ANN: PTA wiki

[Simon Michael]

Good day friends!

Some time ago I enabled the Github wiki attached to https://plaintextaccounting.org . More recently we had some discussion in the #plaintextaccounting matrix/IRC chat about how to best use it, with a rough consensus to start by collecting and organising concise example journal entries, useful for users of all PTA tools/Ledger-likes. 

Currently we have lots of examples spread over 3+ tool-specific sites. The tool-specific cookbooks are valuable, but there is some duplication of work, and it's often still hard to quickly find the example you need. With a general Plain Text Accounting wiki, there might be opportunities to consolidate some content and effort, co-ordinate content categories, or link back and forth.

So I was just cleaning up the PTA wiki a bit, and I'd like to invite you to check it out, give your ideas and join in if you like. More details are at the wiki. 

https://github.com/plaintextaccounting/plaintextaccounting/wiki - git repo

https://wiki.plaintextaccounting.org [/PAGE] - easier shortcut url

Best wishes

Simon

[redst...@gmail.com]

Very helpful effort, thanks Simon!

Question: how does one contribute to the wiki? With a quick look, all I could find was a pointer to a chat. Is that by design? I was thinking that might make it somewhat cumbersome to contribute, is that something you're seeing?

[Simon Michael]

On 4/10/22 14:30, redst...@gmail.com wrote:
> Very helpful effort, thanks Simon!
>
> Question: how does one contribute to the wiki? With a quick look, all I
> could find was

> <https://github.com/plaintextaccounting/plaintextaccounting/wiki/About-this-wiki>

> a pointer to a chat. Is that by design?

Not at all! The chat is for help or discussion when needed, but you can
contribute any time in the usual way of editing a github wiki: with the
Edit / New Page buttons at top right (or by cloning it locally, making
changes, and sending a pull request / pushing).

I'm always logged in so I always see those buttons, but as you point
out, they aren't visible if not logged in. Thanks, I'll mention this on
the page.

> I was thinking that might make
> it somewhat cumbersome to contribute, is that something you're seeing?

Yes - it's either that or there's just not that many folks in a position
to contribute, as there are few contributors right now.

Less cumbersome would be good, but with wikis on the public internet you
can't make it too easy..

[redst...@gmail.com]

Not at all! The cha tt is for help or discussion when needed, but you can

contribute any time in the usual way of editing a github wiki: with the
Edit / New Page buttons at top right (or by cloning it locally, making
changes, and sending a pull request / pushing).

Indeed, I missed that, thanks!

I added the recent post about ISIN.

I also added a link to my five-minute ledger update article series. I don't know whether including external links is in line with your philosophy for the wiki. Feel free to remove it if it isn't. Reminds me, hledger users might find these just as useful, and I've been meaning to cross post it to the hledger  mailing list, and will do so shortly.

https://github.com/plaintextaccounting/plaintextaccounting/wiki/Importing-data

 

Yes - it's either that or there's just not that many folks in a position
to contribute, as there are few contributors right now.

Less cumbersome would be good, but with wikis on the public internet you
can't make it too easy..

Makes sense.

Question for you: there are several posts and FAQs that appear in this mailing list that would be good candidates for the wiki. Some are specific to beancount (though they may apply to other PTA software) while others aren't. An example of the former is how to write a transaction entry to transfer commodities held at cost from one account to another, in beancount. I'm curious, would you see this example as a good fit for the wiki (under a "Beancount quirks" heading or such)?

[Simon Michael]

On 4/12/22 07:59, redst...@gmail.com wrote:
> I added the recent post about ISIN.
>
> I also added a link to my five-minute ledger update article series. I
> don't know whether including external links is in line with your
> philosophy for the wiki. Feel free to remove it if it isn't. Reminds me,
> hledger users might find these just as useful, and I've been meaning to
> cross post it to the hledger  mailing list, and will do so shortly.
>
> https://github.com/plaintextaccounting/plaintextaccounting/wiki/Importing-data

...

> Question for you: there are several posts and FAQs that appear in this
> mailing list that would be good candidates for the wiki. Some are
> specific to beancount (though they may apply to other PTA software)
> while others aren't. An example of the former is how to write a
> transaction entry to transfer commodities held at cost from one account
> to another, in beancount. I'm curious, would you see this example as a
> good fit for the wiki (under a "Beancount quirks" heading or such)?

Great, thanks!

Good question. Wikis are famously prone to grow, and to die as a swamp.
To conserve time and avoid the swamp-death, so far I try to keep things
well bounded: links on the website, examples (primarily journal entries)
on the wiki, for the most part.

But probably this is doomed to fail, and the wiki will grow in scope,
and perhaps absorb more from the site. I'm open to other ideas, if folks
like yourself are available to help with curation ? Would you like to
post/capture more content there ? Do you think we'll be able to keep it
somewhat tidy and relevant over time ?

[Red S]

> Question for you: there are several posts and FAQs that appear in this
> mailing list that would be good candidates for the wiki. Some are
> specific to beancount (though they may apply to other PTA software)
> while others aren't. An example of the former is how to write a
> transaction entry to transfer commodities held at cost from one account
> to another, in beancount. I'm curious, would you see this example as a
> good fit for the wiki (under a "Beancount quirks" heading or such)?

Good question. Wikis are famously prone to grow, and to die as a swamp.
To conserve time and avoid the swamp-death, so far I try to keep things
well bounded: links on the website, examples (primarily journal entries)
on the wiki, for the most part.

But probably this is doomed to fail, and the wiki will grow in scope,
and perhaps absorb more from the site. I'm open to other ideas, if folks
like yourself are available to help with curation ? Would you like to
post/capture more content there ? Do you think we'll be able to keep it
somewhat tidy and relevant over time ?

I think it's great that you're thinking ahead on how to avoid swamp-death. The only way to do so that strikes me is curation by dedicated volunteers. Perhaps there are some on this list and on hledger/ledger-cli that might step up, especially if you put up a description of what you seek and expect for that role? (Personally, as much I'd really love to see the PTA wiki grow well and serve the community, I'm myself unfortunately not in a position to be involved in any kind of consistent role right now or for the foreseeable future).

Coming to this specific list (beancount), IMHO, it would benefit from getting into a habit of identifying wiki candidates from discussions, updating the wiki, and referring to it. I'll do my part in calling out posts that could benefit from being added to the wiki.