Just to clarify - the banner text, unlike the rest of the page, is written
and translated into many languages by the telecoms (see below). I'm much
more concerned with how the community wants to work with the rest of that
page and what text it should contain.
** English examples I have seen:
Enjoy Browsing Wikipedia for free with <Company>
Free Wikipedia access by <Company>
Free Wikipedia access provided by <Company>
Free Wikipedia from <Company>
Wikipedia @ ZERO CHARGE from <Company>
Wikipedia access offered by <Company>
On Fri, Dec 6, 2013 at 6:03 PM, Tobias <church.of.emacs.ml(a)googlemail.com>wrote:
> On 12/06/2013 11:44 PM, Yuri Astrakhan wrote:
>
>> A typical startup page has a custom banner, e.g. "Free Wikipedia
>> provided by [Company]", and a list of common languages in that
>> country.
>>
>
> I realize this is merely a minor aspect and might trigger a tedious
> debate, but "Free Wikipedia" is far from ideal. Wikipedia's tagline is "the
> free encyclopedia", where "free" clearly points to libre, not gratis
> carrier coverage. By using "free" in a similar context, but entirely
> different meaning, we undermine this important distinction and create more
> confusion.
>
> See also:
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:The_Free_Encyclopedia
>
> -- Tobias
>
>
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Zero <http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Zero> team would like
to be more involved with the community, and discuss the functionality of
the Zero starting page.
For Zero users, when visiting m.wikipedia.org, we have to show a custom
start page tailored to the specific mobile provider. A typical startup page
has a custom banner, e.g. "Free Wikipedia provided by [Company]", and a
list of common languages in that country. The language of the page is
always set to the provider's default language.
A partner suggested that we add some additional text on the startup page,
as otherwise the page looks empty and not very inspiring. That text would
be an HTML blob, similar to the WWW page, but significantly smaller due to
most devices having a tiny screen. The text would be different depending on
the default language set by the provider, and could also differ between
various projects - Wikipedia vs Wikinews. The text would be stored on
translatewiki, with the overrides residing in the project's MediaWiki: page.
The text could be a one sentence "welcome to {{SITENAME}}", it could be
some famous quote, a news item, word of the day, link to featured article,
or anything else the community may decide to post. See sample screenshots
for Android<http://media.crossbrowsertesting.com/users/47339/screenshots/full/zf03c69c9…>,
iPhone<http://media.crossbrowsertesting.com/users/47339/screenshots/full/z219b703e…>,
iPad<http://media.crossbrowsertesting.com/users/47339/screenshots/full/zf7c8f049…>
)
What would be the best process to maintain that text? What other possible
customization would be needed to make this beneficial? Please keep in mind
that most of the users coming to this page will be directed there by the
carrier advertising Free Wikipedia, so a lot of new users.
P.S. If you think this discussion should be on
meta<http://meta.wikimedia.org/>,
please let me know of the best location.
http://m.wikipedia.org used to be a hard-coded redirect to English
en.m.wikipedia.org, except for the users in the Zero program. We now have
an ability to have complex redirection for that domain. How do you think
m.wikipedia.org should behave?
We could redirect m. to ...
* the current www.wikipedia.org, which seems to work pretty well on the
smaller device screens
* send users to the main page of the user's default language - based on the
browser settings (Accept-Language header) - and later possibly even based
on user's own language prefernces
* ...
Obviously it should be similar for other projects like wikinews, etc.
I am not a big fan of building a full blown page at the m. URL, as that
would involve much more work without a clear benefit - there are already
www and main pages available, why build another one.
Thanks!
--Yuri
FYI. Awesome work Yuri and Faidon!
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Yuri Astrakhan <yastrakhan(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: Thu, Dec 5, 2013 at 7:02 AM
Subject: [zero] New m. & zero. home redirector is live
To: Zero Team <zero(a)wikimedia.org>
Cc: Faidon Liambotis <faidon(a)wikimedia.org>
Faidon today has deployed my last patch to redirect m.wikipedia.org and
zero.wikipedia.org to the appropriate language based on the carrier
configuration.
Now Zero has the full control of the redirect behavior of those domains.
Thanks Faidon!!!
Possible micro contribution that might make sense for making part of
the mobile experience...?
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Andy Mabbett <andy(a)pigsonthewing.org.uk>
Date: Tue, Dec 3, 2013 at 7:20 AM
Subject: [Wikimedia-l] A five-minute task new volunteers can do
To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
I've just blogged about a five-minute task new volunteers can do:
http://pigsonthewing.org.uk/help-wikipedia-wikimedia-commons-transcribe-tex…
transcribing small pieces of text in images such as foundation stones
or signposts.
Please feel free to circulate that through your networks, especially
outside the existing Wikimedia community
--
Andy Mabbett
@pigsonthewing
http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
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Jon Robson
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