5 ms·

This is an interesting take on documentation - mainly because I fail to see the value proposition in paying for the functionality provided. Speaking from my ow

by dend 5y ago

This is an interesting take on documentation - mainly because I fail to see the value proposition in paying for the functionality provided. Speaking from my own experience: - Notifications. I am not sure that I've ever needed to know when a doc is updated, because if there is anything radical coming on the market (or in a spec proposal), there are other avenues to find out about it. - Collections. That is already a functionality in the browser that is not locked into just one documentation site. - Offline mode. There is Zeal[0] if you like client-side software and devdocs.io[1] if you like browser mode. Combine all that with the fact that it's just for MDN, and the appeal kind of disappears. YMMV, of course. [0]: https://zealdocs.org/ https://zealdocs.org/ [1]: https://devdocs.io/ https://devdocs.io/

kaycebasques 5y ago
Re: notifications I think it's a smart move. Back when I was content lead for https://web.dev https://web.dev I was floating around ideas along the same lines. Web developers learn of great new feature X and are disappointed to learn that it's only supported on a single browser. They then forget about the feature for years even though in the meantime it has been implemented on all their target browsers. Notifications of some sort solves this problem. I agree however that whether people will pay for this feature is debatable. Browser vendors should be incentivized to provide this feature for free somehow because it's in their own best interest to increase adoption of new web platform features.
- dend 5y ago
  Also, things like collections have been on sites like docs.microsoft.com[0] for some time. I find it somewhat odd personally to gate documentation-related features behind a membership fee, but I do not have full context on MDN product decisions or roadmap. [0]: https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/app-service/quickstart-nodejs?tabs=windows&pivots=development-environment-vscode https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/app-service/quickstart-node...
chronogram 5y ago
That devdocs as a PWA is really handy, thanks.
bluedays 5y ago
Think of it as an easy way to donate to Mozilla
- acdha 5y ago
  Or, better, for your employer to do so. It’s really hard to get permission to donate money at many large organizations but if the CIO kicks in $20k/year for support, training, etc. the accounting department won’t even blink.
- daveloyall 5y ago
  This way seems pretty easy: https://donate.mozilla.org/ https://donate.mozilla.org/ I just set up a recurring monthly donation there specifically because I'm repulsed by the idea of anything that even approaches "pay-for-play" within the sphere of technical documentation. I don't see a way to leave a comment on my donation, unfortunately, so I came here and hit `ctrl+f donat`, in hopes of finding someplace to put my comment.. So. Hi! Mozilla, please carry on with your primary mission and eschew common corporate strategies. I hope the dollars help. Godspeed! p.s. MDN Plus? No thanks..
mminer237 5y ago
Notifications for new web standards/implementations is actually something I wanted this morning, but I just went to https://caniuse.com https://caniuse.com and added its news page to my RSS reader.
giancarlostoro 5y ago
The value is that they've documented every front-end DOM api for you and done a lot of leg work for free for years. This will fund their efforts and they do more than just web, they've also been adding documentation on doing back-end web development as well. I'm sure the more subscribers they get, the more they can add. I sincerely hope MDN keeps the majority of the income from these efforts. For front-end work I skip Google or Stack Overflow and look through MDN.
- drstewart 5y ago
  >The value is that they've documented every front-end DOM api for you and done a lot of leg work for free for years. If that's the value, why don't they lead with that and leave the rest out?
  - giancarlostoro 5y ago
    Marketing people aren't necessarily developers. This is a case where you should let a sane developer do the marketing.

by dend 5y ago

kaycebasques 5y ago

Re: notifications I think it's a smart move. Back when I was content lead for https://web.dev https://web.dev I was floating around ideas along the same lines. Web developers learn of great new feature X and are disappointed to learn that it's only supported on a single browser. They then forget about the feature for years even though in the meantime it has been implemented on all their target browsers. Notifications of some sort solves this problem. I agree however that whether people will pay for this feature is debatable. Browser vendors should be incentivized to provide this feature for free somehow because it's in their own best interest to increase adoption of new web platform features.

dend 5y ago
Also, things like collections have been on sites like docs.microsoft.com[0] for some time. I find it somewhat odd personally to gate documentation-related features behind a membership fee, but I do not have full context on MDN product decisions or roadmap. [0]: https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/app-service/quickstart-nodejs?tabs=windows&pivots=development-environment-vscode https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/app-service/quickstart-node...

chronogram 5y ago

That devdocs as a PWA is really handy, thanks.

bluedays 5y ago

Think of it as an easy way to donate to Mozilla

acdha 5y ago
Or, better, for your employer to do so. It’s really hard to get permission to donate money at many large organizations but if the CIO kicks in $20k/year for support, training, etc. the accounting department won’t even blink.
daveloyall 5y ago
This way seems pretty easy: https://donate.mozilla.org/ https://donate.mozilla.org/ I just set up a recurring monthly donation there specifically because I'm repulsed by the idea of anything that even approaches "pay-for-play" within the sphere of technical documentation. I don't see a way to leave a comment on my donation, unfortunately, so I came here and hit `ctrl+f donat`, in hopes of finding someplace to put my comment.. So. Hi! Mozilla, please carry on with your primary mission and eschew common corporate strategies. I hope the dollars help. Godspeed! p.s. MDN Plus? No thanks..

mminer237 5y ago

Notifications for new web standards/implementations is actually something I wanted this morning, but I just went to https://caniuse.com https://caniuse.com and added its news page to my RSS reader.

giancarlostoro 5y ago

The value is that they've documented every front-end DOM api for you and done a lot of leg work for free for years. This will fund their efforts and they do more than just web, they've also been adding documentation on doing back-end web development as well. I'm sure the more subscribers they get, the more they can add. I sincerely hope MDN keeps the majority of the income from these efforts. For front-end work I skip Google or Stack Overflow and look through MDN.

drstewart 5y ago
>The value is that they've documented every front-end DOM api for you and done a lot of leg work for free for years. If that's the value, why don't they lead with that and leave the rest out?
- giancarlostoro 5y ago
  Marketing people aren't necessarily developers. This is a case where you should let a sane developer do the marketing.