Hi 
I think it would be great to have a policy of skipping at least every
other branch (either all the odds or all the evens) for each of the
Guides except the Getting Started Guide and maybe the Writer guide.
Ideally i think that if one branch focused on getting Writer and Draw
(and the GSG) then that would help ensure it got completed before the
end-of-life of that branch.
Then for the next branch people could focus on Calc, Impress and Math
(and the GSG).
I think that is plenty for people to do and having it as a written
policy might mean that people don't feel overwhelmed or feel they are
under-performing. If you compare the LO Docs Team's output to that of
other project's, such as MS's, then you are currently putting out at
least twice as much but aiming at 3 times as much. If you aimed at
twice as much then maybe you could feel better about the stunning
amount of hard-work you all do.
I'm fairly sure the number of pages in a guide is not a good
indication of the amount of work it takes to update but here is an
approximation of how they compare so far
GSG ~ 390
Writer ~ 463
Calc ~ 421
Impress ~ 264
Draw ~ 215
Base handbook ~ 260
Base ('only' 3 chapters) ~ 183
So, there is a clear split between GSG, Writer and Calc which are all
quite hefty tomes and then all the rest (which are about half the
size). The full Base Guide is already nearly as large as an average
guide even though it's 'only' 3 chapters. The Base Handbook is about
average.
If the policy was to have 2 of the hefty ones and 2 of the normal ones
done for each branch then that would cover them all quite neatly. It
might help Dan if he knew that his massive Base Guide was getting
reviewed&proof-read (maybe even updated) on a regular cycle so that he
didn't have to worry about keeping on going back to cover old ground
again.
It is kinda roughly the way things have been working out for the last
couple of years anyway. Having it as a fairly relaxed but formal
policy might help guide new people when they join the Docs team.
Obviously people can choose to ignore the policy if they are really
keen.
Regards from
Tom