Re: User notes

On 31 August 2012 21:56, Daniel Brown <danbrown@php.net> wrote: > On Fri, Aug 31, 2012 at 6:16 AM, Hannes Magnusson > <hannes.magnusson@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> It isn't scaling, but we do have crapload of people with php.net >> karma, and all of them have the ability to edit/reject notes.. Most >> simply don't know it. >> I think we should try to reach out the individual extension >> maintainers and get them to review their own pages. > > That's a really good idea, Hannes. I vastly reduced my moderation > activity this spring in hopes others would think I was killed by a > bear and would join in. Having each extension's author look through > periodically, though, would be a great help. Derick used to prune the > time sections every few months, but I think he's just gotten so busy > that he really just doesn't have the.... well.... time. Agreed. I think that's got the potential to improve matters considerably. (The key word being "potential".) > Unfortunately, though, I'm not sure how many people would actually > want to be bothered, and without using firearms, there's little we can > do to force them. Those that would might not have the time or > interest in doing so regularly or diligently. That's definitely my concern, too. > And, Adam, while that's really quite > impressive that you'd taken the time and effort to put stats together > (and, in many cases, I'd be inclined to agree with your rating), it's > all subjective. I completely agree. :) > That said, things I've done to try to reduce the "fluff" (read: > crap) in the notes have failed miserably --- and that's putting it > lightly. I mean that it's been met with such catastrophic failure > that the Hindenburg looks like a roller coaster for small children by > comparison. I've followed up with contributors who left a valid email > address to discuss ways to improve their note and resubmit it for > acceptance. I added explicit "what not to enter" information. I even > tried placing an XKCD comic as a masthead on the note submission page > to grab attention. In all, it seems we can't prevent the milk from > spilling, we can only clean up the mess after. Yeah, and to be clear: I'm not having a go at anyone's efforts here, especially yours. You do a power of work here. I've done some of this myself: I've also followed up with contributors. I've turned a couple of notes into doc bugs and commits, and should convert a few more. It just feels like nailing jelly to the wall at times, and I haven't been doing this for anywhere near as long as you have — for the most part, I've spent the last few years ignoring notes altogether. > I don't know exactly what the solution is, but I do believe it is > best managed in-house. On that, there seems to be general agreement. Message received loud and clear! So, assuming we're going to keep notes as seems to be the consensus so far: what can we do to make them more manageable? (Yes, I'll help write code.) Adam