#18922: Proliferation of dev docs on search engines confuses newbies
-------------------------------------+-------------------------------------
     Reporter:  dloewenherz          |                    Owner:
         Type:  Bug                  |  dloewenherz
    Component:  Djangoproject.com    |                   Status:  reopened
  Web site                           |                  Version:  1.4
     Severity:  Normal               |               Resolution:
     Keywords:                       |             Triage Stage:  Accepted
    Has patch:  1                    |      Needs documentation:  0
  Needs tests:  0                    |  Patch needs improvement:  0
Easy pickings:  0                    |                    UI/UX:  0
-------------------------------------+-------------------------------------
Changes (by aaugustin):

 * status:  closed => reopened
 * resolution:  wontfix =>
 * stage:  Unreviewed => Accepted


Old description:

> I brought this issue up earlier today at DjangoCon, but the basic issue
> can be summarized hence:
>
> 1. User searches to find info on a specific feature, gets directed to dev
> documentation.
> 2. Said feature (on the development version) is backwards incompatible
> with previous versions of Django.
> 3. User does not know better, assumes Django has a bug.
> 4. Invalid bug is filed in trac.
>
> Hopefully, removing the dev documentation pages from search engines will
> help solve
> this issue, since those who want to read the dev docs can just click
> through to
> them by using the version navigation at the bottom of the docs pages.
>
> I think there is a small subset of actual Django users who run their
> applications
> on trunk. I don't have data to back that up but I can't imagine it's a
> lot.
>
> I talked with Alex earlier today about how to deal with this issue--he
> also suggested
> redirecting users from dev -> 1.4 (or whatever the latest version is). I
> initially
> thought it was a good idea, but I thought about it and realized you would
> have to at
> least add some sort of referrer check. I then thought whether it would be
> ok to do
> something like
>
> {{{
>     def conditional_documentation_redirect(request):
>         if not
> request.META['REFERER'].startswith("http://docs.djangoproject.com";):
>             return HttpResponseRedirect #... and so on
> }}}
>
> This felt wrong to me because if that sort of check were in place, users
> would
> no longer be able to permalink to dev docs.
>
> PR @ https://github.com/django/djangoproject.com/pull/43

New description:

 I brought this issue up earlier today at DjangoCon, but the basic issue
 can be summarized hence:

 1. User searches to find info on a specific feature, gets directed to dev
 documentation.
 2. Said feature (on the development version) is backwards incompatible
 with previous versions of Django.
 3. User does not know better, assumes Django has a bug.
 4. Invalid bug is filed in trac.

 EDIT: rejected proposal removed, see comment 4.

--

Comment:

 Yes, we can keep this ticket to track other ideas to resolve this problem.

 For the record, the original proposal was:

 > Hopefully, removing the dev documentation pages from search engines will
 help solve
 > this issue, since those who want to read the dev docs can just click
 through to
 > them by using the version navigation at the bottom of the docs pages.

 > I think there is a small subset of actual Django users who run their
 applications
 > on trunk. I don't have data to back that up but I can't imagine it's a
 lot.

 > I talked with Alex earlier today about how to deal with this issue--he
 also suggested
 > redirecting users from dev -> 1.4 (or whatever the latest version is). I
 initially
 > thought it was a good idea, but I thought about it and realized you
 would have to at
 > least add some sort of referrer check. I then thought whether it would
 be ok to do
 > something like

 {{{
     def conditional_documentation_redirect(request):
         if not
 request.META['REFERER'].startswith("http://docs.djangoproject.com";):
             return HttpResponseRedirect #... and so on
 }}}

 > This felt wrong to me because if that sort of check were in place, users
 would
 > no longer be able to permalink to dev docs.

 > PR @ https://github.com/django/djangoproject.com/pull/43

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/18922#comment:4>
Django <https://code.djangoproject.com/>
The Web framework for perfectionists with deadlines.

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"Django updates" group.
To post to this group, send email to django-updates@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to 
django-updates+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.


Reply via email to