You couldn't disagree that "not enough people use man pages"? Do you have a source for that belief?
It's really weird to me that a few people here seem to really like their man page... when you can just do `cmd --help` and it works in pretty much any program, and you can visit the website for in-depth information.
"Do you have a source for that belief?" - well, you have this HN thread where about half of the comments speak about why the man pages should stay. You can find great arguments, for instance man pages are searchable inside, but also you can search for manpages containing given keywords (man -k). My shell (fish) autocompletes man pages: when I enter `man gi`, it tells me that I can see the git manual, or for instance, GIMP manual. The first thing I do with a program is to open its manpage. When it isn't available, all I can think is that it was written carelessly. If you want to have interoperable software, you absolutely need to provide manpages.
To be fair, it depends on your exact definition of manpages, which is not clear from the article.
If by "manpages" you mean locally stored documentation which goes beyond the simple usage and available options that you'd expect from a --help switch, then I completely disagree. I believe locally available documentation in an easily accessible form and compatible with a terminal is a must.
If by "manpages" you mean specifically "it needs to be generated via groff or troff or whatever it is that generates a manpage, and is specifically for use with `man`", then fine, I can see the point. But the rebuttal here wouldn't be "because webdocs are better", and it certainly wouldn't be "because you can always bloat your --help switch to dump a mountain of text". If you have another structured way of delivering local documentation for your project, then so be it (tex does this with texdoc for instance).
Having said that, as far as standards go for local documentation with a useful and consistent structure and interface, manpages is definitely #1 and worth considering in your project, and most definitely before "webdocs".
Why would you not want access to a program's documentation
within its own environment? Requiring a working internet
connection and a web browser just to look up plain text docs
sounds a bit like needing a fax machine to receive a receipt for
online payments.
`cmd --help` is usually only a shortened version and rarely
includes notes about specific behaviour, for example. Man pages
are very comprehensive and can be navigated without needing to
switch between windows and different input methods.
It's really weird to me that a few people here seem to really like their man page... when you can just do `cmd --help` and it works in pretty much any program, and you can visit the website for in-depth information.