How and why to start hacking Ubuntu Help

[Matthew Thomas]

Hi Matt

On 1 Aug, 2005, at 4:41 PM, Matt Galvin wrote:
>
>> There are currently no help pages suitable for that purpose. I have
>> started a set. You're welcome to start a competing set, though
>> obviously I'd prefer you to join the existing effort. It would be 
>> great if you agreed to relicense your contributions to the FAQ Guide 
>> under the GPL, like Matt Galvin just has, so it can be incorporated 
>> into Ubuntu Help. That would save quite a bit of work.
>
> Whoa, Whoa... This is NOT what you asked me and this is certainly NOT
> why I agreed.
>
> You asked me to change licenses so that the documentation could be
> used upstream in the apps if the docs where good enough to be included
> in some app as a help message or something similar.

Yes, that's the reason Ubuntu Help is licensed under the GPL in the 
first place. Sorry if I was unclear.

The FAQ Guide isn't suitable for embedding into software as-is, because 
software needs self-contained sentences rather than a 
question-and-answer format. But the FAQ Guide contains lots of 
extremely useful information that could be reformatted into Ubuntu 
Help, and later used in software too for maximum effectiveness.

I don't think you can say "I agree to my contributions being licensed 
under the GPL except in any work called Ubuntu Help", because that 
would  violate section 6 of the GPL. If you completely rescind your 
relicensing (or delay it until after 5.10) I'll certainly respect that, 
though it would be a shame since it would mean a lot of rewriting.

> I did NOT agree so that you guys could take the work I did and use it
> in a fork of the FAQ. And yes it is a fork of the FAQ.

A fork is something that starts with an existing base and diverges. 
Ubuntu Help started with an empty text file on my laptop. It still 
contains only text that was written by me, though naturally I hope that 
will change soon.

> Corey started all this by forking the FAQ

I'm sorry if you got that impression. It's my understanding that Corey 
Burger pushed very hard for a respecification of the FAQ Guide, but I 
didn't know about that until after it had happened. I mentioned to 
Corey that his proposed specification looked quite similar to my 
existing help proposal, and suggested we collaborate on it. He seemed 
to like the idea, but he has yet to contribute.

> by forming LocalHelp or whatever it is that you guys are now calling 
> it.

First, there is not, and never has been, any project called LocalHelp. 
I giggle every time I see someone decreeing what should or not be done 
with this non-existent project. I have to giggle, because otherwise I 
would cry.

Second, the <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LocalHelp> wiki page was created 
by me, not by Corey. It was a proposal for a set of help pages to 
provide useful help for Ubuntu. A couple of months later, with no-one 
else taking on the ideas, I've started Ubuntu Help.

> He himself said he is creating a FORK, his words. I am not making this 
> up you know. I do NOT support forking the work we have done.

That's entirely understandable, and I don't know what the point of 
forking the FAQ would be. But that's not really any of my business, 
since I'm not participating in any fork.

> That is also part of why localhelp(ubuntuhelp or whatever it's called 
> now) is not an official docteam project.
> ...

I don't understand. What do any of Corey Burger's actions have to do 
with the status of Ubuntu Help? He hasn't even contributed to it. I 
hope he will soon, just as I hope you will retain the relicensing of 
your work, but I'm not responsible for all the actions of all Ubuntu 
Help contributors past and future. I can't even control the weather.

Cheers
-- 
Matthew Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/