Write the Docs Podcast episode 8: Stack Overflow's Documentation Failure and Open Source Challenges
In this Write the Docs Podcast episode, we're joined by Beth Aitman to talk about what happened with the Stack Overflow Documentation Beta. What did Stack Overflow try to do with documentation, and why did they abandon the effort? Why did their effort to crowdsource docs fail but succeed so well with forums and niche content? Additionally, we discuss the difficulties of creating good documentation with open source projects. A recent survey found that incomplete or outdated documentation is the number one issue with open source projects. Why? What makes it so difficult to create documentation on an open source project?
You can see the original post here: WTD Episode 8: Stack Overflow’s Documentation Failure and Open Source Challenges.
Links
- Sunsetting Documentation
- Thoughts on Stack Overflow’s Documentation beta
- Why Stack Overflow’s Documentation effort failed – a few thoughts from a technical writer’s perspective
- Free software is suffering because coders don’t know how to write documentation
- Open Source Survey
- Why do people answer questions on Stack Overflow?
About Tom Johnson
I'm a technical writer based in the Seattle area. In this blog, I write about topics related to technical writing and communication — such as software documentation, API documentation, visual communication, information architecture, writing techniques, plain language, tech comm careers, and more. Check out simplifying complexity and API documentation for some deep dives into these topics. If you're a technical writer and want to keep on top of the latest trends in the field, be sure to subscribe to email updates. You can also learn more about me or contact me.