Proposal: Create a GitHub Wiki as our Community Handbook

[smattymatty]

Right now, the documentation is a little scattered and hard to navigate, especially for the non-technical crowd who aren't familiar with navigating GitHub Repositories.

For a project like this, it's important to think of the needs of non-technical members of the community (Designers, translators, education specialists, etc.).

I have been learning about something called 'TeamOps' that was pioneered by GitLab: https://youtu.be/xQKDO-ISYMA?si=XTg66H5GpQjpLx4t , this talk has inspired me to put one of his practices into place.

Here are some notes from a class I am taking:

---

Shared reality

Once defined and activated, this reality then is preserved for continuous and universal access and accountability through documentation in a knowledge management system, or “single source of truth.”

Key Results

• Updated Single Source of Truth
• Communication is public by default
• Shared values and collaboration guidelines align behaviors
• Inclusivity is intentional
• Informal interactions build trust

In a Shared Reality, teams are universally informed by objective, accessible information.

---

Github Wiki - A Centralized Portal for documentation, with CI/CD potential!

Setting up a Github Wiki would be perfect for an Open Source Community/Team like the one that EduLite is building.

I have watched this video on GitHub Wikis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U18COUDlzu8 and I like how easy it seems to programmatically update and check the Wiki on your own machine, just add a .wiki to the end of your git clone. The Wiki acts as it's own GIT repository, so us technical people can utilize all the things we know and love about GIT, while non-technical members (designers, translators, education specialists, etc.) can enjoy a fully-fledged Wiki experience on the Github Wiki front-end page, that will share important community values, procedures, and other important on-boarding information.

Motivation

Problem Statement

Currently our documentation exists in multiple places:

• CONTRIBUTING.md for contribution guidelines
• CODING_STANDARDS.md for backend standards
• EduLite_Team.md for team info
• /Documentation/ folder for API specs
• Discord for ephemeral discussions
• README files for overviews

This makes it hard for new contributors to find information quickly, and even harder for non-technical contributors like designers, educators, or translators to navigate and contribute to our community knowledge base.

Proposed Solution

Create a GitHub Wiki as our centralized "Community Handbook" - a Single Source of Truth that anyone can edit and improve, whether they're technical or not.

Objectives

• Improve contributor onboarding by having all information in one easily navigable place
• Enable community-driven documentation where anyone can contribute improvements
• Create better knowledge accessibility for both technical and non-technical contributors
• Establish shared community values and procedures in a transparent, editable format
• Reduce repetitive questions in Discord by providing comprehensive, searchable documentation

Overview

GitHub Wiki provides:

• Easy editing through both web interface and git commands
• Version control with full history of all changes
• Community collaboration where anyone can contribute
• Markdown support consistent with our existing documentation style
• Programmatic access for automation and integration

Proposed Wiki Structure

Based on our current community needs, I suggest organizing the wiki into these main sections:

🏠 Home & Welcome

• Project vision and mission (student-first education platform)
• Quick navigation to all sections
• Community announcements and updates

👥 Team Directory

• Core team members with their roles and expertise areas
• How to contact specific people for help (like our current EduLite_Team.md but expanded)
• Contributor recognition and achievements

🛠️ Development Guide

• Coding standards (migrated from CODING_STANDARDS.md)
• Git workflow and branching strategy
• Testing guidelines and our performance testing framework
• Code review process

🚀 Getting Started

• "Your First 30 Minutes" - getting the project running locally
• "Your First Contribution" - step-by-step guide to making your first PR
• Role-specific onboarding (Frontend, Backend, UI/UX, QA, etc.)
• Development environment setup guides

📋 Community Values & Guidelines

• EduLite Core Values - What we stand for as a community (I'm thinking Fair, Open, and Free as our foundation)
• Communication guidelines (Discord etiquette, async communication)
• How we make decisions as a community
• Conflict resolution and feedback processes
• Recognition and celebration of contributions

🔧 Technical Documentation

• Architecture decisions and explanations
• API documentation (enhanced from our current /Documentation/ folder, (auto-built from codebase))
• Database schema and relationships
• Deployment and infrastructure guides

❓ FAQ & Troubleshooting

• Common development issues and solutions
• Process questions (how to report bugs, request features)
• Environment-specific troubleshooting guides

Implementation Plan

Phase 1: Setup and Migration

1. Enable GitHub Wiki on our repository
2. Create basic structure with main navigation pages
3. Migrate existing documentation:
   • CONTRIBUTING.md → Getting Started section
   • CODING_STANDARDS.md → Development Guide
   • EduLite_Team.md → Team Directory
   • Current API docs → Technical Documentation (auto-built from codebase)

