[wp-docs] Docs Team Guidelines

[Cena Mayo]

Hi everybody,

Sorry about my lack of activity for the last few days; I'm in the the 
last week and a half of school before finals and have been (will be, 
through about 11 May) really squeezed for time.  But it looks like 
there's action on the docs front and I'd like to thank everyone who's 
been contributing!  [Kitty, will post comments about your outline in a 
separate email.]

Since we've got a bunch of new enthusiastic vict--er, volunteers for the 
project, now's the time to put out some guidelines for the team, 
including an answer to that everlasting question, 'what's the license?'  
Matt has reviewed these, but more suggestions or critiques are welcome; 
however, the licensing issue is settled and will not be changed.  The 
guidelines are attached as a .txt document.

Thanks again to all the contributors, and welcome to all the new members! 

Cena Mayo
Docs Team co-leader
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 WordPress Documentation Team Guidelines

last update: 28 April 2004


TOC

1. First Things
2. Licensing
4. Doc Formats
5. Process
6. Resources


1. FIRST THINGS

The WordPress documentation team is dedicated to providing quality tutorials, howtos
ans manuals for the WordPress publishing community.

Anyone is welcome to join.  There are no requirements for acceptance other than good writing skills and a willingness to help others.  You do not need to send in a resume or CV detailing your technical writing or coding prowess.  

You do, however, need to join the docs mailing list, found at http://wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/docs_wordpress.org .  Once you've joined, send a message to the list introducing yourself. 

The other primary locations for Docs Team activity are in the WP <a href="http://wordpress.org/support">Forums</a>, and at the WP <a href="wiki.wordpress.org">Wiki</a>.


2. LICENSING

All documentation produced in support of WordPress by team members for inclusion on any wordpress.org site will be licensed by the <a href="http://www.fsf.org/licenses/fdl.html#SEC1">Gnu Free Documentation License (GFDL)</a>.

To use the GDFL in works you produce for the WP Docs Project, simply include the following in a comment at the top of an XHTML document, or after the title page in a document designed for printing (such as .txt or .pdf):

Copyright (c)  YEAR  YOUR NAME.
      Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
      under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
      or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
      with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover
      Texts.  A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU
      Free Documentation License".

You must also include with your document a copy of the license itself, or a link to said license.
The WP.org Docs site should have a page containing the text of the license itself, so as to be applicable to all documentation found on the WP site(s).

3. FORMATTING

At the time of this writing (April 2004), docs should be presented in accordance with XTHML 1.0/1.1 and CSS standards compliance, in their finished version.  Documents in other formats, such as .pdf, .doc, or other application-specific format, while desirable, are secondary.  

When posting rough drafts or beta versions of documentation to the list, plaintext is preferable to formats other than .txt.

4.  PROCESS

The best way to start a new doc project is by announcing it to the list.  This helps avoid duplicated efforts.  When you have a rough draft ready, post it as well, for proofreading and editing.  Currently, it is up to the individual author to prepare a final (formatted) version for submission to the docs site. 

5. RESOURCES

Notes on Technical Writing: http://www.rbs0.com/tw.htm

Grammar, Punctuation, and Capitalization for Technical Writers: http://stipo.larc.nasa.gov/sp7084/index.html

Purdue University's wonderful Online Writing Lab: 
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/index.html

Univerity of Vermont's Writing Guidelines for Engineering and Science Students:
http://writing.eng.vt.edu/    [ed. note: Short version: Remember who you're writing for!]