: Re: What advantages are there to having a project-specific website for documentation? As a software engineer I often interact with documentation for software projects across the Internet, in particular

@Karen856

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It depends on what the project is and if it is related to other projects by the same group.

If it is a small, single project, it may not be worth creating a dedicated website because it is simple enough to follow a more informal documentation scheme such as a README file or even something similar to man pages.

If it is a large project, it would definitely benefit from a proper documentation website that contains subject explanations, reference material, tutorials, etc.

When there are multiple projects, I would argue that it is best for the docs to be coherently organized on a single website (whether or not that is the actual underlying architecture). This has the following advantages:

It promotes the related projects within the organization and, if there is branding involved, promotes the organization.
It sets the stage for adding documentation for other projects that may be developed.
It is easier to maintain documentation items such as cross-references, broken links, outdated material, review cycles, content organization, styling, tagging, SEO, etc.

There would definitely be increased costs associated with this, so the organization would need to determine if this is a cost-effective strategy for them.

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