I received an off list comment regarding this documentation issue that's
been discussed here the last few days. Rather than respond to the
comments privately I'm posting them to the whole list so that maybe folks
will understand that asking for documentation contributions doesn't
necessarily imply 'put up or shut up'.
1) Whining about anything is counter-productive.
2) Whining on the GENERAL list about documentation (which has its
own list) is also counter-productive.
3) Rather than complain that the docs are inadequate, incomplete,
too hard to read or just plain suck; give some examples on how
they can be improved, ask for clarifications to things that may
be confusing or yes, contribute something.
4) Did you figure out how to do something that the docs were vague about?
Explain it and send it to the DOCS list, you don't have to be a
technical writer or know SGML, but a couple of sentences or an example
or something to that nature will eventually help someone who is and
is in process of updating things. It'll also be in the archives
and available via search.
Bottom line: Something that's confusing or inadequate to you may not be
to the person that wrote it, but they won't know that something's wrong if
you don't tell them *specifically* what it is. I guess in that respect
'put up or shut up' is correct, but not completely.
Vince.
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