[kde-doc-english] Linking to Support Resources/Changing the Docs Footer

[T.C. Hollingsworth]

On Sat, Jun 1, 2013 at 9:22 AM, Burkhard Lück <lueck at hube-lueck.de> wrote:
> Am Mittwoch, 29. Mai 2013, 21:33:26 schrieb T.C. Hollingsworth:
>> Hi!
>>
>> We currently have the following text in the footer of every doc:
>>
>> Would you like to make a comment or contribute an update to this page?
>> Send feedback to the _KDE Docs Team_ <mailto:kde-doc-english at kde.org>
>>
>> I think this is part of the reason why we get so many off topic posts
>> to this list.
>>
> Probably yes, seems to me users needing help simply click the first available
> link, they do not recognize their and our time.
>
>> I'd like to add a new chapter to the KDE Fundamentals documentation
>> that includes two things:
>>
>> 1. A list of resources for getting further assistance with KDE,
>> linking to the KDE forums, appropriate mailing lists, bugzilla, etc.
>
> That's partly opverlapping with the Online Help docbook?

Oh, right; I forgot about that one.  Should we make changes to this
DocBook instead?  Or maybe merge it into Fundamentals?

>> 2. A brief overview of how to submit feedback to KDE Documentation
>> Team, including this e-mail address
>>
>> We could then change the footer in kdelibs.git to read something like this:
>>
>> For further assistance using this or any other KDE application, see
>> _Getting Help_. <help:/fundamentals/support.html>
>> Would you like to make a comment or contribute an update to this page?
>>  See _Contacting the Documentation Team_.
>> <help:/fundamentals/support.html#docs>
>>
> That footer text seems to be much too long, it should be much shorter so it
> doesn't occupy much screen space.
> But given the behavior of people using the link in the footer we have now
> (either they don't read or understand the text or simply ignore its content) I
> doubt, if it really helps offering two links.

I guess we could shorten this to the first sentence, then?  Any
suggestions for revising this would be most welcome, I'm not entirely
happy with that text.

> But anyway having more information about support in the fundamentals is an
> excellent idea.
>
>> This will reduce the amount of off-topic chatter we get here and
>> provide a much-needed list of support resources in the offline
>> documentation.
>>
> Thanks for your initiative to reduce this off-topic chatter on this list.
>
>> One other thing I think would be awesome if we do this would be to
>> find a way to also provide a way for translators to fill in a section
>> of this new chapter that explains how to get support in their
>> language.
>>
> Yes that would be a good addition.
>
>> Doesn't the translation framework treat <!--TRANS:foo--> type comments
>> specially?  Would it be possible to add a
>> <!--TRANS:LANGUAGE_SUPPORT_INFO--> comment or some such to the
>> relevant chapter in fundamentals, and instruct translators to fill in
>> that message with a sectN with useful information for their language.
>>
>> For instance, the Spanish translator(s) would translate that message
>> to something like this:
>> <sectN id="support-lang">
>> <title>Obtención de Ayuda en Español</title>
>> <para>Para obtener ayuda para usar las aplicaciones de &kde; en
>> español, por favor escriba <ulink
>> url="mailto:general at kde-espana.es">general at kde-espana.es</ulink> a
>> través de correo electrónico.</para>
>> </sectN>
>>
>> This would of course be optional, and if translators don't want to/are
>> unable to because such resources don't exist no section like this will
>> appear.  (This also would prevent a "Getting Help in English" section,
>> which doesn't make much sense.)
>>
> Technically this should work, but tosky of course will know better.

Should I ask kde-i18n-doc?

>> If that won't work, is there another way we could achieve this?
>>
> Not really, we will have to accept, that there will be a certain amount of off-
> topic mails on this as on any other list.

Yes of course, I'm subscribed to lists that are much, *much* worse.
;-)  This sentence was supposed to refer to the translation thing.

-T.C.