[mythtv-users] Myth Documentation, was: Please shut up!

Jay R. Ashworth jra at baylink.com
Mon Jan 29 22:16:11 UTC 2007


On Mon, Jan 29, 2007 at 02:14:00PM -0500, Rod Smith wrote:
> On Monday 29 January 2007 11:45, Jay R. Ashworth wrote:
> > On Mon, Jan 29, 2007 at 10:39:16AM -0500, Steven Adeff wrote:
> > > What we need is a note on the front page,
> >
> > Box added; what do you think?
> 
> IMHO, it's bad. Its main point is:
> 
> : information in all sections of this wiki (including the User Manual pages)
> : should by policy, and usually will, always reflect the system's current
> : production release.
> 
> *NOBODY* can guarantee that this is true. Therefore, it gives readers a false
> sense that the entire wiki is up-to-date. Yes, I know -- the note
> says "should" and "usually" -- but those are just hedge words that, at best,
> make the note completely pointless ("we'd like this to be true, but it
> isn't"). At worst, readers may not pay adequate attention to the hedge words
> and therefore think that the entire wiki is up-to-date.

You're right.

> IMHO, it's better to remove this note entirely or replace it with a note that
> more explicitly addresses the uncertainties involved, such as:
> 
> "This wiki is an attempt to document the latest MythTV release; however, the
> nature of a wiki means that some information may be outdated, particularly
> soon after release of a new version of the software. (The latest production
> version, MythTV 0.20a, was released on 11 Sep 2006.) Readers may use the wiki
> version information tab to check the dates on which specific entries were
> made. Contributors to this wiki are encouraged to include relevant MythTV
> version information and, where appropriate, Linux distribution, kernel, and
> other version information in their entries."
> 
> I haven't made such edits myself because I don't want to get into a "wiki
> editing battle" over this -- IMHO, it's better to discuss it here and come to
> a consensus and THEN make changes to the wiki's front page on this issue.

Well, always a good ide, but since only about 5 of us have permission
to edit the front page, it's not as big a problem.  I do, in fact, like
Rod's phrasing better, and if no one objects by midnight tonight (:-),
I will likely change it to that.

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                                                jra at baylink.com
Designer                          Baylink                             RFC 2100
Ashworth & Associates        The Things I Think                        '87 e24
St Petersburg FL USA      http://baylink.pitas.com             +1 727 647 1274


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