official tutorial program, more official tutorials (project feature request)
Hi Friends, My original post is at the bottom of this message. It (and subsequent Comments) describe potential solutions to a problem that I see. But it seems that it's not being understood in the way I intended (see Documentation chatroom, circa Oct 20, 2019). So I want to add a little background and describe the problem I see, and then maybe this proposal can be understood better.
When I first discovered Inkscape in 2007 (version 0.44), I found the manual, but I was still too new to be able to understand it. I needed help with a file, and even though the official FAQ at that time said "Inkscape is ready to be used along with all the other tools on your desktop", I could find no support. I had to join some kind of developers group (I think was on sourceforge), because there was no other way to contact anyone (except to subscribe to a mailing list). They told me about InkscapeForum, which had just opened a few weeks earlier. This simple drawing show my perception of the community, at that time.
Developers were a nebulous group, far removed from users, with no overlap.
Around 2014 I was contacted by Martin, who had just started to develop the website, and that's when I had my first introduction to the development community. Fast forward to today, and here's how I see the community now.
Now, the communities overlap by what I estimate as 5 to 10 people, who navigate both development and user communities. The "neck" there, which is labelled as the forum and user mailing list communities are closer to the development community, because they occassionally hear news about it. But the vast majority of the user community is still far removed from the development community. (Oh, I guess you could add the Facebook group to that "neck".)
I see 2 partial solutions to the mostly still wide gap between the development and user communities, which together, I think could go along way to uniting the communities. One of those, I had hoped the Vectors team could solve, by creating a system by which announcements can be spread out to the user community. I see that has partially been created, but I think it needs a few tweaks to become really powerful in helping to unite the communities.
The other one is the subject of this proposal. By and large, the Inkscape project (or developers) seems to be blind to the concept of providing support for its product, and by and large, has left support up to 3rd parties - both forums and tutorials (and really, the unofficial official manual too). By the Inkscape project offering official support (partly solved with the new inhouse forum), it shows the user community that it cares about their experience in using their product. In this way, it would help to bring the communities closer together.
Official tutorials means tutorials which have the blessing of the project. ("blessing of the project" to me, means that the tutorial contains correct information, is easy to follow, and not outdated.) I can see at least 2 ways, and maybe some brainstorming could find other ways, in which tutorials can be labelled as official. If we keep up with the traditional 3rd party tutorials, there is no nexus between users and the project (or developers), and the gap remains.
One way would be having the tutorials on the website (this is what I favor). In a subsequent reply below, I mentioned the possibility of some kind of badge which a tutorial author could put on their tutorials (which is hosted by the author wherever they would host it) so that users can know that the tutorial has the blessing of the project. This would be after the author submitted it, and the tutorial is approved. (And that badge would be shown and explained on the website Tutorials page, so that users know what it means and where it comes from.)
Original post:
Originally I posted this in the inkscape-web sub-account (inkscape-web#359 (closed)), but that might not be the best place for it. So I'm re-posting here. This is not a feature request for the Inkscape program, but a feature request for the project or maybe website.
I think the project needs a system or process which people who want to contribute, can follow, if they want to submit tutorials to become official tutorials (whether text or video). This would include a template, or at least some kind of official badge, guidelines for acceptable tutorials, and a reviewer or team of reviewers.
The countless 3rd party tutorials which are available around the internet are nice, but it's fairly hit and miss to find a good one. (Plus there are any number of inconsistencies among them, use of proper terminology is only one example.) And of course the problem is that newbies have no idea whether a tutorial is good or not. My attempt to maintain a listing of curated tutorials (https://forum.inkscapecommunity.com/index.php) can't be on the Inkscape website because they are all 3rd party links (subject to bitrot). If there were a process by which 3rd party tutorials can be made official, they could be on the website, and better available to users. Plus, users could be sure they are worthwhile.
(Note, right now, it's already possible to upload any tutorial to the gallery as a link, but that doesn't mean it's a good tutorial.)
I've created and manage a process like I'm proposing for the project, on Inkscape Community (link above), for the last 5 years. (And I will continue to do so, until/unless an official program is available.) I have a list of guidelines for those who want to submit tutorials, and I review any submitted tutorials before they go live. Since the Inkscape Community forum is closing soon, I could just as easily handle a leadership role for a similar system for the website or project.
What else can I do to move this forward? I'd be happy to write up a more formal proposal, if someone could tell me where/how.
Thanks!