreciate to collaborate with you and for distinguish the two groups please if you think that I should change something, tell me. I'm open to any collaborative work as Drupal Student.

Wolfflow’s picture

Wolfflow commented

@ALL Here you may see an unpublished draft of what I mean with this

"Drupal Org Teams - Best Practice" ---> http://drupal.org/node/334785

As I'm almost totally ignored from the leads of the Drupal.org Teams, every one who read this and that have interest in helping to build this section should please comment here.

I will just put my efforts in building this if the a great majority of the Teams members will post a positive comment and also all the leads of the Drupal.org Teams.

This is because you can imagine how many time and efforts it will take to build and complete this section.

I will also really need a clear com line dedicated to this task as to get as much support as possible for implementing this section from the informative side of the work.

As all we here on Drupal.org, I'm offering my support as free and please if the result of my query should result negative please understand that I will wish to resign my actual status of Site Maintainer on Drupal.org and consequently I would prefer to see my account set back to a basic membership.

Thanks for your attention
Kind Regards

P.S. Please consider my offer to continue to contribute only valid till next Friday 21/11/2008

HansBKK’s picture

HansBKK commented
Category: task » support

I'm getting "access denied" on the link Wolf. You may want to consider doing your initial drafting work off d.o., and then later on submitting it for consideration once you feel you've got it to a point where you feel it's ready to be published. If it doesn't get posted to d.o. perhaps it will still be helpful as a resource elsewhere.

Since you're running Drupal on your own site, those that want to can still participate in helping you there.

</lecturing> I think you'll find most people won't respond well to quid pro quo demands for support, setting deadlines etc. I think anyone, who wants to contribute in any community, needs to be willing to "go along to get along" within the existing framework of that community. Coordinating volunteers takes a lot of time and energy, for most people here both of which are extremely limited. You might feel angry about that, but I don't think expressing that feeling is helpful to you or the community. Sorry if I sound like I'm criticizing, just trying to give helpful feedback.</lecturing>

Wolfflow’s picture

Wolfflow commented

Hi @HansBKK, no problem, any sound of criticism make me learn something and therefor I thank you. I'm sorry that you did not get to the page, you may see also Here.

It's ok that I did not publish the page yet because I'm working on it and meanwhile only "Site Maintainers" can have a quick look at. The task I started to discuss here is bit bigger and quite more complex then I wish. If I can get some support on my intent it would also mean that I would need some more access to the Drupal.org Site Informations and structure. I did mention about my proposal yesterday on a IRC Channel to some Long-Time Drupal.org Members and get somehow a feedback that was useful for me.

So don't worry meanwhile few know that is my style but also some know that I'm quite learning every day more about the Drupal Community philosophy and will always try to contribute without having fear to lose my personality ;-)

It will be mostly today or tomorrow that I will post here a draft or screen-shot about the featured structure of this special Documentation Section.

Thanks

Wolfflow’s picture

Wolfflow commented
StatusFileSize
new Drupal.org_Teams_Documentation_Collapsible_Tables.jpg139.43 KB

An Image draft of one of the different documentations summary tables I will put in.
The screenshot is taken from my own site where you can see a better layout implementation with collapsible fieldsets:
Drupal.org Documentation - Drafts

Edit: Sorry but I had to correct the link above.

heather’s picture

heather commented

Did you try submitting images like this to the Flickr Group for the redesign? This is a great proposal, and I think it would get some more attention there.

Did you try that?

Best wishes to you, Wolfflow.

Wolfflow’s picture

Wolfflow commented

hi @heather, mhm if you may give me a hint with a link I could try to join. Best wishes to you to. :-)

HansBKK’s picture

HansBKK commented

Wolf - what is mhm?

I found this page

by searching on Google like this:

flickr redesign site:drupal.org

Edit:

Just noticed that you posted there twice!

Wolfflow’s picture

Wolfflow commented

I'm on http://www.adaccs.at/drupal/irc wainting 5 minutes. Step in if you got time.

heather’s picture

heather commented

I have to work today, so I can't IRC- but I will check out the diingo thiingo tonight.

HansBKK’s picture

HansBKK commented

I'm heading to bed soon but I'll check for your Diigo-spoor in about 8 hours Heather, look forward to trying out some meta-collaboration!

Wolfflow’s picture

Wolfflow commented

@heather Finally I did post an image about a possible draft for the informative page for Drupal.org Teams in my flickr and add to Drupalredesign Group. Of course I will add more summary tables. I'm working on. Cheers

Wolfflow’s picture

Wolfflow commented
StatusFileSize
new Book Contributors.png6.76 KB

Another image as to better give the idea on what I'm trying to figure out:

here you may see the ongoing work ---->http://www.adaccs.at/drupal/content/drupalorg-teams

edit:have forgot to provide link to the ongoing work.

Edit: corrected link

johnalbin’s picture

johnalbin
they/他
Primary language English
Location Taipei, Taiwan
commented
Version: » 6.x-1.x-dev

I think "Documentation" issues don't get the eyeballs that other issue queues do. For example, the infrastruture issues get emailed to the infrastructure mailing list. Not so with Documentation issues. So, its not fair to say that… wait… Why is wolfflow's user page "access denied"? Did he get banned? o_O

Anyway, I think this issue is valid. The whole d.o. teams section needs updating really.

add1sun’s picture

add1sun commented

@JohnAlbin, wolfflow asked that his account be blocked himself... so.

johnalbin’s picture

johnalbin
they/他
Primary language English
Location Taipei, Taiwan
commented
Status: Active » Closed (fixed)

Hmm… after further review, I think this discussion is rife with dead links and should be closed and re-started. Doing so at #429576: Need help updating docs for d.o. team differentiation