# The Good Docs WG
**URL:** https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/the-good-docs-wg/302
**Category:** Documentation
**Created:** [March 29, 2020, 8:27pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/the-good-docs-wg/302 "2020-03-29T20:27:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jdorfman](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/jdorfman)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2020, 8:27pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/the-good-docs-wg/302/1 "2020-03-29T20:27:15Z")
Who writes, uses, and updates the docs? What do sustainable-first docs look like? How can we write better ones?
**Bottom liner:** Chris Chinchilla, @pia
> **[Docs](https://sustainoss.org/working-groups/docs/)**
>
> A Space for Open Source Sustainers
**Issues & Pull Requests:** [Add docs group #251](https://github.com/sustainers/website/pull/251)
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### Author:  [@jwf](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/jwf)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2020, 12:15am UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/the-good-docs-wg/302/2 "2020-04-23T00:15:57Z")
I don’t see traction here yet but I’m interested and enthusiastic. I know a few different corners of the open source world I might be able to rope into this conversation, but I do not have bandwidth to be a bottom liner or lead this group.
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### Author:  [@ChrisChinchilla](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/ChrisChinchilla)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2020, 2:08pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/the-good-docs-wg/302/3 "2020-04-23T14:08:50Z")
Sorry @jwf I didn’t even know this forum existed, there is some slow traction.
First tell any projects looking for help to [sign up for an office hours session](https://calendly.com/chrischinchilla/docs-surgery).
Next steps are also to compile resources, there are already a lot of these around, so I don’t really want to replicate them, more offer more specific advice and compile that for people to see, which I think might be more useful.
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### Author:  [@ChrisChinchilla](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/ChrisChinchilla)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2020, 2:45pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/the-good-docs-wg/302/4 "2020-05-04T14:45:11Z")
# May the 4th, 2020 meetings ummary
- Website: [https://sustainoss.org/working-groups/docs/](https://sustainoss.org/working-groups/docs/)
- Notes: [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FHxUlm1I5e4htKLaUlNx9jG0ld3TQz849LKChF81d7M/edit](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FHxUlm1I5e4htKLaUlNx9jG0ld3TQz849LKChF81d7M/edit)
## Participants:
- Richard Littauer
- Chris Ward
- Javier Canovasi
- Justin Flory
## Notes
- Things that would be nice:
- Office hours concept:
- Sustainability:
- Dimensions on sustainability
## Action Items
- [] @ChrisChinchilla will move his docs to [https://github.com/sustainers/docs](https://github.com/sustainers/docs)
- [] Javier @RichardLitt Review
- [] Chris will send notes to all of the OpenCollectives about the office hours
- [] @chrischinchilla will set this up.
- [] @RichardLitt will follow up on May 11th
- [] @RichardLitt Move the notes from [the session](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FHxUlm1I5e4htKLaUlNx9jG0ld3TQz849LKChF81d7M/edit) into the Repo
- [] Moving forward also needing sections on docs for contributing “getting started” etc (contributor vs user perspective)
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### Author:  [@RichardLitt](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/RichardLitt)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2020, 3:38pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/the-good-docs-wg/302/5 "2020-05-04T15:38:47Z")
Moved the session notes into the repo! 🙂
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### Author:  [@jwf](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/jwf)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2020, 4:05pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/the-good-docs-wg/302/6 "2020-05-04T16:05:26Z")
> [@ChrisChinchilla](#):
>
> Help projects that want to improve, but don’t have resources
I am interested in working on and collaborating on best practice templates and tools for documentation writers. For example, I have a Sphinx-docs template repository with Travis CI, ReadTheDocs publishing, and more out of the box. It would be nice to collaborate on these kinds of projects (for me) with other folks.
This is one of my personal interests in this working group.
