Contributing to documentation

[Warren Block]

On Wed, 18 Jun 2014, Anders Jensen-Waud wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I am a long-time avid FreeBSD user (from memory since FreeBSD 4.0). I have for very
> long been interested in contributing back to the FreeBSD community.
>
> I was wondering what the current needs are in terms of improving
> documentation and gaps where help is needed? I checked out the IdeaList
> on the FreeBSD Wiki but it seems somewhat outdated (a lot of the
> links are dead). Would anyone be able to shed some light on where I
> might be able to contribute?
>
> Ideas I had thought of:
>
> 1. Undertaking Handbook translation to Danish (it is my mother's tongue)
> 2. Writing new chapters for the Handbook

Thank you!  Help is always appreciated, and always needed!

Both of the projects suggested are fairly large.  I'd suggest doing at 
least a couple of smaller things first to become familiar with how the 
documentation system works.  Fortunately, there are always plenty of 
small projects available.

We have a book that describes how the different documentation systems 
work:
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/fdp-primer/book.html

To make getting started easier, see the quick start section: 
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/fdp-primer/book.html#overview-quick-start

It helps to be familiar with source control systems or DocBook, but is 
not required.

There might be some small aspect of the documentation that you have 
noticed before with simple errors like misspellings or outdated details. 
There are also doc bugs in the bug database: 
https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/buglist.cgi?component=Documentation&list_id=5825&product=Documentation&resolution=---

Members of the doc team are available to provide help.  The quickest 
response to questions is probably through IRC, on the #bsddocs channel 
on EFnet.  Email to this mailing list works also.