This maybe impossible to accomplish, but I believe that we should have a handbook page that clearly defines the Scope of Documentation of Handbook Pages.

The problem with Handbook Documentation that is out of scope is that it clutters the Handbook pages, making the relevant information harder to find. So I ask, how can we limit documentation that should be found elsewhere (PHP.com, MySQL.com, or even the common detailed documentation that can be simplified down to "GOOGLE KEYWORD: XXX"

Comments

dcampbell24’s picture

dcampbell24 commented

I agree that limiting the scope may help to make the documentation more concise and useful(as well as save writing time). I suggest Drupal should focus on explaining how 3rd party information and applications relate to drupal, then providing references for more information rather than going into great detail. The Drupal community must, however, keep in mind the potential for link rot. An option to avoid link rot is to provide more detailed information within the drupal network, just on seperate reference pages or concept pages which do not clutter the core of documentation. We can at least start by defining the scope of specific types of pages and making sure they conform to those standards. This is of course already beginning to happen with the introduction of a new IA and the restructuring of the themeing guidebook.

The issue may not be that there is too much information in the drupal documentation, just that information is provided in the form of spaghetti. Information on different pages commonly overlaps greatly and there is often not a clear path from start to finish for someone wanting to learn something new.

leehunter’s picture

leehunter commented
Status: Active » Fixed

Was fixed here http://drupal.org/about/authoring

Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)

Automatically closed -- issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.