# Documentation Restructure Decides Deduplication at Audit Not After ## Claim A documentation restructure must decide whether near-duplicate documents collapse into a single source of truth during the audit phase, because regrouping the existing documents first and deduplicating them later forces rework. <!-- atomicity: 1 idea ✓ --> ## Scope & conditions - Holds when the documents in question share meaningful subject overlap (e.g., separate per-event-type handbooks that duplicate the same "event formats" content). - Breaks when documents are genuinely independent and share no real content — there regrouping without deduplication is correct, not premature. - Applies to the audit-then-restructure-then-publish sequence specifically; a project that skips a distinct audit phase doesn't have this same rework risk in the same form. ## Evidence A WordPress Community Team proposal to restructure nine flat handbooks into audience-based sections drew a sharper counter-proposal in its comment thread: rather than just regrouping the existing per-event-type handbooks (Meetup, WordCamp, Online Events, KidsCamp) under new headings, collapse them into one event handbook that lists per-subject exceptions — because the Meetup Handbook's "Event Formats" section already overlaps substantially with WordCamp content that would otherwise be duplicated across every regrouped section. > [!quote] > Ideally, we'd have a single source of truth for all of the types of events. ## Links - [[DevRel MOC]] — the decision point in a docs restructure that determines whether duplication survives it - [[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/A Contribution Pipeline Needs a Defined Next Step After Training]] — because parallels; both concern where in a program's sequence a structural decision needs to be made explicit rather than left implicit. - [[3. Resources/MOCs/Open Source Governance MOC]] — because applies-in; documentation restructuring as a governance and contributor-onboarding decision, not just an editorial one. - [[3. Resources/MOCs/Documentation & Technical Writing MOC]] — applies-in: the docs discipline map, measurement cluster ## Tests / falsifiers - Track whether the Community Team's actual restructure (post-audit) ends up merging the per-event-type handbooks or keeps them separate — if it regroups without deduplicating and doesn't need significant rework later, the claim is weaker than stated. - Look for a comparable documentation restructure elsewhere that regrouped first and deduplicated later; if that sequence didn't produce measurable rework, the "decide at audit" urgency is overstated. ## Maintenance - Last tended: 2026-08-16 - Next review: 2026-11-16 ## Source - [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/Proposal Restructure the Community Team Handbooks]] — Make WordPress Community blog proposal and its comment thread, specifically the single-source-of-truth counter-proposal.