[Geany] Moving contents from newsletter.geany.org into the wiki?

[Randy Kramer]

Lex,

Hi!

On Sunday 05 June 2011 07:44:52 am Lex Trotman wrote:
> Randy Kramer wrote:
> > IMO, the newsletter should contain good, complete (i.e.,
> > self-contained) articles on some subject.  The article should
> > contain a link to a wiki page that is, at least at one point in
> > time, the text of the article.
>
> I don't really see the point of having the newsletter in nicely
> produced HTML, text, and PDF and wikified format as well.  Using the
> wiki for developing the newsletter is noted below.

Well, I'm not particularly advocating that the newsletter be kept in 
nicely produced HTML, text, and PDF and wikified format, but that might 
be the result of what I am advocating.

   * IMHO, if a newsletter is published, a copy of it should be archived 
somewhere, sort of in an "as published" form, so that if somebody needs 
to see what was published, it can be found.  

   * I would like to see a wiki page used during the writing of each 
article to facilitate collaboration, etc.

   * I'd like to see that same wiki page live on after the article is 
published as sort of the canonical source of the information that was 
used in the newsletter, but this should be a living thing.  If 
circumstances change (patches to Geany to change behavior, whatever), 
the content of the wiki page should change accordingly.

As an example, if there is a newsletter article about, I don't 
know--setting margins (not that you'd do that in an editor), the 
article starts out on a wiki page.  When it gets to be in good shape, 
or a publishing deadline arrives, it is dressed up and moved to the 
newsletter (or dressed up after being moved to the newsletter).

The newsletter gets published.  The newsletter contains a link to 
the "source" wiki page, and the wiki page contains a link to the 
newsletter.  (It might read: "An article, entitled <title> based on the 
content of this page as of <date> was published in the Geany 
Newsletter, dated <date>.")

Later a patch is added that changes the method of setting margins.  The 
wiki page should get modified in the wiki way to reflect the new 
method.  (The link to the newsletter might be changed to something 
like:  "An article, entitled <title> based on the *previous* content of 
this page as of <date> was published in the Geany Newsletter, dated 
<date>."

Now, finally, the reason for the other wiki page that is immutable and 
contains the original text of the article:  Suppose over the years, the 
content of that wiki page gets so changed that it is no longer 
recognizable as the source of the newsletter article?  

Maybe the page just changes so much that it is unrecognizable.  Or, it 
gets filled with so much content that it is decided to split the page 
into two or more pieces.

Somebody, reading an old copy of the newsletter (found on google),  
comes to that page from the newsletter and says "wtf" (pronounced 
double u, tee, eff)--this isn't what I'm looking for--something is 
wrong.  At that point, the link to an immutable copy of the article 
would at least let the person know they came to what was the right 
page.

And, maybe, then they go back through the old revisions of the mutable 
page to see what happened.

Is that immutable page really useful?  Well, it's the kind of thing I'd 
try to keep, but I'm probably in the minority.

regards,
Randy Kramer

> > Potential newsletter articles might (well, I'd like to say
> > should--there may be exceptions, perhaps due to deadline pressure)
> > be posted on the wiki.  Others can review those potential articles
> > and make or suggest improvements in the wiki way.
>
> The ability for newsletter content to be reviewed and commented by
> all and sundry is an absolute.  The wiki may indeed be an effective
> tool for that as it lowers the bar for submission and especially
> comment and correction.  I for one would probably do more if all I
> had to do was edit the wiki page because I only need a browser and
> can do it from any machine, rather than having to become a committer
> on the git repo or send in patches, but I think thats up to the
> production team.
>
> But this use of the wiki as a tool for developing the newsletter
> should be clearly separate from the other information in the wiki
> because the development process is inevitably messy
>
> > (There might be a notice on the page saying either that the wiki
> > page is proposed as a newsletter article (by the writer or someone
> > else), or is anticipated to be (i.e., tentatively, at least,
> > accepted as a newsletter article.)
>
> This is part of the development process, see above.
>
> > When the article is published in the newsletter, there is a link to
> > the wiki page.
>
> Certainly any newsletter article should link to the wiki if it
> relates to something on the wiki, but just linking to its own content
> seems rather pointless.
>
> Although having a comments page for each newsletter might be a good
> idea.
>
> > After the newsletter article is posted, the page remains on the
> > wiki and (in the wiki way) is corrected and updated as time goes
> > by.  Also, after the article is published in the wiki, a notice is
> > added to the page that says something to the effect that "this wiki
> > page was the basis for the article published in the Geany
> > newsletter of <date> under the title "<title>"".
>
> Don't think leaving working drafts on the wiki is a good idea.  If a
> topic is worthy of being in the wiki then it should be a wiki page
> properly categorised and tagged.  This can of course evolve.
>
> > It might be appropriate to do something like create an additional
> > immutable page to serve as a permanent repository to the article,
> > linked from the mutable page.
>
> As I said above, I don't see the point of keeping text, HTML, PDF and
> a wikified version of the newsletter.