[arch-general] What is the current wiki-poliicy for re-writing contributions?

[ProgAndy]

Am 23.03.2016 um 15:16 schrieb chaos Feng:
> On Monday 21 March 2016 12:22:30 David C. Rankin wrote:
>> Archdevs,
>>
>>    What is the current policy for having wiki-contributions re-written? I
>> have been a wiki-contributor for years, I've more than 28 years Unix/Linux
>> experience, I am an attorney, a registered professional engineer, and I
>> have spent years doing technical writing for NASA MOD and Space Flight
>> Operations -- I know technical writing. Over the past year or so it seems
>> like every wiki contribution made is re-written to the point that the
>> immediacy of the needed information is lost, is replaced by a link, or the
>> contribution is reworded in a bewildering manner.
>>
>>    Under what criteria does this take place? It has gotten to the point where
>> you just get tired of helping -- why bother?
>>
>>    Under the current system, the pages are slowly becoming less-useful rather
>> than more useful as more and more information is chopped out of pages or
>> replaced by links to 3rd-party pages that may (or may not) be there
>> tomorrow.
>>
>>    When I first began using Arch in '09, the pages were written such that you
>> could fully-complete whatever task the page addressed without bouncing
>> around from page-to-page hunting for all the pieces of the puzzle. That is
>> no longer the case.
>>
>>    Don't get me wrong, the Arch-wiki pages are still by far the most useful
>> of any distribution, but understanding the criteria under which this is
>> taking place will help those willing to contribute determine whether to
>> make a contribution or not. The goal being to keep the Arch-wiki, the very
>> best that it can be. Thanks.
> David,
>
> First, sorry to make you feel your work is undermined.
>
> There are two principles in my mind when doing Arch wiki admin work:
> "Remove duplication" & "Upstream first"
>
> 1. Remove duplication
> Duplication in wiki is just as bad as duplication in code. It is hard to
> maintain. When things change, usually only one location is updated and other
> places are left there out of date. When user see two sections document the
> same thing with different content, they will confuse.
>
> So some sections in "Beginner's Guide" is moved into their own pages.
> You could refer the talk page[1] to get the reson behind changes.
Hello,

Some time ago I stumbled on selective transclusions in the wikipedia 
help.[1] It seems to be an extension, that allows display of a partial 
article inside another article.[2] Maybe that would help to collect the 
necessary information in the "Beginner's Guide"

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SELTRANS
[2] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Labeled_Section_Transclusion

ProgAndy

>
> 2. Upstream first
>
> Arch wiki emphasize upstream just as Arch package emphasize upstream.
>
> It is great that Arch Wiki could be the document for every Linux topic. But it
> is even greater if Arch wiki could be the gateway of upstream document.
>
> If the document is not Arch specific, we hope it is contributed to upstream
> first and link back in Arch wiki. This way, it is not only benifical to Arch,
> but also to Linux/Free software as a whole. Thus we specify below policy:
>
> * If the upstream documentation for the subject of your article is well-
> written and maintained, prefer just writing Arch-specific adaptations and
> linking to the official documentation for general information. [2]
>
> The best thing I like Arch: "Arch is a distribution that acts like just a
> distributor". Arch distribute packages which stay as close as upstream.
> We also hope Arch wiki could distribute our upstreams document to Arch user,
> not just duplicate the content here.
>
> It seems some contributors are disappoint about recent changes and I hope
> above explaination could make the change more logical. And for every change
> you do not like, please raise your concern in the Talk page[3]. Changes will
> be reverted if it is resonable.
>
> [1] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Talk:Beginners'_guide
> [2] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Help:Style#Hypertext_metaphor
> [3] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Help:Discussion
>
> Fengchao