# Where have all the good docs gone, and where are all the repos?

**URL:** <https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/where-have-all-the-good-docs-gone-and-where-are-all-the-repos/514>\
**Category:** Documentation\
**Tags:** best-practices\
**Created:** [October 12, 2020, 9:20pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/where-have-all-the-good-docs-gone-and-where-are-all-the-repos/514 "2020-10-12T21:20:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jwf](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex032/user_avatar/discourse.sustainoss.org/jwf/32/1093_2.png) [@jwf](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/jwf)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 9:20pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/where-have-all-the-good-docs-gone-and-where-are-all-the-repos/514/1 "2020-10-12T21:20:54Z")

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Hi folks! I was looking for examples of good Open Source docs, but I was having a hard time finding lists of good docs. Does anyone know of an aggregate list of good open source docs, or do you know a specific project that does an awesome job at writing docs?

I get a lot of questions in my work from folks asking for good examples of Open Source documentation. I have a handful of examples I know of. But before I went off on a big journey to find the best of the best Open Source docs, I thought I would ask here first in case someone already did that. 🙂 Note, I am looking for an awesome-list style of real-world projects with docs. I am **not** looking for different docs tool-chains or frameworks.

Also… not sure if the thread title pun was lost or not. 😀

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**Author:** ![vipulgupta2048](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex032/user_avatar/discourse.sustainoss.org/vipulgupta2048/32/151_2.png) [@vipulgupta2048](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/vipulgupta2048)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2020, 6:39pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/where-have-all-the-good-docs-gone-and-where-are-all-the-repos/514/2 "2020-10-13T18:39:45Z")

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Long time lurker, first-time poster. Short answer: No, there isn’t one.

I am yet to see an explicit list of examples of only open-source documentation through my work in docs. There are several blogs I share when folks ask me if they are looking for collections that include both OSS and proprietory examples. Most organizations tend to keep documentation open-source for folks to contribute and improve as they wish. So, the tide is turning slowly. I maintain an extensive list of categorized examples depending on use-cases which I use as an inspiration for client work and such. Have to check how many of them are open-source. Good open-source documentation is hard to find but it shouldn’t have to be and we get your pun 😉

Never thought of converting it to an awesome styled list but never a bad time to get started I guess. So here you go, `Porting my list to GitHub .. 64%` ⏳  
Let me know if you want to jump in.

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**Author:** ![vipulgupta2048](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex032/user_avatar/discourse.sustainoss.org/vipulgupta2048/32/151_2.png) [@vipulgupta2048](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/vipulgupta2048)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2020, 10:10pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/where-have-all-the-good-docs-gone-and-where-are-all-the-repos/514/3 "2020-10-13T22:10:01Z")

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Here you go, [https://github.com/vipulgupta2048/awesome-documentation](https://github.com/vipulgupta2048/awesome-documentation) will add more from my Notion list tomorrow. Only had time to this up and running. Looking forward to all your contributions, folks. This is in no way complete, so feel free to edit anything you like through a pull request or pass it up to fellow documentarians. Maybe we can have more diverse examples in one of the headings I have thought off.

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**Author:** ![felix.wolfsteller](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex032/user_avatar/discourse.sustainoss.org/felix.wolfsteller/32/128_2.png) [@felix.wolfsteller](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/felix.wolfsteller)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2020, 7:34am UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/where-have-all-the-good-docs-gone-and-where-are-all-the-repos/514/4 "2020-10-19T07:34:01Z")

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Depending of what kind of docs you are looking for (one dimension could be “user”, admin, developer, …) there is a list of aswesome READMEs: [https://project-awesome.org/matiassingers/awesome-readme](https://project-awesome.org/matiassingers/awesome-readme) / [https://github.com/matiassingers/awesome-readme](https://github.com/matiassingers/awesome-readme) .

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**Author:** ![jwf](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex032/user_avatar/discourse.sustainoss.org/jwf/32/1093_2.png) [@jwf](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/jwf)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2020, 7:17pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/where-have-all-the-good-docs-gone-and-where-are-all-the-repos/514/5 "2020-10-19T19:17:10Z")

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Thanks for sharing @vipulgupta2048 and @felix.wolfsteller! I confess my motivation in asking was because I have an Open Source knowledgebase I maintain. I was looking to add more examples of projects with good documentation. I added your GitHub repos to my aggregator:

> **[:new: :memo: Documentation: Add awesome-documentation, awesome-readmes...](https://gitlab.com/jwflory/heuristics/-/commit/884a000008a58f81965cf07cc37e15e8592866f3)**
>
> This commit adds some examples shared on the Sustain OSS Discourse forum. These are good meta examples to share with Innovation Fund teams for documentation examples....

You can find the full page published here:

> **[Project Hall of Fame](https://jwflory.gitlab.io/heuristics/documentation/projects/)**

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**Author:** ![felix.wolfsteller](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex032/user_avatar/discourse.sustainoss.org/felix.wolfsteller/32/128_2.png) [@felix.wolfsteller](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/felix.wolfsteller)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2020, 7:32pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/where-have-all-the-good-docs-gone-and-where-are-all-the-repos/514/6 "2020-10-19T19:32:41Z")

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somewhat related:

> <https://github.com/fwolfst/your-repository/issues/2>
>
> The projects documentation should be fully included in the git repository (and not hosted externally, e.g. in a Wiki).
> As a user...

> <https://github.com/fwolfst/your-repository/issues/1>
>
> The gems documentation should be bundled with the gem (and not hosted externally, e.g. in a Wiki).
> As a user of the...

(~\> **where** is the documentation stored and how is it distributed? Here from the viewpoint of a developer)