Hi mpt, I disagree with your comments. Please allow me to explain why: "Information about setting up Pidgin should be in the help accessed from Pidgin's Help menu, which is not part of ubuntu-docs."
Pidgin only has online (web-based) help. If a user doesn't have an Internet connection, there is NO documentation on using Pidgin available. A couple of use cases to illustrate this issue: * Bob's office has no Internet connection, but it does have a LAN. The server on Bob's LAN runs an XMPP server, so that employees can communicate with each other. Bob needs to know how to connect to the XMPP server but can't access the Pidgin docs online. * Will's school has a strict web filter, which only allows access to approved educational websites. Will wants to be able to chat with friends over lunch using IM, but can't access the documentation he needs in order to set up Pidgin. I agree that information on setting up Pidgin SHOULD be accessed from Pidgin's help menu, but for some users it can't be, so we have to do the best that we can. It would be nice if upstream's docs were included in Yelp, but they're not. I don't really have the time to rewrite Pidgin's documentation in DocBook, patch Pidgin, ask for a new release of Pidgin and get it packaged and tested in time for Gutsy. "Information about setting up an Ekiga account should be in the help accessed from Ekiga's Help menu, which is not part of ubuntu-docs." True. However, all we have is a single, small topic on getting Ekiga up and running, which is hardly a fork of the Ekiga docs. This topic is a concise, step-by-step guide which should have people up and running in very little time, and serves no other purpose. It fits in with our topic-based documentation scheme, while the Ekiga manual is, well, a manual. We should have a link to the Ekiga manual, however. "Putting this information in Ubuntu Help, rather than the program's own help, would make it unnecessarily difficult to find." I think that you have this the wrong way around. I've always seen the Ubuntu system docs as being supplemental to individual applications' help systems - the docs aren't there 'instead', they're there 'as well'. Both are available at once. A small degree of duplication is not a bad thing, as it increases the 'documentation surface area' of an application, making it more likely that a user will stumble upon at least some useful information. If the duplication is restricted to only a select few important/common questions, I see no problem with it. "It would also limit its reach to Ubuntu users, when it would do more good if available to *all* users of that particular program" It's not that easy to contribute to upstream. Half of the time, they just ignore you! Then, there's the issue of us using TBH and most upstreams using manuals. Other upstreams don't use DocBook or Yelp, or have to document their app in Windows as well as Linux (and so can't use Yelp anyway). Each project has a different style guide, bug tracker, build system... What we can do in two weeks on the Ubuntu docs would probably take about 18 months to fully merge with all of the upstreams. mdke, the only manual Pidgin has which can be accessed through the help system is a man page! -- Instant messaging documentation doesn't cover useful topics https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/128384 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is the bug contact for Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
