Knowledge Base changes: Difference between revisions

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==Temporary introduction==
This page has been created for several reasons.
I ([[User:Mozcerize|Mozcerize]]) have created this page for several reasons.


*It would be nice to have a place where new editors can introduce themselves and meet existing editors.
*It would be nice to have a place where new editors can introduce themselves and meet existing editors.
*It would be good to allow new editors to safely propose content changes (minor or major) prior to implementing them.
*It would be good to allow new editors to safely propose content changes (minor or major) prior to implementing them.
*It would be good to have a central location to discuss the style, content and organisation of this Knowledge Base. (Some of the ideas in [[Talk:Knowledge Base]] can be migrated here, leaving that page solely for discussion of the front page article itself.
*It would be good to have a central location to discuss the style, content and organization of this Knowledge Base. (Some of the ideas in [[Talk:Knowledge Base]] can be migrated here, leaving that page solely for discussion of the front page article itself.
*This page is an attempt to address recent incidents that have occured on the KB where some groups of editors have been unaware of major changes being made by other groups of editors.
*This page was an attempt to address incidents that have occurred on the KB where some groups of editors have been unaware of major changes being made by other groups of editors.


I hope to place a link to this page in the "welcome to new editors" paragraphs found on the front page and from the other "entrance" pages such as [[Firefox]] and [[Thunderbird]].
This page is the primary place to ''announce'' new suggestions. Whenever possible, issues should be ''discussed'' in a more appropriate place, such as the discussion page of the article or category that the suggestion affects. Once suggestions are resolved, they are moved to [[Knowledge Base changes/Archive]].


I anticipate this page being the primary place to announce new suggestions. Please visit it regularly!
You can request somebody create an article at [[Requested articles]] .


==Welcome to new editors==
==Copyright/License problems==
Hello! Great to have you here. Please add a comment here :-)
I suggest we think about adding a short "Copyright/License problems" section in [[Rules_and_guidelines]] that sets peoples expectations on what they can legitimately copy/modify. I'm splitting this out as a separate topic from "Using external sources and references in KB articles". Please discuss this at [[Talk:Rules_and_guidelines]] . [[User:Tanstaafl|Tanstaafl]] 08:32, 20 January 2008 (UTC)


* Hello Knowledge Base! FJ reporting to duty! *bows at all* [[User:FatJohn|FatJohn]] 11:30, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
Roland Tanglao (tech support lead at Mozilla Messaging) is going to talk to Kerz about the possibility of our using a license compatible with the license SuMoMo (The official knowledge base at support.mozillamessaging.com) uses. The issue came up when we planned some events where people on the tb-support-crew AT mozilla.org mailing list (mainly from the MozillaZine and Mozilla Messaging/GetSatisfaction communities) collaborate on writing KB articles. They are initially developed here and then ported to their site. That doesn't raise any legal issues if they are started from scratch. However, someday we may want to merge content from several articles (some of which are on their site) when creating a new article, and there is always the issue of not being able to use updates added to the SuMoMo version of the article on this sites version of the same article unless you start spending a lot of effort tracking and justifying stuff.


==Hot topic—implementing and using categories==
See the [http://kb.mozillazine.org/Knowledge_Base_changes/Archive#License_issues archive of license issues]. [[User:Tanstaafl|Tanstaafl]] 11:39, 19 November 2010 (UTC)
Discussion on [[Rules/Categories | categorizing articles]] can be found at [[Talk:Rules/Categories]].


:Can we delete this topic from here? It seems like ancient history to me at this point. --[[User:Wintogreen|wintogreen]] 18:25, 4 January 2006 (UTC)
==Using the new SeaMonkey category==
A new [[:Category:SeaMonkey]] was created awhile back, which went under my radar ;-).  I was thinking, why not use this new category to track SeaMonkey 2 articles for now?  I started a Discussion page here: [[:Category talk:SeaMonkey]] [[User:Alice Wyman|Alice]] 14:36, 9 February 2009 (UTC)


==Hot topic—replacing the FAQs and Issues pages with category navigation==
[http://kb.mozillazine.org/User:Skierpage Skierpage] is looking for advice on how to update old Mozilla Suite stuff for SeaMonkey, especially for Linux. [[User:Tanstaafl|Tanstaafl]] 11:44, 19 November 2010 (UTC)
Discussion of this proposal can be found on [[Talk:Rules/Categories]]). Some editors were not aware of this discussion (see [[Talk:Issues with Firefox]] and [[Talk:Rules/Categories#Flattening the Thunderbird categories]]). This was the main motivation for creating this page.


To summarize the situation so far:
==Replacement of Profile Manager==


Part of the motivation for implementing categories was to avoid the following situation which occurred with the original FAQs, Issues and Tips pages: article links had to be maintained manually; some articles appeared on more than one page; some articles didn't appear on any page. The result was that people had to look at all three pages to makes sure they didn't miss anything, and then perform a search as well. With categories, the danger that an article was never linked to from anywhere was removed, since category automatically list the articles. There was no opposition to removing the Tips pages.
The profile manager is going to be eliminated after Firefox 4.0. [http://www.ghacks.net/2011/01/19/firefox-profile-manager-to-be-removed-soon/] [http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2066609] Thunderbird will probably also do the same. [http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=2073455] The separate profile manager utility is not designed for end users, and its not clear yet whether it will even be bundled with the Mozilla application.  


