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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 29/8/19 7:37 pm, DelazJ wrote:<br>
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<div>Hi,</div>
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<div>A lot has been said, there are topics within the topic and
I would like to reply to each that I couldn't.</div>
<div>Thanks Cameron to raise (again) this issue we all know
already. But it's sometimes good to hear things from people
outside (though you are not really outside). As I said in the
GDocs, imho it's unfortunate to not assign a senior writer to
QGIS. I was personally envisioning that as a catalyzer, an
opportunity to trigger mobilisation of the writing community,
and teach us actual and best practices. And maybe that
experience would confirm us that we need that profile you seem
to propose in later message. Anyways... we'll try to keep
Jared around, if he agrees of course.<br>
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<p>Harrissou,</p>
<p>Yes, I understand the disappointment. It was a tough call for me
to allocate the tech writers elsewhere. To further explain:</p>
<p>The Google Tech writer will only going to be available for 3
months. My read is that QGIS has big documentation challenges and
the short 3 months a tech writer can throw at the problem would
have a likely impact of creating a doc plan, and then not have
anyone volunteers to follow through on the plan. I felt it was a
safer proposition to go with the GeoNetwork and OSGeoLive tasks. <br>
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<p>--<br>
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<p>I was discussing this QGIS doc challenges with Clarence, who is a
senior tech writing helping with TheGoodDocsProject. He noted that
there are lots of writers wanting to break into tech writing and
not knowing where to start.</p>
<p>There is a slack jobs board within the WriteTheDocs community. He
suggested that we draw up a job description, float it on the
board, and we might get some people join us - maybe even as
volunteers. We teach them how to use git and RST and open source
processes and in return they teach us how to write.</p>
<p>An idea to add to our next steps list.<br>
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<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">Le jeu. 29 août 2019
à 08:24, Tim Sutton <<a href="mailto:tim@kartoza.com"
moz-do-not-send="true">tim@kartoza.com</a>> a
écrit :<br>
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<div style="overflow-wrap: break-word;">Hi
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<div>I have a different opinion on this. Based on
our experience of paying developers I don’t
think it has in any way reduced the volunteer
contributions to the code base - on the contrary
it probably has incentivised those that we paid
to donate lots more of their time. I am pretty
sure that we will have similar experience in
other areas of the project. I am more bullish on
documentation and thank that we should work
enthusiastically to get one or more dedicated,
full time document writers in the QGIS
project….over and over we here it is the most
wanting part of the project. The biggest problem
we have is that we need a better platform for
authoring and managing the docs so that you dont
first need a degree in rocket science before you
can participate :-P</div>
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<p>We are discussing the git learning barrier in TheGoodDocsProject
meetings, with tech writers.</p>
<p>While it is certainly a barrier, it need not be a barrier for a
paid writer, or maybe even the volunteer we might find via above
process. (If a techie volunteers to hand hold a writer through the
process).<br>
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<div>As far as I can tell, all you need is a web browser
and a github account. It's enough to address some of the
"Easy" tagged issues [0] we identify for beginners. You
don't even need to browse the repository files, we have
links in page footer that directly open the right source
file. But given that I regularly read people mentioning
that the workflow is the problem, I wonder How big is
that? Do we have any metrics (or reports) that this is
what discourages people from contributing. I'm used to
it so I'm probably blind and not the right person to
evaluate but I'd like to hear what are the actual
features that are problematic.<br>
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<div>We've written a step-by-step contribution doc for
beginners years ago [1] and try to improve it over the
years. Maybe it's not clear enough or it's not just
enough or nobody is aware of it (other than Australian
of course, Andrew) but without feedback, it's hard to
know what people want.</div>
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<div>I remember years ago, Tim on behalf of the PSC made a
call for doc contributions [2]. No git, no github, no
rst, simply provide a .txt (or whatever you are used to)
file that addresses a doc issue. So clearly, no degree
required. We got, from memories, no more than two
reports though I only can find one [3]. <br>
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<div>I don't know where the issue resides given all the
options we all have already tried. <br>
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<div>I suggest working out a budget for this,
to check how feasible this<br>
solution can be, before taking further
steps.<br>
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Yes, good idea, a budget item should go on the next steps list.<br>
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<div>Another radically different solution
would be to embrace the chaotic<br>
approach, and leave the user browsing the
thousands of web resources to<br>
get help, and keep official documentation to
an absolute bare minimum<br>
that we can effectively managed by the core
team. I'm not a fan of this<br>
solution, but it what is currently
happening.<br>
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<div>Yeah! This is why I suggested months ago that we made
a "User question of the month" on where/how people learn
QGIS features and whether they know about and use our
docs. It does not make sense to invest in something
nobody uses, right? Unfortunately, we did not make it.
Maybe should we.<br>
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<div>I'm glad to confirm there are a lot of people
concerned by the docs status and I wish we find tangible
actions that revitalize QGIS docs (if it's what the
project and the community need). Thanks Cameron. But I
must also confess that I'm jealous of this thread and
disappointed I got no reply to my less-than-a-week
wishlist message [4] that intended to help QGIS Docs
**actual writers**.<br>
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<p>Harrissou, I feel for you. I've had plenty of knock backs in my
20+ years of open source project work. My advice is "Don't take it
personally. Don't stop trying, but do consider trying different
reach out techniques till you find one that works."</p>
<p>I'm a strong believing in connecting with people one-on-one.
Listen to people at the next conference, or tutorial class you are
at. People will often say something like "I'd love to help with
XXX, but am not sure how". If you can give suggest a small task,
that ideally will be very valuable, and then keep checking up on
them in case they get stuck.</p>
<p>I'm not sure if you read this, but this is the research which
backs this up (in much more detail)</p>
<p><a
href="http://cameronshorter.blogspot.com/2018/12/catching-elusive-episodic-volunteer.html">http://cameronshorter.blogspot.com/2018/12/catching-elusive-episodic-volunteer.html</a></p>
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