[TYPO3-core] Workflow for changing documentation

[Jigal van Hemert]

Hi,

On 5-5-2014 11:58, Xavier Perseguers wrote:
>> On 5-5-2014 9:12, Xavier Perseguers wrote:
>>> - Move every official documentation (we may start with 3-4 to start
>>> with) to Github
>>
>> Fine, if Github supports a SSO with t3o. If not, a way to push to a
>> remote repository on t3o should be there.
>
> That's not possible, do you think it's a show-stopper?

For me it is. I'm trying to rather limit the accounts I make on systems 
all over the world. It happens too often that one encounters a problem 
with product 'X' (hosted on www.x.com) and to report an issue one has to 
have a account on bugtracker Y, vote with an account on Z, push changes 
to site W. If this happens to a few products/projects one ends up with 
dozens of account which all send information and which need updates from 
time to time.

For me personally it's that if I want to contribute in some way to TYPO3 
I do it with an account on t3o. If documentation is hosted on github I 
will be limited to filing issue to forge.

>> In general, I still feel we should offer all the tools needed in the t3o
>> environments instead of moving things to platforms we have zero control.
>
> I've heard this argument quite often and I understand it to some extent.
> Now, could you please elaborate why you fear this "zero control". Which
> risks do you see regarding what I suggested to do?

Github is a platform that work by making forks or branches which are 
connected to other accounts. We already see it with code that forks are 
spread all over the web and people hardly know which version is "real".

If you read mailing lists many postings refer to tutorials, 
documentation of many websites and don't always know that the 
information is to be found on docs.typo3.org
This will only get worse with a system like github.

We will find ourselves on day in the situation that we want to remove 
documentation that is not valid any more or too outdated. Even if we 
remove it from our github account there will still be many copies 
floating around. These are all indexed and will show up in search results.

Documentation is relatively harmless (although it's a nuisance that 
people base their actions on incorrect documentation), but with 
extensions and other code teams such as the security team cannot remove 
unsafe versions, especially because so many copies would be readily 
available.

Then there is the issue with downtime and changes in services (or even 
termination of services). We currently use sourceforge as a download 
location, but in the past we've seen that we can quickly change it to a 
different location. You can fill in the details about what happens with 
a large problem on github and which accounts are the first to be 
restored. On our own infrastructure we have motivated sponsors and a 
dedicated server team to do the utmost to solve problems.

-- 
Jigal van Hemert
TYPO3 CMS Active Contributor

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