The suggestion to temove the FAQs and Issues pages was more controversial. Indeed, the problem with relying solely on category listings is that ''logical order'' is lost. The initial solution proposed was to use the editable part at the top of the category pages to recreate some logical order by factoring in parts of the FAQs and Issues pages.
How do we want to handle documenting both? Its already very awkward documenting how to use the profile manager for multiple applications and multiple operating systems in one article. That is the reason why [[Moving_your_profile_folder_-_Thunderbird]] was created for example. Given the different release schedules for Firefox, SeaMonkey, and Thunderbird, and how some users keep using old major versions for a very long time we will probably have to deal with both for at least several years.


:My current opinion on this is that the FAQ and Issues pages should be kept, because they contain more info that could sensibly be placed in the category pages. However, I do think that they should both contain prominant links to the category pages, notifying the reader that there is more info on the KB than the selection of articles advertised on the FAQ and Issues pages. Indeed, I would suggest renaming "Issues " to "Common Issues with Firefox" to emphasise the fact that the Issues page is just a selection. --[[User:Mozcerize|Mozcerize]] 15:00, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
Do we want to adopt some naming convention in other articles to make it clear which one we're talking about or do we want to refer to both as the profile manager?


:: First, thanks for the new discussion area and for the invitation to add comments.  I've already added some comments to the [[Talk:Issues with Firefox]] page, back when it was first removed.  I never did see the justification for removing either page,  even if they are no longer linked from the front page.  (I took it upon myself to restore them... I'm sorry it I stepped on anyone's toes but I was totally unaware of  any discussion going on or a decision to remove the two pages.  I strongly believe  that  both pages should be kept as they're a very handy way to organize and locate information, especially the FAQs page, which is unique in that the collection of links isn't duplicated anywhere else, alphabetically or not.  Both pages are good places to include links to forum topics,  release notes  or other external links when there is no KB article covering the topic, plus the link descriptions give much more information than a simple title page link.  I'm willing to help keep both pages organized and updated since I refer to them both so often.  As far as the  [[Issues with Firefox]] page,  I've already pointed out in the intro that,  "A link to an alphabetized list of current articles in the Category, Issues (Firefox) can be found at the end of this article." It might be a good idea to eliminate some of the less common issues on the page, such as the entire "Versions older than 1.0" section,  and to emphasize that the page is  a collection of "Common Firefox Issues" and is not exhaustive.  I don't see the need for a new name but if someone else whats to rename the page "Common Firefox Issues" or similar, that's fine with me. [[User:Alice Wyman|Alice Wyman]] 20:47, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
I realize this is early but I'd like to document how to use the replacement with Thunderbird (if only to get more people to try it and provide feedback to the author) and don't want to make that a isolated stand alone article. [[User:Tanstaafl|Tanstaafl]] 02:27, 21 January 2011 (UTC)


:::''"I'm sorry it I stepped on anyone's toes…."'' Not at all. Thanks for the points you've raised. The links to the forums and other offsite pages are indeed important. I was weighing up the idea of creating KB articles which act as wrappers for offsite links, that is, they have a useful title but their content is just a link. Ultimately, it would be good to have the info that they point to actually transferred to the article. (Anybody got a free week? ;-) I don't claim that this is an urgent task, but it would be good to have the offsite info represented somehow in the category listings. --[[User:Mozcerize|Mozcerize]] 11:25, 4 January 2006 (UTC)
:I've already added this note to the top of the [[Profile Manager]] article:<br>
 
:{| {{prettytable}}
==Hot topic&mdash;the new front page==
|-
See [[Knowledge Base]] and [[Talk:Knowledge Base]].
|'''''Note:''' Mozilla is planning to remove the built-in Profile Manager  from future Mozilla applications (after Firefox 4.0) and a standalone "Profile Manager" application will be available. "Profile Manager 1.0 Beta 1" is described [http://jagriffin.wordpress.com/2011/01/11/profilemanager-1-0_beta1 here]. For more information, see [http://www.ghacks.net/2011/01/19/firefox-profile-manager-to-be-removed-soon/ this blog post] and [https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Profile_Manager this article at MDC]. [http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=10275581#p10275581] [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=214675] [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=539524]''
 
|-
==New proposal&mdash;implementing "browse by UI feature" system for Firefox articles==
|}
See [[Firefox components]] and [[Talk:Firefox components]].
:According to [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=539524#c22 bug 539524 comment 22] the standalone PM application will probably not be bundled with future Firefox downloads when it is removed from Firefox and  will be a separate, optional download.   I thought that we might make a template similar to the above note and add it to the top of all articles about profiles.   When the built-in Profile Manager is actually removed (sometime after Firefox 4.0) we could add  something to the effect that the article or article section ''applies to Firefox 4.0 and below.'' We could then create a new "Profile Manager application" or "Profile Manager utility" article and link to it, just like we have  for the [[MozBackup]] standalone utility. [[User:Alice Wyman|Alice]] 14:10, 21 January 2011 (UTC)
 
