ArchWiki talk:About
Refining scope
[This discussion was inspired by [1]] -- Kynikos (talk) 17:28, 7 November 2018 (UTC)
- ArchWiki:About: "anything Arch Linux can achieve is within the scope of ArchWiki"
- ArchWiki:Contributing#Creating: "think about what others may want to read"
- Help:Editing#Creating pages: topics need to be relevant to Arch Linux and of interest to others
I think we should elaborate on our scope in a new Scope section and link to it from the above mentioned sections.
Scope section draft:
The ArchWiki mainly documents how to install and use Arch Linux and packages available through the official repositories or the AUR. We only document the latest version of packages and archive articles about software when it is no longer packaged for Arch Linux. For software in the official repositories, we may also list plug-ins unavailable in the repositories or in the case of digital distribution platforms, provide troubleshooting information for the available content. Articles about software from the AUR are also archived when the software has been abandoned by its developers. The ArchWiki strives to not needlessly duplicate upstream documentation. Last but not least the ArchWiki also describes the Arch Linux community and hosts the DeveloperWiki.
Now to address what does not belong on the ArchWiki. The ArchWiki does not document other operating systems or software unavailable through the official repositories and the AUR. If you want to document an unpackaged software, you need to create an AUR package for it. Third-party network services are also off-topic and better documented in other wikis such as Wikipedia. The ArchWiki is not intended to host upstream documentation; upstream developers are solicited to host their documentation elsewhere. The ArchWiki is also not meant for larger amounts of source code or blog posts. If you do not want to follow Help:Style and want to write freely about topics not necessarily related to Arch Linux, you are encouraged to do so on a personal blog.