Documentation / wiki

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#1 Thu, 06/21/2012 - 00:42
AllanIT

Documentation / wiki

Lets face it the documentation for Webmin, Virtualmin and Usermin is sourly lacking. That is not a criticism of the developers. Webmin, Virtualmin and Usermin are fantastic and must take all their time to develop and maintain let alone write comprehensive documentation to go with it.

For a while now I have been thinking about how they could solve this problem. I think it would be very useful to have a wiki where we could write descriptions of what each screen is for and step by step instructions hot to use each feature. I know that is what the forum is for but if there was better documentation then the forum could be a point to what is lacking in the wiki.

My thought is that the wiki would take the following layout

Webmin

Overall Description

Webmin
     Backup Configuration Files
       Description
       Step by step instruction and comments on how to use the feature
     Change Language and Theme
     Usermin Configuration
     Webmin Actions Log
     Webmin Configuration
     Webmin Servers Index
     Webmin Users
  System
  Servers
  Others
  Networking
  Hardware
  Cluster

Virtualmin

Overall Description

  Virtualmin
     Create Virtual Server
       Description
       Step by step instruction and comments on how to use the feature
     Edit Virtual Server
     Edit Users
     Edit Mail Aliases
     Edit Databases
     Install Scripts

basically follow the structure of Webmin, Virtualmin and Usermin and the have a section with a description and a section below that for Step by step instruction and comments on how to use the feature. The developers would have to setup the wiki and the overall structure and them we could all register to add and edit the documentation. With a lot of people adding and correcting the wiki could be a fantastic resource very quickly. I am sure that the developers would have to do some editing but take it for some one who knows deiting takes less than 5% of the time to write in the first place.

If any one else has any suggestions please chime in

AllanIT

Thu, 07/24/2014 - 14:57
drguild

Agreed on this I was coming here to suggest the same thing.

The post above was 2012 it's now 2014 and it's still relevant it seems.

So many basic simple or out of the way basic and simple things I'm having to ask and 'waste' Andrey's and Joes time on replies as I wouldn't have known that x relates to y.

I feel really bad doing so especially as I have basic I.T experience and I look like a complete illiterate noob that needs to ask how to turn a PC on.

Seriously a wiki with some community governmence and guidelines would go along way.

It's working out for Mozilla when they said they didn't have time anymore apart from security updates and resources needed to go to Firefox which more people care about and that general updates to Thunderbird were in the hands of the community as of last year.

Documentation is key and can reduce time spent on basic support the 5 mins per reply adds up to hundreds hours per month if you think about it.

And a community governance wiki means they don't have to write it we work for them for free.

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