We Need You for the Doc Sprint!

Note: This is repost of an original written on the Plone Conference 2008 Blog

It’s no secret that many people think writing documentation is boring. Sure, it’s time consuming, a bit dull, and, well, just not as exciting as programming something new. Nonetheless, having an accurate documentation set is important to any piece of software.

• How many times have you had a problem you needed to figure out and couldn’t get an answer?
• How many times have you gone looking for Plone docs only to come up empty handed?
• How many times have you found inaccurate or just plain incomprehensible documentation?

Happens more often than you’d like, right?

So here’s your chance to do something about it!

Great documentation improves Plone usability and approachability for users at all levels. Consistant and correct documentation cuts down on Plone’s notorius learning curve, making it easier for people to jump into more advanced topics and contributing back to the community. For those of you that own your own business or do consulting work, did you ever think that great docs on plone.org could save you money? Think about it…if great documentation already exists, you can refer you clients to plone.org instead of spending precious development time writing training materials. If your company uses Plone but can’t afford to hire outside help, using docs on plone.org may just be the key to keeping your implementation functional. Not to mention, having great documentation makes Plone much more visable and desirable to people who are just starting to consider a content management system. Thorough documentaiton soothes the nerves of anxious stakeholders and integrators alike.

The documentation team is making a lot of changes to try and improve both the look and content of documentation on plone.org. The post conference sprint is your chance to get involved and help! We have a lot of ground to cover. The more people that help, the sooner we can claim that our doc set is the best that it can be.

The Plone Documentation team needs your help and the post conference sprint is a great time to get involved. We welcome everyone - from beginners to advanced Plonistas, non-writers and writers, native and non native English speakers. We can find something interesting for you to do! So please consider staying for the post conference sprint and helping out the doc team.