"I found it quite difficult to get current, correct information."
OTOH, having information in a clearly dated format, like a blog, is helpful in letting you know when information might be out of date. Publishing information with less clearly marked dates won't make information more correct, it'll just leave us with fewer clues when trying to evaluate it.
Totally agree. I use blogs to document stuff at work for this reason. You can't rely on people frequently going back to increasing numbers of old documents to update them, so you must leave clues for the reader as to what the context was when the article was written. Date is a really important part of that.
Linux is notorious for that sort of thing. Look at the Linux Documentation Project. The installation how to was written in 1999 and has not been updated since. I use Debian and know enough about it from use over the years to do most anything, but when I have to have an OS with top-notch documentation, I turn to OpenBSD or FreeBSD. Both of these projects blow Linux documentation out of the water. Very high-quality and accurate. Their man pages are awesome.
Comments
"I found it quite difficult to get current, correct information."
OTOH, having information in a clearly dated format, like a blog, is helpful in letting you know when information might be out of date. Publishing information with less clearly marked dates won't make information more correct, it'll just leave us with fewer clues when trying to evaluate it.
Totally agree. I use blogs to document stuff at work for this reason. You can't rely on people frequently going back to increasing numbers of old documents to update them, so you must leave clues for the reader as to what the context was when the article was written. Date is a really important part of that.
Linux is notorious for that sort of thing. Look at the Linux Documentation Project. The installation how to was written in 1999 and has not been updated since. I use Debian and know enough about it from use over the years to do most anything, but when I have to have an OS with top-notch documentation, I turn to OpenBSD or FreeBSD. Both of these projects blow Linux documentation out of the water. Very high-quality and accurate. Their man pages are awesome.