phpList Manual Writing Sprint – 10-11th October

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phpList manual writing sprintJoin in the fun

On the 10th and 11th of October we will be having a manual writing sprint. A bunch of phpList users, developers and translators will get together, online and/or in person, to work on the new phpList manual.

Sprint Details…

Where: the phpList IRC on freenode
What?! Not sure what that is? Click here to join
When: 10th-11th October
What time: drop by any-time from 9am on the 10th and 9pm one the 11th (GMT) and stay as long as you like!

Everyone is welcome and you don’t need to be an expert in phpList or have experience of technical writing.

Tasks will include:

  • Writing new chapters
  • Taking and editing screenshots
  • Testing instructions to see if they work and are easy to understand
  • Checking formatting
  • Drinking coffee!

Once More unto the… Keyboard!

The aim of the sprint is to get as many chapters written and tested as possible in 48 hours.

Working in a fast-paced and collaborative environment like this is really good fun: it’s a great way to get motivated and proactive and meet new people.

The story so far…

We teamed up with FlossManuals and started work on the manual in mid July.

We set out a rough chapter outline in our first meeting and agreed that the manual should be aimed at everyday, non-technical users and will have a friendly, relaxed tone.

phpList manual tasklist

So far 33% of our chapters are written and ready to be tested. Three more chapters are “in progress” and 19 chapters have not been started. No chapters have been tested yet.

We also have some gaps, where chapters need to be decided upon, especially documenting plugins.

Preparation work

If you are a big old swat (like me) or just happen to have a spare few minutes before the sprint, here are some tasks you can do to prepare:

  1. Read the phpList documentation style guide here
  2. Make sure you can access and use the project management software (email anna@phplist.com for help)
  3. Make sure you have an account on flossmanuals.net
  4. If you don’t have a phpList (download version) install, set one up in advance or email anna@phplist.com to get a free one

See you there!

Anna x