On Aug 28, 2008, at 9:47 PM, Wily D wrote:
What is the comparitive advantage of a floaty-box over
a regular
xlink, anyhow?
Floaty boxes, especially in the default skin for Wikipedia, are
visually coded as part of the interface. We establish this on the main
page, when we use them as the convention for organizing the flow of
information and summary. Floaty boxes mean "this is not simply
information, but navigational and organizational content." So when we
move a link to a floaty box it stops just being a "Here is some other
stuff related to the topic" link and starts being "Here is an
extension of what we do. Here is more."
In that regard, using floaty boxes at all for external links is about
situating Wikipedia in context with other projects and with other sites.
The question is, do we want that situating to be on behalf of the
Wikimedia Foundation, or on behalf of free culture? Are we just a part
of the WMF's network of sites? Or are we a part of a burgeoning
movement to provide free information to the world?
By deciding that our interface and our role stops at the edges of a
server farm in Florida we make ourselves a walled garden. By reaching
beyond that, we make ourselves leaders in the free culture movement.
-Phil