==Question&mdash;how to use "SeaMonkey" in the kb from now?==
With the SeaMonkey 1.0 release just around the corner, I've been wondering how we should adjust for the use of the "SeaMonkey" name in the kb. As it is now, the article-naming conventions and in-house style both specify that only "Mozilla Suite" is to be used. Since SeaMonkey has features not in the Suite, it seems like it would make sense to start referring to the proper product name when it's needed to differentiate it from the Suite; perhaps we could linkify "SeaMonkey" in such cases so that it leads back to the category page, where there could be a blurb about the two names being used in the kb. Thoughts? --[[User:Wintogreen|wintogreen]] 18:23, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Latest revision as of 14:10, 21 January 2011

This page has been created for several reasons.

  • It would be nice to have a place where new editors can introduce themselves and meet existing editors.
  • It would be good to allow new editors to safely propose content changes (minor or major) prior to implementing them.
  • It would be good to have a central location to discuss the style, content and organization of this Knowledge Base. (Some of the ideas in Talk:Knowledge Base can be migrated here, leaving that page solely for discussion of the front page article itself.
  • This page was an attempt to address incidents that have occurred on the KB where some groups of editors have been unaware of major changes being made by other groups of editors.

This page is the primary place to announce new suggestions. Whenever possible, issues should be discussed in a more appropriate place, such as the discussion page of the article or category that the suggestion affects. Once suggestions are resolved, they are moved to Knowledge Base changes/Archive.

You can request somebody create an article at Requested articles .

Copyright/License problems

I suggest we think about adding a short "Copyright/License problems" section in Rules_and_guidelines that sets peoples expectations on what they can legitimately copy/modify. I'm splitting this out as a separate topic from "Using external sources and references in KB articles". Please discuss this at Talk:Rules_and_guidelines . Tanstaafl 08:32, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

Roland Tanglao (tech support lead at Mozilla Messaging) is going to talk to Kerz about the possibility of our using a license compatible with the license SuMoMo (The official knowledge base at support.mozillamessaging.com) uses. The issue came up when we planned some events where people on the tb-support-crew AT mozilla.org mailing list (mainly from the MozillaZine and Mozilla Messaging/GetSatisfaction communities) collaborate on writing KB articles. They are initially developed here and then ported to their site. That doesn't raise any legal issues if they are started from scratch. However, someday we may want to merge content from several articles (some of which are on their site) when creating a new article, and there is always the issue of not being able to use updates added to the SuMoMo version of the article on this sites version of the same article unless you start spending a lot of effort tracking and justifying stuff.

See the archive of license issues. Tanstaafl 11:39, 19 November 2010 (UTC)

Using the new SeaMonkey category

A new Category:SeaMonkey was created awhile back, which went under my radar ;-). I was thinking, why not use this new category to track SeaMonkey 2 articles for now? I started a Discussion page here: Category talk:SeaMonkey Alice 14:36, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Skierpage is looking for advice on how to update old Mozilla Suite stuff for SeaMonkey, especially for Linux. Tanstaafl 11:44, 19 November 2010 (UTC)

Replacement of Profile Manager

The profile manager is going to be eliminated after Firefox 4.0. [1] [2] Thunderbird will probably also do the same. [3] The separate profile manager utility is not designed for end users, and its not clear yet whether it will even be bundled with the Mozilla application.

How do we want to handle documenting both? Its already very awkward documenting how to use the profile manager for multiple applications and multiple operating systems in one article. That is the reason why Moving_your_profile_folder_-_Thunderbird was created for example. Given the different release schedules for Firefox, SeaMonkey, and Thunderbird, and how some users keep using old major versions for a very long time we will probably have to deal with both for at least several years.

Do we want to adopt some naming convention in other articles to make it clear which one we're talking about or do we want to refer to both as the profile manager?

I realize this is early but I'd like to document how to use the replacement with Thunderbird (if only to get more people to try it and provide feedback to the author) and don't want to make that a isolated stand alone article. Tanstaafl 02:27, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

I've already added this note to the top of the Profile Manager article:
Note: Mozilla is planning to remove the built-in Profile Manager from future Mozilla applications (after Firefox 4.0) and a standalone "Profile Manager" application will be available. "Profile Manager 1.0 Beta 1" is described here. For more information, see this blog post and this article at MDC. [4] [5] [6]
According to bug 539524 comment 22 the standalone PM application will probably not be bundled with future Firefox downloads when it is removed from Firefox and will be a separate, optional download. I thought that we might make a template similar to the above note and add it to the top of all articles about profiles. When the built-in Profile Manager is actually removed (sometime after Firefox 4.0) we could add something to the effect that the article or article section applies to Firefox 4.0 and below. We could then create a new "Profile Manager application" or "Profile Manager utility" article and link to it, just like we have for the MozBackup standalone utility. Alice 14:10, 21 January 2011 (UTC)