[Fwd: Notes systems]

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Notes systems Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2003 14:56:51 +0200 From: didou@keliglia.com (Mehdi Achour) To: phpdoc@lists.php.net Newsgroups: php.doc Hi ! Before my departure on holiday, I would like to come back to the subject of the users notes. The actual system seffers many problems, leading to a certain "anarchy". There's a need to change it, and to modify a bit the policy of his use. 4 points to deal with : 1) Who is allowed to manage users notes ? I've been asked a lot of time by new commers to the PHP team : "can we help you managing the notes ?" I've always answered that I wasn't the person to ask but that any help would be appreciated. Maybe we can add this to the howto ? IMHO, everyone (from the PHP team) should have the right to moderate the notes. No need to provide access to other people. A team of 5 or 6 persons is moderating the whole stuff since two month, the amount of notes in the database is decreasing every week. no need to external help. 2) Reasons for suppression : As approached in my first mail, we see from time to time abuses in the moderation, A smart note, which maybe deserve to be integrated to the manual lost, without any understable reason :

     "note xxxx was deleted from yyyy by zzzz@php.net"

Why ? did "zzzz" read it all ? does he just want to show that he's "taking care" ? One more occasion to fit our readers needs is lost here. Here's what I propose :

     * the note will have 3 status :
       1 - new
       2 - to_be_integrated
       3 - deleted (the last one before it disapear)

    his doesn't mean that every note marked "new" have to change to

another status.

    some notes disserve to be on the users notes, without being deleted

nor integrated.

    A new note is posted :

      - if the note should be deleted (deleted, not rejected as

described by the current howto) we do

      and we provide a reason.

      here's IMHO what we'll need :

         bad_mail: the note should be rejected, but the provided mail

is buggy, no need to give more

         work to the server.

         trash : foreign language, spam, whatever that make it clear

for every moderator that the note

         should be deleted

         wrong : the user is posting a poorly written code, is saying

something wrong, is answering to

         someone else

         old : tricks on how to compile an old version of PHP with an

old library deprected from the ages of snow.

         who cares ? it's confusing for people trying to solve problems

with new versions.

     - if the note should be rejected :

      reasons :

         bug : the user is reporting a bug ? we send him a mail linking

to http://bugs.php.net

         support : the user is asking for help ? we send him a mail

linking to http://www.php.net/support

         (remember that if the mail address is buggy, you should

*delete* the note with the reason : bad_mail)

     - if the note should be integrated :

        the moderator fine the note really usefull, and he think that

it disserve to be integrated by one

        of the documentors ? he should mark the note as "to_be_integrated"

        if the moderator have access karma to phpdoc and want to

integrate the itself :

          he should make a CVS commit before changing the note status

again. After that,

          if the email address is buggy :
            he should delete the note with the reason "bad_mail"
          else
            he should delete the note with the reason "integrated"

        "integrated" wasn't listed above because it doesn't apply to a

"new" note.

    - not deleted, not rejected, not integrated.. let it die, someone

else will probably have a look 3 ) Integration interface : The notes marked as "to_be_integrated" should be browsable via a web interface, classified by chapter. Everyone that have CVS access to phpdoc can visit it from time to time, see what he want to take, commit some files and then delete the note ("integrated" or "bad_mail") as described above. This will for example allow an extension maintainer to have more feedback from its users. 4 ) Editing a note : Actually, we can't see what was changed in an edited note. All what we see is : After :

    (10 lines)

Was :

    (10 lines)

Maybe sending a diff of the two text to the list will be better :) 5 ) Who's and who's not Who will be listed as an official note moderator ? who will not ? This still need to be discussed. 6 ) Do we need an approval system ? IMHO, we don't. I've started moderating the notes in June, we're not a lot working on this but we are enough to cover the needs. (any help is welcome btw) Here's what I wanted to talk about. I want to ask for something btw.. who will take the decision of changing the system or not ? I really want to see this discussed until we find a solution and we set it up. As I told, I'm ready to help developping the new system. I've already sent a karma request. Give me your opinions, remarks, votes, anything that can help having a good and fully working system. Cheers, didou