[Lustre-devel] [wc-discuss] Seeking contributors for Lustre User Manual

[Ned Bass <bass6@llnl.gov>]

On Tue, Nov 13, 2012 at 11:48:35AM -0800, Nathan Rutman wrote:
> Would it be easier to move the manual back to a Wiki?  The low hassle
> factor of wikis has always been a draw for contribution.  The openSFS
> site is up and running with MediaWiki now (wiki.opensfs.org).

Easier? Yes, probably. Better? I personally don't think so.  Wikis are
great collaboration tools for informally sharing information, but I
don't think the paradigm scales well for documents of this size and
complexity. And a wiki isn't the right tool for producing a formal
professional-quality document, which is what I think the Lustre manual
should strive to be.

True, we would lower the bar for contributions, but for that we would
sacrifice the following features that I consider essential.

- Ability to export to multiple formats (pdf, html, epub) from one source
- Consistency of formatting and navigation elements
- A review process for proposed changes that assures a high standard of quality

However, there are some short articles that probably do belong in the
wiki that could be poached from the manual, i.e. installation and
configuration procedures, etc.

Ned