AUDIT: r22422 - gnucash-docs/trunk - Update README:

[Geert Janssens]

On 04-10-12 17:48, Frank H. Ellenberger wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Am 04.10.2012 16:20, schrieb Geert Janssens:
>> On 24-09-12 04:32, Frank H. Ellenberger wrote:
>>> +Feel free to append your updates also there.
>>> +
>>> +Or alternately email us or preferably the devel list with any
>>> problems you have.
>>> +But the danger exists, email reports could get forgotten.
>>> +
>> Frank,
>>
>> You add here "Or alternatively email us...". Couldn't that be taken as
>> an invitation to mail the documentation team members in private ?
>>
>> Personally, I don't want to receive gnucash documentation questions in
>> private mail, but only via the mailing lists, either gnucash-devel for
>> questions about documentation editing or the process surrounding it, or
>> gnucash-general for all other questions/discussions.
>>
>> All other changes in the README file are good and can be backported in
>> my opinion as well.
>>
>> Geert
> The logic of the patch:
> I just wished to update the dependencies (first 2 changes).
> Then I thought, I am not Chris Lyttle and others updated the file too ->
> (last change)
> "Team" requires plural form, (change 3,4)
> Finally change 4 got an incomplete adjustment to current policies.
>
> I don't know if the original author still wish to get emails.
That's a question only Chris Lyttle can answer of course. I don't 
remember having seen much activity from his side in a while.

Personally I think it's safe to assume that while Chris has written a 
major part (if not most) of the documentation in the past, it is now 
maintained by several people. So I'm fine with presenting the 
documentation as such (which you did nicely with adding references to 
the documentation team).
> In theory I would like to scan all readme etc files for keyword mail and
> add a note "For details see http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists".
> OTOH I think of people living in regions where internet access is not
> available or very expensive.
In areas where internet access is not available, I'm not sure how they 
can contact the gnucash community at all.

In areas where internet is expensive, people probably make very 
conscious choices regarding what they use it for. But that doesn't 
change the fact that GnuCash is a community driven project and we 
communicate via either irc (not mentioned here yet) or mailing lists. 
Sending an e-mail to the list or directly to a developer also doesn't 
cost more or less. Looking at the wiki to detect what mailing lists are 
available and how to subscribe to them costs does involve a one-time 
internet access indeed, which may make it more expensive than direct 
e-mail. The list generates more traffic also, which could theoretically 
make it more expensive than direct mail.

All this doesn't change my personal opinion on the matter though, I 
don't want to do private mail support on GnuCash. Unless the other party 
is willing to pay for it, but contractor paid work will probably cost 
more than a very expensive internet connection. To be clear, this is my 
personal opinion. I'm fine with others having a different opinion of course.

>
> Question: Could there be problems with the documentation, where first
> the locale user lists should be contacted instead of the devel list? I
> believe so, e.g. translation issues, misunderstanding of terms ...
>
> Your opinion?
A valid point. I glossed over the locale lists in my previous message. 
Yes, it does make sense to contact those in some cases. There is no 
Dutch native list, so I have never used a locale list myself and hence 
I'm not sure what kind of conversations are usually held on such lists. 
But feel free to add information regarding the native language lists in 
the appropriate places.
>
> Frank
>
Geert