On 09/11/12 21:19, adrelanos wrote:
> 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.
Hi,
I’m not sure our goal when writing Tails documentation is to provide "A
complete guide to anonymity". We are rather trying to stick to
documenting on our website the tools that are specific to Tails.
It is true that some pages in the /doc section provide information that
is not specific to the tools provided by Tails. But they are not that
many I think. Having a look at the index I can see mainly "Why do you
need anonymity?", "Warnings!" and parts of "Trusting Tails".
The warning page surely contains parts that could be shared between the
different projects using Tor but some other parts are specific to Tails.
I would love to see the warnings that are actually dealing with Tor and
not Tails hosted by the Tor Project themselves. But I think they don’t
have this (maybe I’m mistaken here).
Other documentation pages might deal with software included in Tails
that might also be included in other projects, eg. Nautilus Wipe, GNOME
Disk Utility, Vidalia. And our take on this it that they should be
hosted upstream. I admit that we are not doing such a good job on this
front when relating to upstream for documentation.
So, I think that we will keep on hosting the documentation that is
specific to Tails on our own website. We should surely do better are
pushing upstream some of the stuff we are writing, including to the Tor
Project. If people are motivated to write a broader guide to anonymity
I'd say it should not overlap with the specifics of each tool and rather
point to it. But that would be a different project we would surely
collaborate with but not lead as Tails.
