Hi!
*One* example page I am talking about:
https://tails.boum.org/doc/about/warning/index.en.html
For example "Tor exit nodes can eavesdrop on communications",
"Man-in-the-middle attacks" or "Confirmation attacks" apply to all
projects based on Tor.
Just speaking about Whonix, for many chapters only "Tails" has to be
replaced with "Whonix" and the rest of the information still applies.
What (I think) we share:
- The goal to write good documentation for our users.
What the Tails documentation almost is in my perception:
- A complete guide to anonymity. Which is also my goal.
Advantages of a shared documentation project:
- There are many contributors already working on Tails documentation,
torproject.org wiki (TorifiHOWTO) and translations. They are just on
different websites duplicating the work.
- Bundling these efforts could end up with the usual improvements by
swarm intelligence. Just like many amazing wikipedia articles.
Why I hate forking Tails documentation pages:
- Noticing changes upstream and incorporating them needs maintenance.
- Upstream improvements are missing for a while.
- The versions differ much after a while. Merging becomes more difficult.
- Just speaking about the torproject.org wiki: some of my changes were
useful for other people. (They refereed to that information.) I guess it
could be for the guide to anonymity as well. My laziness stops me from a
formal proposal/send-patch/revision editing style.
Motivation:
- Many people working on one thing can come up with even greater things.
Just like wikipedia success.
Difficulties:
- Sometimes our opinions naturally differ. Example thread:
"[Tails-dev] flaw in: Correlates several downloads of Tails signing key"
I want to add
user <-> user ISP <-> internet <-> boum.org ISP <-> boum.org server
MITM less likely for this route | no help for this route
while the Tails devs right is not to add it.
- Just talking from experience with the Tails devs and me. We are very
different: I prefer a "just make improvements without asking and audit
the wiki history, correct, behave mature, discuss minor disputes and be
happy" style (more like wikipedia), while the Tails devs prefer a
"proposal/send-patch/comments/needs-revision/revised-patch" style.
torproject.org wiki:
- Is not suited!
- It does not have any foreign language content nor does encourage it.
- Torproject is already overworked. Not open for suggestions:
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/5240 (No way to
contribute such things either.)
Implementation requirements:
- One shared wiki server anyone can edit.
- Must easily allow to say certain things only for one project but not
for another.
- The wiki must support variables for $PROJECT_NAME.
- Also support for if $PROJECT_NAME = project; [(don't) show extra
sentence].
- The projects themselves would set PROJECT_NAME = project and
fetch/sight manually new versions and mirror it on their project page.
That were my thoughts before I though about alternatives to forking the
Tails documentation.
I can't come up with a real promising proposal, neither I do have a
server or the technical knowledge how to set up such a wiki and don't
even know if suitable software for something like this exists. Given the
obstacles, I don't believe a shared documentation project is realistic
and could make everyone happy.
Cheers,
adrelanos