> **[GitHub - jwflory/sphinx-docs-opinionated-quickstart: Pre-configured template...](https://github.com/jwflory/sphinx-docs-opinionated-quickstart)**
>
> Pre-configured template repository to integrate Sphinx-based documentation into a project with Travis CI and ReadTheDocs.org support - GitHub - jwflory/sphinx-docs-opinionated-quickstart: Pre-confi...
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### Author:  [@ChrisChinchilla](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/ChrisChinchilla)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2020, 4:17pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/the-good-docs-wg/302/7 "2020-05-04T16:17:20Z")
Good call. I actually have a few of these two scattered about the interweb, so would be good to find them a home. I am however, not sure if that would be in the Sustain organisation, or somewhere else, but at the very least, it’s a pace to list those available.
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### Author:  [@RichardLitt](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/RichardLitt)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2020, 11:48am UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/the-good-docs-wg/302/8 "2020-05-11T11:48:10Z")
Chris has uploaded his rough draft of the manual to the repo. If anyone wants to take a look at it before next Monday, it’s available here: [https://github.com/sustainers/docs](https://github.com/sustainers/docs)
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### Author:  [@jlcanovas](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/jlcanovas)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2020, 1:51pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/the-good-docs-wg/302/9 "2020-05-11T13:51:48Z")
Good starting point.
I particularly like the [Documentation Structure page](https://github.com/sustainers/docs/blob/ac7af71952d9c074d3744d9080fb8a847fdcc3b2/manual/documentation-structure.md), which I think is core. Also, I guess it is somewhat the scaffolding of [issue 3](https://github.com/sustainers/docs/issues/3) and [issue 4](https://github.com/sustainers/docs/issues/4). If needed, I can help to advance those issues.
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### Author:  [@jwf](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/jwf)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2020, 4:54pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/the-good-docs-wg/302/10 "2020-05-20T16:54:47Z")
Hi all, thought I would follow up and share my own update. The working group met on Monday, 18 May. In attendance we had @ChrisChinchilla, @jlcanovas, @Erioldoesdesign, @esperluette, @RichardLitt, and @jdorfman (hope I didn’t forget anyone!). Here are the notes from our [shared HackMD pad](https://hackmd.io/OScOrBbUSoOVi4_db5AoXA?both):
## Exploration questions
1. (JWF) WG goals?
2. (JWF) Scope of WG?
3. (JWF) Did Erin mention working on some sort of “collaboration” best practices docs for Good Docs Project? (thinking of Javi and Governance Readiness WG)
## What are people hoping to get out of this WG?
- Crossover of design and docs (design documentation)
- Helping projects fill the common missing gaps in engaging with a project from a docs perspective (how to contact, issue templates etc)
- What do mean by open source project documentation
- Do we have a common vocabulary yet? Do you and I mean the same thing when we say “open source docs”?
- What is the overlap between this WG, WTD, GDP etc, and how do they all fit together (or not)?
## Possible paths forward
1. Collaborating with other docs communities, and starting a Sustainability working group in those existing communities instead of pushing this work _from_ Sustain
2. Starting docs to keep them “maintainable”
3. Defining what sustainability in open source docs means
- What makes docs sustainable?
- “Checklist” to test if docs are sustainable / cared about? 🙂
- (@jwf) …Principles of Sustainable Docs? 😅
- How to keep “docs going”, or up to date, maintained, cared about
- (@esperluette) Content maintainability, technical maintainability, community maintainability
4. (@Erioldoesdesign) Design documentation: Something underrepresented in open source to-date
- Might not be what we traditionally think of docs
- Could use a community-agreed _definition_
## Action items for next time
- @ChrisChinchilla, @esperluette, @jwf: Reach out to existing groups (WTD (Chris), GDP (Erin), Fedora/Red Hat (JWF))
- We are a WG of sustain looking into how to help OSS projects “sustain” their docs. What does sustaining docs mean to you?
