When people say "we need to all stop doing X and do Y", I am tempted to reorder the statement into a question: Q: WHY do we reward projects with crappy documen

When people say "we need to all stop doing X and do Y", I am tempted to reorder the statement into a question: Q: WHY do we reward projects with crappy documentation? Heinlein had a statement: "any time people ask a question that starts with 'why', the answer is usually 'money'". For values of "money" == "value", this is the answer to why we use projects with crappy docs. If using a good codebase with crappy docs delivers more bang for the buck than using a crappier codebase, then it is in everyone's best interest to use that great codebase. Instead of issuing blanket cries for unified action, a better approach is to figure out (a) what the actual issue is, and then (b) [ if I may allow my inner capitalist to vent ] come up with a way to increase value for everyone by fixing the issue in return for some mutually beneficial trade. Part of the Free Software idea is that free software generates follow on work. Perhaps some of that follow on work should be "the un fun task of generating docs".