Hi everybody, I just wanted to update you all on the state of the wiki.
This email may seem long but it isn't too dense; feel free to skip the numbers, but for anyone that might appreciate some figures, the old wiki had... Total pages: 841 (Less) system pages: ~150 Actual pages by us: ~690
These consisted of... Redirects ~45 Homepages ~150 Categories ~25 Content pages: ~470
Of the content pages, we had... English pages: 384 Translations: ~86
Of the translations, between 20-26 were immediately disqualified (either as less than 50% actually translated or a translation of an English page we rejected). Alex H mentioned that most of the translations probably weren't worth migrating, but we thought we should leave that up to potential translators.
For those remaining English pages... Already ported in some way: 153 Rejected as not worth porting: 169 Still unfinished: 62
Of these last 62, we actually have relatively clear plans for how to port ~25 of them, leaving just 35 or so as truly up for grabs. Furthermore, we've tried to leave a quick note on http://oldwiki.winehq.org/PageMigration for every page that still needs a decision. And of course, people are free to override our rejections if they really want to keep a page (we left an explanation for every rejection at the top of the relevant page)
While some of those last 35 pages are really just a matter of policy (e.g. do we want a page for every command, even if it's a stub?), many of them have at least one or two technical notes that seem to supplement the API documentation. These are the ones where we would really appreciate input or decisions from developers, particularly whether anything is worth moving to the Developers' docs.
Finally, as Rosanne and I made alternating edits, we discussed a few points that we think are worth keeping in mind for the future:
1. If a page is experimental / dev-oriented, try to make that clear from the name, text, and possibly a bold note (for example, a lot of users were apparently misinterpreting "WineOnWindows" as a stable feature they could use)
2. If you're using a distro/OS with its own wiki page, keeping an eye on its page for incorrect or outdated info would be great, even if only every few months. I updated several of them last year, testing what I could and researching docs on and outside WineHQ for changes, but it's no substitute for someone that knows first-hand what each one requires.
3. If you don't agree with a change, don't be afraid to revert it and start a discussion for the page, especially now that we have the talk pages.
4. The wiki is a natural place for things like to-do lists and transient notes, but if the same information can be easily written so that it's just as useful 5 years from now, aim for timelessness. If more of the wiki ages well, it should be easier to keep track of the things that may bit-rot.
5. Finally, if you want to start a new page, check to see if you could somehow add your info to existing pages first. Obviously we don't want the pages to get too long and it's totally subjective in the end, but it seems the more the pages spread out wildly, the more likely they are to wind up orphaned and abandoned.
Have a good start to your spring everybody, Kyle
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Kyle Auble