searching docs

[Robert Freeman-Day]

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I agree that the bug site should be scored higher.  In testing 8.04, I
found the best info I got was from bugs.launchpad.net.  In addition, it
was also a good way to get me started on contributing more.

Robert


Neal McBurnett wrote:
> On Tue, May 06, 2008 at 08:25:22PM +0100, Matthew East wrote:
>> On Tue, May 6, 2008 at 6:55 PM, Matthew Nuzum
>> <matthew.nuzum at canonical.com> wrote:
>>>  First, do we need more than one search results page:
>>>   1. A help results page that weights results as listed below - people
>>>  use this when search for help
>>>   2. A general results page people use this when searching the other
>>>  areas of the website
>> For me this is absolutely essential.
>>
>> If we are seeking to provide a useful search for users looking for
>> help, then a number of websites should not be included in the search
>> results: the development wiki, the brainstorm website, the main
>> website and bugs.
> 
> Why not search bugs?  They usually include the most authoritative
> advice from developers on problems, including workarounds.  Developers
> are focussed there rather than on the forums and answers sites because
> the bugs page has to be updated anyway.  And if people update the
> description of the bug, as they should when good clarifications,
> resolutions and workarounds are found, they are generally more concise
> for help than the forums and mailing lists which can go on for pages
> and pages and be confusing for users.
> 
> So I would rank bugs.launchpad higher than the forums and answers for
> help requests.  Perhaps 0.7 for bugs, and 0.6 for forums, answers and
> mailing lists.
> 
> Neal McBurnett                 http://mcburnett.org/neal/
> 
>> If we are going to provide a useful search for those interested in
>> Ubuntu as users or potential contributors, then the main website and
>> development wiki are the key resources to index, and I think that at
>> least some (if not all) of the help websites should be excluded.
>>
>> The two search features could then be plugged in to appropriate
>> places, depending on which type of results is required. I can't think
>> of any reason to have a single search.
>>
>>>  Second, tell me what you think about the weighting:
>>>
>>>  Think of the weights as a percentage. 1 is the highest, 0 is the lowest.
>>>
>>>  help.ubuntu.com     1
>> A distinction should be made here between "official" documentation and
>> community documentation (help.ubuntu.com/community) - the latter
>> should be weighted slightly lower.
>>
>>>  forums.ubuntu.com 0.8
>>>  lists.ubuntu.com   0.8
>> That works, although I would weight the forum slightly higher, because
>> its threads will be simpler for the average user to understand via a
>> web interface.
>>
>>>  wiki.ubuntu.com   0.6
>>>  www.ubuntu.com   0.6
>> Not to be indexed for help - see above.
>>
>>>  answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/   0.4
>> Can be indexed with the same weight as mailing lists, I would have thought.
>>
>>>  packages.ubuntu.com    0.3
>>>  bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/   0.2
>>>
>>>  Site's that aren't listed will be excluded from the search results,
>>>  can you think of any I've missed?
>> Upstream help websites such as library.gnome.org should be included here.
> 
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