Phase 2: Community Engagement

1. Announce in Discord and GitHub Discussions
2. Create wiki editing tutorials for both technical and non-technical contributors
3. Establish wiki maintainer volunteers (people to help organize and review)

Phase 3: Advanced Features

1. Set up markdown linting to maintain quality:

   # We can automate quality control
   git clone https://github.com/ibrahim-sisar/EduLite.wiki.git
   markdownlint-cli2 "**/*.md"
   vale --config=.vale.ini *.md

2. Multi-language support for our international community

3. Website integration - since the wiki is just markdown, we can easily display it on our main website under a "Community" tab

Technical Benefits

The programmatic access is really exciting! Anyone can:

# Clone the wiki like any git repository
git clone https://github.com/ibrahim-sisar/EduLite.wiki.git

# Make changes locally with your favorite editor
cd EduLite.wiki
vim Getting-Started.md

# Commit and push like normal
git add . && git commit -m "Improve onboarding instructions"
git push origin main

This means:

• Technical contributors can use their preferred tools and workflows
• Non-technical contributors can use the friendly web interface
• We can automate wiki updates and maintenance
• We can integrate wiki content into our main website easily

Example Impact

Before: New contributor joins Discord asking "How do I get started? What's the code style? Who can help me with React?"

After: New contributor visits our wiki, finds the "Getting Started" section, learns our values, follows the setup guide, and knows exactly who to contact for React help from our Team Directory.

Recommendation

I recommend adopting a GitHub Wiki as our Community Handbook to create that "Shared Reality" that TeamOps talks about. This will help us scale our community more effectively while maintaining the welcoming, collaborative culture that makes EduLite special.

The wiki approach is particularly good for our diverse, international community because:

• Language barriers - easier to translate and maintain multilingual docs
• Technical skill levels - accommodates both developers and non-technical contributors
• Time zones - async documentation editing works globally
• Accessibility - no special GitHub knowledge required to contribute

That said, success will depend on community adoption and maintaining the content. We'll need volunteers to help organize, review, and keep things up to date. But I think this aligns perfectly with EduLite's mission of making education accessible to everyone.

Reference Documentation

• GitHub Wiki documentation
• TeamOps Handbook Example
• Markdown guide

Community Values Discussion

One thing that TeamOps emphasizes is the importance of shared values that are clearly documented and reinforced in everything we do. As our EduLite community grows, we need to establish our core values early and keep them at heart.

I'd like to open up a discussion about what our values should be. The first three that come to my mind are:

• 🤝 Fair - Everyone gets equal opportunity to contribute and learn, regardless of background, location, or skill level
• 🌍 Open - Our code, our processes, and our decision-making are transparent and accessible to all
• 📚 Free - Education should be free and accessible, just like our platform and our community

But I'd love to hear what values resonate with you all! What principles should guide how we work together and build EduLite?

---

What do you all think? Would this GitHub Wiki approach help make our community more accessible and organized? And what values do you think should be at the core of how we work together?

[ibrahim-sisar]

Hi @smattymatty ,

Thank you so much for this thoughtful, well-articulated proposal 🙏
I’m genuinely impressed by the depth of your thinking and how clearly it aligns with EduLite’s mission.

I absolutely love the idea — especially your focus on accessibility for non-technical contributors and building a true "Shared Reality" for the team. Using the GitHub Wiki as a centralized, community-driven knowledge hub is exactly what we need at this stage of our growth.

🛠️ We’ll be moving forward with this proposal and begin implementation immediately.
Here’s what we’ll start with:

• Enabling the GitHub Wiki for our repository

• Migrating existing documentation into the proposed structure

• Organizing a community documentation sprint to build out and maintain the content

💬 I also want to echo your call to the community:
Let’s open a discussion around our core values as a team. Your suggestions — Fair, Open, and Free — are a perfect foundation, and I’d love to hear what resonates with others as well.

Thanks again for leading with initiative and care.
This is exactly the kind of contribution that makes EduLite such a special, collaborative community.

Let’s build this together 💪

[smattymatty]

Thanks! I see you created a wiki! I will slowly migrate some existing documentation into our new Wiki, and then work on some new ones.

[johncosta]

Thanks so much for sharing your learnings about TeamOps, GitHub Wikis, and for this proposal for a Community Handbook!

I really enjoyed the read and am looking forward to contributing towards this vision.

🚀