RFC: Author information display in documents

[Warren Block]

Based on a discussion on IRC, we'd like to ask for comments from people 
who have authored or contributed to documentation.

At present, authors add their name and sometimes a description of their 
work like "Contributed by" or "Rewritten by".

These author attributions are often quickly outdated as numerous other 
contributors fix problems and modify or add new content to the same 
section.

There is potential for improving how this information is displayed.

One possibility is auto-generating an Authors page, showing a list of 
authors and which portions of the document they have contributed.  We 
have not yet considered technical aspects of generating this page, or 
the exact output format.  However, it could be similar to a table of 
contents or index.  As an initial mockup, consider this:

Authors and Contributors

   Susan B. Anthony
     Contributed By:
       DHCP and Why You Should Care, page 12
       ATM, the Silent Killer, page 54
     Edited By:
       PPP for Dog Owners, page 38

   John Smith
     Contributed By:
       Encrypting Disks, page 19
       Reinstalling FreeBSD, page 20
       Recovering from Backup, page 20
     Edited By:
       When to Use Encryption, page 18
     Rewritten By:
       Pitfalls of Encryption, page 18


The format of the list and contents would vary depending on the media. 
On the web, the titles would be links to the actual sections.

In both cases, individual authors would not be shown at the top of the 
actual chapter or section in either HTML or PDF versions.

The goal is to make the contributor information more accurate, more 
complete, and less distracting from content.

We welcome comments and suggestions on this proposal.