[pmwiki-users] yet another documentation suggestion ...

[Joachim Durchholz]

Neil Herber wrote:

> There really are many questions that pop up again and again in slightly 
> different forms on this list, so perhaps this list should be the guide 
> to what goes into a FAQ.

Actually that's what a FAQ should be in the first place! The current FAQ 
page is more a list of questions that one specific person asked, and 
hence not of much worth.

> On PmWIki.org, a search for "restrict groups" does not find the page 
> that describes this activity. The string "limit groups" does find the 
> page http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/LimitWikiGroups .

Hmm... that's a different problem I think.
Here's a suggestion: add a paragraph
   Keywords: <the search that you entered and that didn't find this page>
at the end of the page. That way, future searches that use these 
keywords will find the page.

> Rather than having one mother-of-all-FAQs, I would suggest several FAQs 
> based on very broad categories such as:
> - FAQs about Groups
> - FAQs about Page Names
> - FAQs about Links

The traditional format is a single FAQ. Once it gets large, it gets 
sectioned. If it gets unwieldy, it's split into files.

However, I don't think a PmWiki FAQ is really needed. Any topic that's 
mentioned in the FAQ could just as well be made into a wiki topic.

> Q: How can I limit, constrain, restrict, or control the groups or group 
> names on my wiki?
> A: There are several solutions on   
> http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/LimitWikiGroups .

OK, make that

   Keywords: constrain, restrict, control group names

on the LimitWikiGroups page, and voilà! - it will be found.

To keep the keyword lists reasonable, I'd suggest adding just the first 
verb that you used personally.

Here's a suggestion for the Search Results page: a text to be displayed 
if nothing appropriate was found (well, maybe this should be given always):

"No topic found? Try some other keywords.
NOTE: If you manage to find what you searched for, consider editing the 
page and rewording it so that the words that didn't find that page are 
on it, so people who use the same keywords in the future will find the 
page."

Regards,
Jo