- Chris to focus the office hours on these subjects, and invite others
- Due date: 2020-06-01
- @Erioldoesdesign: Bring up docs with the Sustain design community
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### Author:  [@esperluette](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/esperluette)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2020, 8:40pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/the-good-docs-wg/302/11 "2020-06-04T20:40:56Z")
hi folks! I shared with the [Good Docs Project](https://github.com/thegooddocsproject) in this week’s meeting ([3 June](https://github.com/thegooddocsproject/governance/wiki/Weekly-Meetings)) and linked them to this doc.
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### Author:  [@RichardLitt](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/RichardLitt)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2020, 8:01pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/the-good-docs-wg/302/12 "2020-06-10T20:01:27Z")
Thanks, Erin!
Chris and JWF: How did reaching out go?
@Erioldoesdesign, did you mean the Sustain group in that comment?
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### Author:  [@Erioldoesdesign](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/Erioldoesdesign)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2020, 8:39am UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/the-good-docs-wg/302/13 "2020-06-11T08:39:10Z")
Do you mean:
> @Erioldoesdesign: Bring up docs with the Sustain design community
Yes I brought this up with the design & ux sustain oss WG 🙂 we spoke about it last meeting and notes were taken
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### Author:  [@jwf](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/jwf)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2020, 5:09pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/the-good-docs-wg/302/14 "2020-06-12T17:09:23Z")
> [@RichardLitt](#):
>
> Chris and JWF: How did reaching out go?
I did a signal boost on the [Fedora Documentation mailing list](https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/docs@lists.fedoraproject.org/thread/2LAHBVZIBZERAAQETOVHWKPAG4CXKABN/) and added some of our working group meetings to the [Fedora Docs scheduling calendar](https://apps.fedoraproject.org/calendar/meeting/9750/). Doesn’t seem like there were a lot of bites just yet, but I think it might help to narrow down our possible paths forward to make it easier for folks to climb on to these discussions.
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### Author:  [@Erioldoesdesign](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/Erioldoesdesign)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2020, 1:39pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/the-good-docs-wg/302/15 "2020-06-15T13:39:26Z")
Is there a WG for docs meeting today? I have a placeholder in my calendar for 4pm UK time
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### Author:  [@RichardLitt](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/RichardLitt)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2020, 2:02pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/the-good-docs-wg/302/16 "2020-06-15T14:02:14Z")
There should be. I’m double checking with @ChrisChinchilla. I won’t be able to make it due to a conflict, unfortunately.
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### Author:  [@jwf](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/jwf)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2020, 2:07pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/the-good-docs-wg/302/17 "2020-06-15T14:07:35Z")
I also have it on my calendar, but I have a one-time conflict today and won’t be able to join either.
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### Author:  [@ChrisChinchilla](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/ChrisChinchilla)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2020, 2:20pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/the-good-docs-wg/302/18 "2020-06-15T14:20:24Z")
There is indeed, but it will be a slim meeting I think. I’ll still run it though, as I have things I want to report on, and move on with.
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### Author:  [@Erioldoesdesign](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/Erioldoesdesign)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2020, 2:58pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/the-good-docs-wg/302/19 "2020-06-15T14:58:15Z")
Ah I don’t have the call joining instructions If I could get them that’d be lovely @ChrisChinchilla
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### Author:  [@Erioldoesdesign](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/Erioldoesdesign)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2020, 3:27pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/the-good-docs-wg/302/20 "2020-06-15T15:27:15Z")
@esperluette The project I mentioned that I use as an example of ‘minimum indication of welcoming design contribution’ is: [https://github.com/pa11y/pa11y](https://github.com/pa11y/pa11y)
>
[https://pa11y.org/contributing/designers/](https://pa11y.org/contributing/designers/)
Specifically this statement: “Pa11y hasn’t had loads of attention in this area and we’d love you to join us. It’s time to bring some thought and consistency to our project designs”
We also discussed design + docs in the last sustaining Design & UX WG: [Design & UX working group](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/design-ux-working-group/348/12)
[Next page](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/the-good-docs-wg/302.md?page=2)