Gentoo Wiki talk:Summer of Documentation/2012

Import from unofficial wiki

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This discussion is done.

Why not start importing the articles from the unofficial wiki? IMHO there are no reason to have 2 wiki. After an evaluation of the better platform (in terms of availability, not loosing data) and secondary features (templates, style etc...) we need to merge all articles in that wiki. We can surely do a lot of cut-and-paste, but I'm sure that can be done in a more practical way. --Bfx81 09:39, 30 June 2012 (UTC)

The unofficial wiki has a different license, so we cannot copy+paste articles from there, unless the original authors relicense their contributions. — yngwin 09:48, 30 June 2012 (UTC)

That's really a pity... but I think we can solve this with simple common sense, and of course with the collaboration of gentoo-wiki.com and their authors. I mean, we share the same goal, the same purpose! I believe that the strong majority of contributors really don't care about a single no-commercial clause of an otherwise identical CC license.

So... we really want a better documentation or keep an meaningless fork? Let's start to ask gentoo-wiki.com to put together the efforts, and send a BIG-BROADCAST-RELICENSE-MAIL to all their user. --Bfx81 10:25, 30 June 2012 (UTC)

That's not really possible, unless 100% of the authors all reply that they're ok with the relicensing. If one of them sais no, you'll need to filter out his contributions. If a couple of them say no "or don't even answer, because their registered e-mail address doesn't work anymore" then you're all out of luck. I believe this was already discussed (see also the notice on the unofficial wiki page). --SwifT 10:34, 30 June 2012 (UTC)

You think we haven't asked them? There have been several approaches in the past (either to take that wiki under the official Gentoo umbrella, or to simply host it on official Gentoo infrastructure), but the administrators of that wiki have always been adamant to go their own way. And they have made it clear they do not want to work with us.

And, as SwifT said, it has already been discussed... So it is up to individual authors to put their own work up here on the official Gentoo Wiki, if they want to. If you know anyone who used to contribute to the unofficial wiki, you can urge them to come here. But that is about as far as we can go. — yngwin 10:50, 30 June 2012 (UTC)

Hope you didn't take it personally Yngwin, really, I'm here to help not to criticize. If I insist on this is why, like you, understand that keeping two wiki has really no sense, especially for a distribution like gentoo, where I experienced that all that know-how is really crucial.

So if we can't have support from the administrator you're right that we have to reach the users. I've this proposal:

GENTOO OFFICIAL WIKI INVITE

* Prepare an invite-page on wiki.gentoo.org explaining the benefits of having a single centralized official wiki (

* Inform previously the gentoo-wiki.com administrators about this invite (we are fair guys, aren't we?)

* With a bunch of volunteers (count on me first), post a small message and the link at the invite-page on all contributors discussion-page, asking if they agree to change the license for theirs contributions, and (hopefully eventually) move all to the official wiki.

* Where we receive a positive answer for the relicense (on their own discussion-page so it's easy for him, we are notified and we can check he's able to authenticate) we can start to copy the content to the official wiki.

I think that's a start, that can be even "integrated" with this Summer of Documentation initiative. Let me know what you think about this... (we move this on the forum? maybe is more practical..) --Bfx81 17:54, 30 June 2012 (UTC)

No, I didn't take it personally. Don't worry, I do understand you're trying to help. And while I personally agree that it doesn't make sense to keep two wikis going, I think it is too early to do anything as drastic as what you are proposing. For the time being, I say we should just make this, the official wiki, successful. And then the users, writers, editors and maintainers will come to us naturally.

I would like to keep things positive, as much as possible. What you are proposing would most likely be seen as hostile by the administrators of the unofficial wiki. And I don't think such animosity would do us any good. — yngwin 07:04, 2 July 2012 (UTC)