Documentation website

[Matthew Paul Thomas]

On Jan 28, 2007, at 5:15 AM, Matthew East wrote:
> ...
> I think the better solution here will be to focus on the system 
> documents. I don't necessarily see the point of reproducing material 
> on the website exactly as it appears on the user's system. The help 
> website should supplement the system documentation, rather than 
> reproducing it.

There are a couple of reasons to reproduce the built-in help on 
help.ubuntu.com.

*   For some people, it simply will not occur to them that the built-in
     help might be useful, so they'll search the Web instead. (In these
     cases we might end with an unobtrusive notice: "This is a copy of a
     help page provided in Ubuntu 7.04. Next time, try System > Help
     for quicker access to help.")

     (For people who don't know how to do something at all, it would be
     especially aggravating if help.ubuntu.com had help on the advanced
     details, but not on the basics.)

*   The Web site can be used be used to test help pages, getting
     immediate feedback on what needs expanding or revising. ("Was this
     page helpful?")

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