[Bf-docboard] Roadmap

[Tobias Heinke]

Hello everyone,

This is three mails in one, which  never get over draft status so expect 
a longer still sketchy text.
Part 1

Concepts:

1. Flow to Information
People come to get a piece of information, guide them through the manual 
to find it (as quick as possible).
Entry point: content, exit point: glossary
Signposts in the manual - the section descriptions on /content /are an 
example.

2. The manual as a service
Prioritization, keeping up the service: maintenance.

3. Levels of Abstraction
Reference > Workflow > Example.
Rising demand of time to create and maintain.

4. Users Count
Keep it up with: quality, quantity, up-to-date, access (F1, SEO);
User turned into authors. motivate authors.

5. Prioritization based on FAQ
Blender stack exchange, "basics" tutorials.

Applied:

1. Maintainability
It has to be maintainable by less people. -> Reference.

2. No duplication
Rely heavy on linking.
Consequence: is not necessary readable from start to end.
Not clear what knowledge is needed to understand a certain method.

3. From workflow orientated to UI orientated:
Was already started with the editor section.
View,  Select, Edit menu schema for every editor in the manual
One page per panel (roughly).

3.1 Contents place is defined by UI, avoid multiple possible placements.


Is now possible to get back up-to-date with Blender development ?:

1.  If 2.8 brings not big changes that would demand a lot of rewriting. 
Now (Nov 16) it not looks like it.
2. We  need more authors (aim 1 per section).

So we should spend some effort in finding new authors and keep engaged:

1. An informative advertisement:

Why manual writing is fun.
Interesting for whom: you don't have to be a coder.
Main problem is that people don't see themselves as qualified to become 
an author.
The problem we can't  advertise with a big community.

2. "New in the manual" page
A change log to point at bigger changes made - like "name" node is now 
documented.
So that new content doesn't gets lost in the 1000 pages.
Not persistent, just a time period (1/2 year) or a fix number of entries.
Could be in the /about /section with link from /content./

3. Tasks
Previously and still there could be a task be create for nearly every page,
but it could be a hint where to start.

4. Online editing
No way around. It's (again) be some work to set it up.

Open Problems:

The trend towards a reference is not complete
there are the intermediate chapters (between editors) like: Animation, 
Data System
so there will be the possibility of a "flag ship editor" model, where  
the most prominent editor has all content and the other link (or include):
i.e. Movie Editor > Masking and not UV/Image Editor, Dope Sheet: Mask Editor

How to handle "obvious" content that needs no explanation or where the 
tooltip is sufficient.

Regards,
Tobias





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