[SeasonOfDocs] Not a Motion Yet: adopt a style guide

[Cameron Shorter]

Clarence, others, why would I choose one of the other? You might want to
answer this question for other guides as well.
If we were to approach the owners of style guides, such as
Google/Microsoft/Wikipedia, with the intent of moving them toward a
universal guide, what should we say to them?

Do the people here have opinions on this? I'm hoping so.

On Mon, 12 Aug 2019 at 04:11, Clarence Cromwell <clarencewcromwell at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Here are both guides in one place.
>
> Google:
> https://developers.google.com/style/
>
> Microsoft:
> https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/style-guide/welcome/
>
> On Sun, Aug 11, 2019 at 11:00 AM Clarence Cromwell <
> clarencewcromwell at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> Both of the guides offer good writing tips and have useful information
>> about how to document APIs. Does anyone have strong feelings about one
>> guide or the other?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Aug 7, 2019 at 1:08 PM Cameron Shorter <cameron.shorter at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I've change title to "Not a Motion yet". I can see that we have a
>>> difference of opinions, which is fine. I think this is an important topic
>>> for a tech writing project, and I would love to see robust and wide
>>> discussion about it for at least a week, possibly more.
>>>
>>> This community is full of tech writers I have a lot of respect for, and
>>> I'm keen to hear from each of you - even if it is just to say "I don't
>>> care".
>>>
>>> Once we have moved toward "rough consensus" we can then re-raise the
>>> motion.
>>>
>>> For my part, I don't have an opinion yet; my opinion will be formed
>>> based upon this discussion.
>>> On 8/8/19 5:06 am, Jennifer Rondeau wrote:
>>>
>>> Point of clarification: is this a style guide for the project to follow
>>> as it develops content, or a style guide to recommend to projects that
>>> might use tGDP?
>>>
>>> The former, I'm somewhat +1 to MS, somewhat -1 to the Google guide.
>>> Happy to explain if needed.
>>>
>>> The latter, I'm -1 on any style guide. The appropriate guidance is the
>>> kind of thing that the WTD guide already provides (lots of options, with
>>> explanations of what they are and why they might be appropriate for
>>> particular contexts/requirements/audiences/projects).
>>>
>>> On Wed, Aug 7, 2019 at 2:47 PM Clarence Cromwell <
>>> clarencewcromwell at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> That might be a worthy alternative. Is this a motion, and if so, what
>>>> dictionary would go with it?
>>>>
>>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>>
>>>> On Aug 7, 2019, at 11:43 AM, Stephanie Blotner <sblotner59 at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> What about the Google Developer Documentation Style Guide
>>>> <https://developers.google.com/style/>?
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Aug 7, 2019 at 9:20 AM Clarence Cromwell <
>>>> clarencewcromwell at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I move that we adopt the Microsoft Style Guide
>>>>> <https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/style-guide/welcome/> and the Merriam-Webster
>>>>> <https://www.merriam-webster.com/>dictionary for The Good Docs
>>>>> project, and that we apply them to whatever writing is generated by the
>>>>> project (our web site and our official templates) but that we don't demand
>>>>> that anyone use a guide for contributing a collection of templates, as they
>>>>> are source material.
>>>>>
>>>>> (I would emphasize that we only have to apply the style guide to
>>>>> material before we publish it, so that doesn't even require that people
>>>>> learn it before contributing; anyone who doesn't have the time, could allow
>>>>> an editor to clean up contributions according to the style guide.)
>>>>>
>>>>> Reasoning:
>>>>>
>>>>>    - We need to all work from a single standard.
>>>>>    - These guides are available for free online.
>>>>>    - The Microsoft Guide is specific to technical writing, and is
>>>>>    widely accepted in the industry.
>>>>>
>>>>> If there are strong feelings about using a different guide, I would
>>>>> suggest a counter-motion naming a specific set of books, so that people can
>>>>> vote for one or the other, and then we can get on with business.
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> SeasonOfDocs mailing list
>>>>> SeasonOfDocs at lists.osgeo.org
>>>>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/seasonofdocs
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Stephanie Blotner
>>>>
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>>>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/seasonofdocs
>>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>
>>> --
>>> Cameron Shorter
>>> Technology Demystifier
>>> Open Technologies and Geospatial Consultant
>>>
>>> M +61 (0) 419 142 254
>>>
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>>>
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-- 
Cameron Shorter
Technology Demystifier
Open Technologies and Geospatial Consultant

M +61 (0) 419 142 254
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