those working on the new dev wiki have a clear set of shared goals. during the process of defining these goals, it was decided that "developer.kde.org" is not a good domain name for the site. the new wiki is aimed at more than just developers and should be able to grow into a resource area for open source developers, independent software vendors, systems integrators, operating system vendors, sys admins, etc.. technical information about kde for those creating things with it, with separate entry points for each group that warrants it.
for example, we hope to set up an isv.kde.org that has the information currently in the isv section of the wiki and which points appropriately to the new wiki (and vice versa).
danimo suggested that as a solution we could name the wiki "techbase.kde.org" instead which doesn't have quite the same "this is only for programmers" ring to it. it also has the nice attribute of also avoiding the issue of link disruption that might happen if we reused the developer.kde.org domain. the idea seems sound enough and there are no objections amongst those actually involved thus far in creating and arranging the content.
it gets brought up on a kde development irc channel and great bikeshedding ensues. the clamor is for techzone rather than techbase, because that's just so much better and different, right? so danimo, being the reasonable and flexible guy he is, requests "techzone.kde.org" from the sysadmin team....
... who instead create devzone.kde.org. wtf?
remember that we started with developer.kde.org, so now we're almost back to exactly where we started. brilliant!
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19 comments:
So why not just go ahead and request they set up techzone., techbase., and whatever else you want and CNAME them all together? Consider that perhaps if they mixed it up then others will too...
Call me crazy, but..
If I were looking for a wiki with info on how to develop for kde, use kde, or pretty much do anything at all with kde, I'd try typing wiki.kde.org into my browser's address bar first.
Sadly, that doesn't take me to the wiki you're putting all this effort into.
Right, but the focus is not on the technology, that is, on the wiki, but on the content it tries to deliver. You could argue that people would try to look for something like "developer.kde.org" first but hardly that they would look for a wiki in first place.
In fact, according to a study that I just made up, 99,9% people that are not familiar with KDE development will try to find their information by typing www.kde.org into their browsers location bar. Now that is surprising, isn't it? :-)
Aaron: I personally think that techbase is the better of the lot. The word base suggests a more stable, central and above all, official place.
Ryan: The thing is, developers don't go looking for a 'wiki' with info. They simply go looking for info. The site (whatever the name is decided on) will be linked to and advertised all over the place.
@ryan: i agree that we need to put up a nice big notice on wiki.kde.org that "official" technical information is on $whatever.kde.org
@d.j.: because we'll only be able to effectively promote one name. only one will appear in the link from www.kde.org and when we announce it to the world we won't provide a list of domains, etc... it'll end up becoming known as one of those names.
Matt: I am a developer, and I start looking for detailed/current information by checking wiki.PROJECT.tld
..guess you can call me crazy now.
Ryan: I wouldn't do that ;) I think Aaron's idea of putting a sign pointing developers to the new site is most effective in your case.
This does rather beg the question though: What is wiki.kde.org really for?
@matt: wiki.kde.org is for things that don't belong elsewhere but could do well with a wiki. the toc on wiki.k.o provides many good examples.
As I read the term techbase the first time, I remembered a big database vendor who calls it technical web site a 'technology network' in short 'technet'. In my opinion this term could be spoken easier than techbase and describes more the real type of content, a network for technical informations about KDE. It covers more than technical basics.
My 2 cent.
Ralf
Hey, Aaron, why not
collaborate.kde.org
collaboration.kde.org
livecollab.kde.org
?
Maybe even a small chat applet or AJAXy thing that lets developers people chat/IM people on the site among each other (plug: see Rudd-O's Wordspew). Combined with strategic sidebar placement... this should be a boon to productivity.
Hmm, actually from what I understood you and danimo came up with that name without asking anyone else. To complain later that everyone else thinks it's crap seems to suggest you should perhaps have asked more people to start with...
Rich.
(and yes, I thought it was crap and said so).
@Rich: thank you for making the point so clearly.
stop energy abounds, danimo accommodates and others still change it so that we're right back to the original problem we were attempting to solve.
i don't care if it's the name danimo picked or not. what i care about is the disfunctional processes this went through. which, btw, didn't start with danimo coming up with a name
thank you for being part of the problem.
I know this is off-topic but have screenshot wednesdays been officially discontinued? Pushed back until there's something to take screenshots of? As for the topic at hand there isn't really one intuitive name (as shown by all the people with their own suggestions). As such, the name itself doesn't really matter as long as you tell everybody what it is. Techbase is equal to techzone is equal to kdedev. No matter what the name is people just have to know it. Pick something and go for it; everybody will get used to it. Thanks for all the work you do.
Offtop: How to have some looks like system tray in kde4-svn ? :)
Offtop: How to have some looks like system tray in kde4-svn ? :)
Offtop: How to have some looks like system tray in kde4-svn ? :)
Why not simply tech.kde.org?
api.kde.org already exists - very good. short, human-typable urls like Qt has (doc.trolltech.com/4.2/qobject) would be even nicer.
@reldruh: "screenshot wednesday" was actually a tongue-in-cheek blog entry title. it seemed like my days were all getting "themed" so it seemed funny to have a "screenshot day" =)
I vote for wiki.kde.org
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