Hi,

I wanted to look something up in the Alpine wiki's "Installation" (reference
and intro) page, but somehow found it has disimproved a lot.


Actually, the history
https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/w/index.php?title=Installation&action=history
shows that the edits after (02:58, 4 July 2020)‎ have changed the "Installation"
page from revision 
https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/w/index.php?title=Installation&oldid=17790
that had tried to give the reader a concise single-page overview with
orienting information and further references, into something that won't
help users much more than some random install notes from some particular 
use-case, but possibly steer off with its inserted talk:
https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/w/index.php?title=Installation&oldid=18052


Much of the list of changes looks like a disservice, here are only 
some example points:


* Explanations of alpine's unique diskless/data/sys features were 
  removed, and glossed over by "How would you like to use it?: Type 
  "sys" and then press enter."
* Similarily, questionable advice is given without even a hint to
  the reasons or implications.
  (DNS nameservers?: If asked, 8.8.8.8 is a recommended default that
  will be good for most people.)
* Plain unstructured, descructive edits like 
https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/w/index.php?title=Installation&diff=17828&oldid=17826

Now what?
How do you developers think, and care about having a good, useful
"Installation" page in the wiki?

I guess it's a very central place to look at for new users and visitors,
and think the questionable edits ask for a decision. Understandably, I'm
not inclined to make any additions in the current wiki. Especially, if the 
disimprovements of the prior, useful version (see above) is considered 
to be ok.

Hello,

On 2020-10-02 13:25:58 +0200, Al Pi wrote:
> Much of the list of changes looks like a disservice, here are only 
> some example points:
> 
> 
> * Explanations of alpine's unique diskless/data/sys features were 
>   removed, and glossed over by "How would you like to use it?: Type 
>   "sys" and then press enter."
> * Similarily, questionable advice is given without even a hint to
>   the reasons or implications.
>   (DNS nameservers?: If asked, 8.8.8.8 is a recommended default that
>   will be good for most people.)
> * Plain unstructured, descructive edits like 
> https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/w/index.php?title=Installation&diff=17828&oldid=17826

None of that looks like improvement to me.

> Now what?
> How do you developers think, and care about having a good, useful
> "Installation" page in the wiki?

I would say revert (most of?) those changes. Going over them and trying
to figure the "useful" bits sounds like a lot of work and not sure if
there will be enough to justify that.

W.

-- 
There are only two hard things in Computer Science:
cache invalidation, naming things and off-by-one errors.